LDV commits to 7-year warranty, but EVs miss out

All of LDV’s new combustion-powered models will feature a seven-year warranty, the brand has confirmed.

Until now LDV’s warranty period has stood at five years/130,000 kilometres for the D90 SUV and T60 Max dual-cab ute, while the company’s range of vans has been covered for three years.

But the brand has recently moved to a longer seven-year/200,000km timeframe for an influx of new products like the Mifa people-mover and MY23 T60 Max dual-cab.

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Fresh Mifa people mover was one of the first models to feature the 7yr warranty

That longer period will now apply to all new models according to LDV’s Aussie boss, Dinesh Chinnappa, providing they are powered by a internal combustion engine (ICE).

LDV’s fresh range of electric vehicles, which includes Australia’s first electric ute, the eT60, the eDeliver 9 van and Mifa 9 people-mover, will remain at five years/130,000km.

“My belief is that moving forward any new ICE models will have the seven-year warranty,” Chinnappa told Wheels. “The EV models have a five-year warranty and I can only explain it to you in that it’s early days for China in terms of the Australian market and in terms of understanding the costs of these EVs. So if they’ve been guilty of anything it’s being a bit conservative.

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Electric models, like the eDeliver 9 van, will remain at 5yr/130,000km

“They started with a five-year warranty for the ICE vehicles here in Australia and now that they’ve traded here for two to four years they’re able to model their costs and they have better understanding of it.

“So my expectation is that everything will ultimately stabilise at the seven-year mark – but they need time. They just need to collect the information so that they can model the costs for the EVs and bring it to market.”

The new terms mean LDV will have one of the longest coverage periods of any brand in Australia and puts it on par with Kia which made the move to a seven-year/unlimited km warranty back in 2014.

Since then a number of other brands have followed suit, with GWM, MG, SsangYong and Skoda all now offering seven-year/unlimited km deals of their own.

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Mitsubishi currently leads the race for Australia’s longest warranty period at 10 years, providing you service your car at an authorised dealer. Like LDV, Mitsubishi’s coverage period is limited to 200,000km.

A crucial distinction for LDV’s new period, however, is that it will only apply to new incoming models. Existing products will continue with the same coverage.

“We won’t go back in time,” said Chinnappa. “Like the G10 won’t be upgraded to a seven-year warranty. It will get phased out and a new model will come in and it’ll get a seven-year.”