Since the Xiaomi SU7 began deliveries on April 3 there have been no shortage of stories about accidents involving the car and instances where the car has gone wrong. However the latest incident is probably the most bizarre to date. The car broke down after traveling just 39 kilometers and cannot be repaired, the saleroom needs to return it to the factor for analysis.
Currently a lot of the details are still not very clear. What is known is that Mr. Wen, the owner of the car, was an early purchaser of the Xiaomi SU7 having been waiting for the car over a month. The Xiaomi SU7 launched on March 28 which is when sales opened. Mr. Wen took delivery of his car from the Xiaomi Auto Xiamen Xing’an Delivery Center in Fujian Province on possibly May 4.
On May 6 the owner posted a video on social media platforms saying that his Xiaomi SU7 had broken down when travelling at high speed just after leaving the 4S store and that it had covered 39 kilometers. Mr. Wen said that car had to be towed back to the deliver center. The breakdown is believed to have occurred on May 5.
The video shows the car parked up on the hard shoulder with the hazard warning lights blinking. Inside the infotainment unit displays “The car is about to stop, please safely pull over and contact the online service center” the message then changed to display something like “the drive system is faulty and cannot be shifted.” This showed there was error meaning the car couldn’t be switched between drive and reverse.
The Xiang’an Delivery Center confirmed on May 7 that they head received Mr. Wen’s complaint and that they were unable to work out what the problem was. According to further news it is unable to be repaired and needs to be sent to the factory for analysis to uncover why the incident occurred before it can be repaired.
Surprisingly after this incident Mr. Wen actually requested a new car rather than a refund and is unhappy with the fact he cannot be given one saying “I want a car, not to return the car, and I don’t want to place a new order and schedule production.” Due to cars in production already having designated owners it is not possible to give him one. Xiaomi customer service are reportedly negotiating a refund with Mr. Wen along with compensation for expenses he has incurred.
Xiaomi ranked sixth in the new energy vehicle market sales league for cars priced above 200,000 yuan this year despite only being on sale since the end of March and having achieved deliveries of 8,500 cars up to May 5, probably including Mr. Wen’s car.
This is not the first incident involving a Xiaomi SU7 showing quality problems with the car. One of the more disturbing ones was that the AEB function was unable to operate up to the 135 km/h claimed by Xiaomi and this would not be rectified until an OTA. There have been also reports to do with the inconsistencies in the thickness of the paintwork along with excessive wear of the seats in test vehicles.