Brake-pedal failures in luxury EV put Chinese cars’ quality in regulatory spotlight
Viral video of broken brackets in test of car from Huawei-backed brand prompts ministry action to step up policing of quality
A safety failure spotted in tests of a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) made by a Huawei Technologies-backed luxury brand has raised doubts about the cars many consumers view as a source of national pride, while prompting regulators to step up policing of quality and reliability.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), along with three other ministry-level authorities, published draft rules on Saturday that would govern testing of new car models. The move came after a video released on Thursday on ByteDance-owned car-information platform Dongchedi showed that brake-pedal brackets snapped on all three Maextro V800 EVs used in a test of emergency braking from 100km/h.
“A car’s brake pedal should absolutely never fail while driving,” the Communist Party’s flagship mouthpiece People’s Daily said in a commentary on Sunday.
