Xiaomi’s first electric car, the SU7, broke down after covering a distance of 39 kilometers and could not be repaired, so the workshop had to return it to the factory for analysis.
There are still many details that are unclear at this time, but one thing is for sure, Mr. Wen, the owner of the broken-down car, was an early buyer of the Xiaomi SU7 who had been waiting for the car for over a month, as reported by CarNewsChina on Wednesday (May 8).
The Xiaomi SU7 was launched on March 28 when sales opened and began shipping to consumers on April 3. Wen received his car shipment from the Xiaomi Auto Xiamen Xing’an Shipping Center in Fujian Province, China, on May 4.
On May 6, the owner uploaded a video on social media platform stating that his Xiaomi SU7 broke down while driving at high speed shortly after leaving the store and had covered a distance of 39 kilometers.
Wen said the car had to be towed back to the shipping center. The damage was believed to have occurred on May 5.
The video shows the car parked on the side of the road with hazard lights flashing. The infotainment unit displayed a message saying “Car will stop, please pull over safely and contact the online service center.”
Then the message changed to “drive system malfunction and cannot be shifted”. This indicated a fault that meant the car could not be switched between forward and reverse modes.
The Xiang’an Shipping Center confirmed on Tuesday (May 7) that they had received a complaint from Mr. Wen and they could not find the problem.
According to further reports, the car could not be repaired and needed to be sent back to the factory for analysis to determine the cause of the incident before it could be fixed.
Interestingly, after this incident, Mr. Wen requested a new car instead of a refund and was not happy with the fact that he could not be provided with a new car.
“I want a car, not a refund, and I don’t want to place a new order and schedule production,” he said.
Xiaomi’s customer service is reportedly negotiating a refund with Mr. Wen along with compensation for the expenses he incurred.
Xiaomi ranked sixth in the new energy vehicle market sales league for cars priced above 200,000 yuan (around Rp444 million) this year, even though it was only sold since late March and has delivered 8,500 cars until May 5, possibly including Mr. Wen’s car.
This is not the first incident involving the Xiaomi SU7 showing quality issues in the car. One of the more disturbing issues is that the Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) function, which is claimed by Xiaomi to operate up to 135 km/h, could not function.
There are also reports related to inconsistencies in paint thickness and excessive wear on the seats in test vehicles.
Reporter: Pamela Sakina
Editor: Siti Zulaikha
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