Brake-pedal failures in luxury EV put Chinese cars’ quality in regulatory spotlight

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.

Although the specifics of the failures were still under investigation, the newspaper said the incident underscored the importance of strengthened oversight of the country’s “rapidly developed” EVs. It described the MIIT’s proposed rules as a vigorous response to safety risks on Chinese roads.