There is a lot of interesting news about the Xiaomi SU7 electric car on the web. Some positive, some negative, like the brake system breaking down under track conditions. But that's perfectly acceptable, because it's not designed for that. But parts falling off because the owner drove into the water? Now that's just gross.
The story started when a new Xiaomi SU7 Max owner complained that the body panel behind the front landing gear had come off when driving in water. He also uploaded a video of the damage and explained in the comments how he managed to do it.
In recent days, heavy rains in China have also been a nuisance for road users, and there are quite large puddles on the roads. The above driver and his favourite Xiaomi car is driving through one of these puddles at a very high speed. And the rising water broke its way where it could. In this case, it went under the fender skins and swept them away. As you can see in the video, there are patents holding the fairing element to the metal bodywork, which is both good and bad. Easy to replace, but lo and behold, it should have been better designed...
Xiaomi Motors did not delay in responding, and issued a statement about the incident
Following the inspection, only a few vehicles had fenders fall off, and all of the vehicles in question were driving through the water at high speed.
Since the beginning of the Xiaomi SU7 design, the problem of wading in rainy days has been fully taken into account and tested in rigorous, high-speed water wading conditions. Including 60 km/h on wet roads, 20 km/h in medium and high water conditions, and even in low-speed, slow driving conditions with 300 mm of water.
At this stage, we cannot confirm the specific depth of acceleration, speed, driving and steering attitude of the vehicle involved in the accident, or whether there were any localised deep holes or damage to the road surface.
At the same time, the aerodynamic design of the entire Xiaomi SU7 series will allow water to flow through the air ducts of the fenders on gassy roads.
It is recommended that when crossing fording roads, everyone should anticipate the depth of the ford and proceed slowly. If it is impossible to judge the depth of the water on the road, then a detour should be taken rather than forced passage. We will continue to conduct further follow-up research and make judgements about such extreme conditions.
There are really only a few cases, although not all cars have crossed the water at this speed. Although they might all have this bodywork element falling off and it really is a design fault. If not, then it's just another glitch for the "shitty Chinese" fans to munch on.
