The debut of the first Xiaomi car, officially referred to as the SU7, was a hit, and the Chinese tech behemoth bragged about the solid demand on multiple occasions. The company's CEO went as far as saying that Apple users love Xiaomi's car, as more than half of the people who ordered it own an iPhone.

While these numbers, if accurate, highlight the need for an Apple Car, Xiaomi has other things to be busy with rather than bragging about sales.

The SU7 seems to suffer from early reliability issues, with customers hitting all kinds of problems when taking delivery of their EVs. The latest happened only a few minutes after the buyer picked up the car from the dealership.

A Xiaomi customer named Mr. Wen was one of the early Xiaomi SU7 customers, picking up the car in early May. He went to the Xiaomi Auto Xiamen Xing'an Delivery Center in Fujian Province approximately two weeks ago to get the vehicle.

Minutes later, while he was driving on the highway, the car started throwing fault lights on the screen, advising the driver to pull over. When he stopped it, the car had only 39 kilometers (about 24 miles) on the clock, with a video showing the Xiaomi SU7 on the road shoulder with the hazard lights activated.

The man recorded the blunder, filming the dashboard screen where the car told him that the drive system was faulty. As the local media reported, the driver was instructed to contact the online service center.

That's what he did, so the Xiaomi SU7 he had just purchased was now getting towed back to the delivery center. Unfortunately, it didn't end well for the Xiaomi buyer.

The car was sent back to the factory for further inspection, but Xiaomi's engineers couldn't find the cause of the problem. The parent company couldn't return the car as it was broken beyond repair, so the man was offered a refund. Considering he was one of the first Xiaomi SU7 customers, he didn't want the money but the car, albeit the Chinese tech firm couldn't offer a replacement vehicle because of the strong demand. Every car on the assembly line already has an assigned customer, so no units are available to be offered in exchange for the broken model.

Eventually, Mr. Wen had no choice but to accept the refund, and the local media added that he might also receive compensation for the trouble he had to deal with.

Unfortunately, it's still unclear why the SU7 broke down, but it's important to mention that this is only the first case of a Xiaomi car broken beyond repair. It's definitely not widespread, and despite other issues hitting the SU7, the demand for this model remains at record levels.




https://www.autoevolution.com/news/xiaomi-car-breaks-down-beyond-repair-minutes-after-delivery-owner-offered-a-refund-233905.html