Dongchedi, ByteDance’s car-information platform, put three Maextro V800 electric vehicles through emergency braking tests from 100km/h. Video released on Thursday showed the brake-pedal brackets snapping on every vehicle.
The pedal failed on the third braking attempt in vehicle 1, the fourth in vehicle 2 and the second full-force attempt in vehicle 3.
One pedal withstood a peak force of 4,589 N before it failed. Another fractured at 1,612 N. China requires brake pedals to sustain 2,000 N for five seconds without breaking.
An examination found a single vertical support layer at the pedal pivot, where comparable designs supplied by the same company reportedly use two or three layers. It also found weld marks in high-stress areas, relatively thin material and inadequate reinforcement ribs.
Once the pedal broke, the stopping distance rose from 38 to 140 meters. A broken pedal removes the vehicle’s conventional foot-braking function, leaving drivers to use Park gear for emergency deceleration. The owner’s manual cautioned that Park gear could not fully substitute for regular brakes.
The failures involve a vehicle at the premium end of China’s electric-vehicle market. The Maextro V800 has a base price of 766,000 yuan (US$114,462) and ranks among the most expensive EV models in mainland China.
JAC, which is based in eastern China’s Anhui province, assembles the vehicle. Huawei co-developed the V800 and, through its Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance, provides smart-driving and digital-cockpit technology to several carmakers.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other ministry-level departments published draft rules for testing new car models. The proposals say vetting should include measures such as 30,000km (18,641 miles) of road testing before a model can be offered to consumers.
People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, addressed the issue in a Sunday commentary: 'A car's brake pedal should absolutely never fail while driving'.
Maextro said on Sunday that it would address the brake-pedal issue by the end of this month. The company described the tests as occurring under 'non-standard, extreme test conditions'. It said the V800’s braking system exceeds the standards of China’s transport ministry and the industry, and said no such failures had been reported on customer vehicles.
Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai, said: 'The Maextro issue has exacerbated consumers' worries about car safety. This is yet another wake-up call to Chinese carmakers and supply-chain vendors to focus on quality, rather than intelligence.'
The episode follows a fatal Xiaomi EV crash in March 2025 that raised nationwide concerns about autonomous-driving technology. More than 60 carmakers were subsequently summoned to a government conference on the technology and how it was being marketed.
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