Land Rover promises to fix gearbox fault

Land Rover Discovery 4 crosses the "unexplored water", part of the "Unexplored Experiences" program. [Photo/China Daily]

Land Rover responded to malfunction complaints regarding its Evoque cars, saying the fault in gearbox will be fixed through software upgrade, reported China Central Television on Tuesday.

More than 36,000 Evoque cars involved have been sold in China, and around 22 percent of them have received software upgrades, said Wang Yan, vice-president of public relations at Land Rover China, to the news.

"We've been closely following the performance after the upgrade," said Wang, adding that the company will not avoid nor turn down recalling defective products.

The response came after the CCTV exposed complaints on faulty gearboxes by Evoque car owners at a live TV show broadcast to mark the International Consumer Rights Day on March 15.

The report claimed that Land Rover China denied the problems in gearbox and passed the buck to Chinese consumers, saying "they drove too fast".

The average price of Evoque cars in China is over $100,000. Volkswagen launched recalls after its faulty gearbox scandal was exposed in 2013, according to the TV show.

Two technical experts from the Jaguar Land Rover UK headquarters arrived in China on Wednesday to guide a software upgrade after the luxury automaker experienced backlash for a gearbox fault.

The company has formed a special task force to address the issue after China Central Television (CCTV) reported they adopted faulty gearboxes for the Evoque model in China on Sunday, said Anthea Wang, executive vice president of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at Jaguar Land Rover China. ' Wang said they have received more than 900 reports about the gearbox problem since the first half of 2014 and found the software version did not match, leading to broken functionality.