China's regulators step in, with MIIT and two other agencies investigating the Maextro V800 brake pedal failures

According to a post from the MIIT WeChat account, in response to online reports of brake pedal bracket failures on the Maextro V800, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the State Administration for Market Regulation have taken the matter seriously, and on top of earlier investigation work have set up a joint task force to carry out verification and handle the matter according to the law, with updates to be released in due course.

Earlier reports show that on October 8, Dongchedi published a test video in which, during repeated braking runs from 100 km/h (about 62 mph) to zero, three consecutive Maextro V800s had their brake pedals snap, all at the same spot, a plastic reinforcement wrapping the pedal pivot, with the force applied by the driver exceeding 1,600 N at the moment of failure, and the video triggered heated discussion across the industry.

Responding to Dongchedi's test, Maextro issued a statement saying its braking system was developed and validated to standards above both the national and industry requirements, that no such failures have occurred in real-world use, but that it would further optimize the part's design and offer free upgrades to owners who already took delivery.

Then on October 13, Maextro released a further statement on the brake pedal test results, showing that a nationally accredited third-party lab inspected the Maextro V800 brake pedal on October 11, 2026, finding it complies with the industry standard QC/T 788-2018, which requires a longitudinal force of 1,500 N with displacement under 5 mm (about 0.2 inches), and that a stricter test at 3,000 N produced no cracks or damage, with the testing carried out by the testing center of China Automotive Engineering Research Institute.

But Maextro's test report has not convinced everyone, since the host who broke the brake pedals on camera in Dongchedi's program, known as Dongche Dakeji Dongmen, posted a challenge asking whether static loading and dynamic loading are the same thing, and whether PP polypropylene with GF40 responds the same way to a static load as to an instantaneous dynamic one.