BBC
Mechanical engineer Hazar Denli says he was fired after raising safety concerns
The BBC has seen evidence that the multinational company that owns Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) organized the sacking of a whistleblower for raising concerns about the safety of electric cars it designed.
Confidential emails between Tata Group executives reveal they retaliated against mechanical engineer Hazar Denli for posting concerns on Reddit that lives were being put at risk. He was then blacklisted.
US authorities are now investigating an earlier model of the same car after 28 reports of safety defects and a crash in which a family of four was killed.
In response to a detailed right of reply letter from the BBC, JLR and Tata Group declined to comment.
Mr Denli, from Milton Keynes, first raised his concerns internally while working at another division of the Tata Group, its global engineering consultancy Tata Technologies.
He told the BBC that during testing of prototypes designed by Tata Technologies for Vietnamese carmaker Vinfast, he identified poorly designed components in the car's chassis, including its suspension system.
At low mileage, some of them were breaking, he said.
This created a risk that under stress, such as hitting a pothole at high speed, the wheels could become misaligned, causing the car to turn left or right without prompting, and the driver could lose control , added Mr. Denli.
“We found, for example, that the connection between the strut and the front joint was becoming loose, which could be extremely dangerous,” he said. “This could cause the entire structure to loosen, which could result in the wheels coming loose.
“In the event of an accident, it could be totally dangerous. It could cause you to lose control of the vehicle.”
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US authorities open investigation into VinFast VF8 after drivers report defects
“Alarm tones”
Mr Denli, a chassis design specialist, has been appointed to lead the engineering team working on the car's front suspension and chassis from September 2022, midway through a design phase and of tests which he said had an unusually tight schedule.
He quickly became concerned that VinFast was cutting corners on security, cutting costs by employing a small team of inexperienced engineers.
His concerns increased when he learned that three of his predecessors had resigned after short stints on the project.
He says that in February and March 2023, during rigorous testing of VinFast cars at the Mira Technology Park near Nuneaton, two components broke and two others failed.
He reported the “extremely concerning” incidents to his colleagues at Tata Technologies Limited (TTL), the UK division of the consultancy, based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
In subsequent testing, he claims other components failed.
Mr Denli said they break down after less than 25,000 km (15,534 miles), when they should normally last at least 150,000 km (93,205 miles).
“In the training units, some racks were completely failing and falling on the road,” he said. “We are talking about one or two kilos of aluminum.
“These (incidents) started to set off alarm bells shortly before production began.”
He raised his concerns with senior executives at TTL and VinFast and recommended that they redesign the faulty components and make safer, higher-quality parts.
This would have significantly increased costs and forced VinFast Group to postpone production of the car.
But VinFast, which was preparing to sell its own shares and raise funds by listing on the New York Stock Exchange, instead continued production.
Mr. Denli asked Tata Technologies to reassign him to another project, but top management refused.
Unhappy with being associated with the VinFast car, he says, he resigned in May last year.
With his sought-after consulting engineering skills, Mr Denli then found new employment through an agency with JLR in Gaydon, also owned by the Tata group.
But he continued to see reports online appearing to show serious safety flaws in previous models of the same VinFast car – including a video that appeared to show a car reversing with no driver on board – and crashed cars whose wheels had come off.
In another report, a VinFast car in a showroom in Germany caught fire.
The same components he tested in VinFast's VF6 and VF7 models were carried over from two earlier models already on sale in the United States, Vietnam and Europe: the VF8 and VF9.
Then, on April 24 of this year, a family of four was killed in an accident in Pleasanton, California. Police reported the vehicle lost control, left the road, struck a pole and caught fire.
The following month, the US safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), announced that it was reviewing the VinFast VF8. VinFast said it was cooperating with the investigation.
Reports of the crash prompted Mr Denli to post messages on a Reddit account claiming he had worked on the car's design and that it was a vehicle he said was putting lives at risk. in danger.
“I would ride in every other vehicle I've designed from other brands… and every vehicle has flaws… But Vinfast, I wouldn't ride in one… I never will and I won’t let my loved ones ride in one,” he said. wrote.
Two months later, on July 18 this year, Mr Denli's contract at JLR ended.
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VinFast is a client of Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata Group
Internal documents obtained via a Data Access Request (DSAR) reveal that a senior executive at his former employer, Tata Technologies, had been in contact with JLR executives to request his dismissal.
After seeing the posts on Reddit, Patrick Flood, chief human resources officer of Tata Technologies, discussed his company's desire for Mr. Denli's new job to end with JLR's chief human resources officer and board member. administration, Dave Williams.
Mr Flood told Mr Williams that Tata Group client VinFasth had carried out its own investigation and identified Mr Denli as the author of the Reddit posts: “The problem is if he did this now, he could do the same at JLR.”
The same day he was sacked, Mr Denli was blacklisted on industrial recruitment platform Magnit, which told JLR it had received a “red flag” so any applications from him for other jobs via the platform would be automatically refused.
On July 19, Mr Flood emailed JLR investigators: “I just wanted to check if the individual's service had ended with JLR? The investigator confirmed yes.
Internal documents show that another Tata Technologies engineer had confirmed to JLR that there were problems with the components that Mr Denli had warned about on Reddit.
Mr Denli said his bosses at JLR knew he had done nothing wrong in his employment at JLR and told him he was fired because the Tata Group was embarrassed by his posts about its client, VinFast.
He is now taking JLR to an employment tribunal.
“I was shocked by what was happening in the world where innocent people were paying the price – a very high price,” he said.
“I thought if some people started talking about it, they would actually be forced to make changes. Unfortunately, their response was not to make these improvements, but, 'Hey, who said that?' Let's shut him up. up'.”
On September 12, NHTSA opened an investigation into Vinfast VF8.
It said it was investigating 3,118 VinFast vehicles sold in the United States after 14 drivers reported Lane Keep Assist systems were faulty in VF8 cars purchased in 2023 and 2024.
NHTSA said drivers have reported that the system “has difficulty detecting lanes on the roadway, provides inappropriate steering inputs, and is difficult for the driver to override.”
VinFast said it will fully cooperate with NHTSA throughout this process.
“We take all security concerns seriously and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” VinFast told Reuters, expressing the company's confidence in its security standards.
The number of reports of safety issues received by NHTSA has now increased to 28.
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Stronger Protections Needed for Whistleblowers, Supporters Say
Parliamentary bill to support whistleblowers
In UK employment law, workers are supposed to be protected against employer retaliation if they disclose information which they believe shows that an individual's health and safety is likely to be put at risk. .
Under the Public Interest at Work Disclosure of Information Act 1998, any term in a contract intended to compel them to remain silent is void.
However, there is growing pressure in Parliament for stronger safeguards for whistleblowers, while existing protections are too weak.
A bill will be introduced Wednesday proposing to create a whistleblower office to protect workers who speak out.
Supporters such as Baroness Susan Kramer, a former transport minister, say Mr Denli's case is not exceptional and highlight why the bill is needed.
“Whistleblowers very often find themselves fired, blacklisted from future jobs and pay a huge price in terms of their personal careers,” she said.
“This is not acceptable as we need whistleblowers to deter and report wrongdoing.”
Georgina Halford-Hall, managing director of Whistleblowers UK, said: “This story is one of hundreds of stories we hear every year from whistleblowers who have been rewarded for doing the right thing with retaliation .
“Currently, whistleblowers must choose between speaking out and their personal well-being. The best incentive MPs can offer is to ensure that whistleblowers are properly protected and that wrongdoing will be addressed of an investigation.”
The BBC has offered Tata Group and JLR the opportunity to comment in detail.
Tata Group, the multinational company that owns JLR, did not respond.
JLR said it does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
VinFast said: “We are not involved in the recruitment or human resources activities of the Tata Group or its companies. We have no further comment on this matter.”
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VinFast denied interfering with Tata Group's HR activities
