An image of Chinese luxury EV Maextro V800 Photo: Maextro's official website

Maextro, a Chinese high‑end luxury vehicle brand, released third‑party lab results on Tuesday showing its V800 brake pedal meets industry standards with no cracks or damage found on tested samples, pushing back against viral results of bracket fractures from tests conducted by automotive platform Dongchedi.

The findings have drawn fresh questions from the original tester over differences between static lab loading and dynamic on‑road conditions, as public debate continues over the vehicle's component safety.

The Maextro V800 is a luxury extended-range electric vehicle in China and is priced at a minimum of 766,000 yuan ($115,916) on its official website. Manufactured by JAC Motors, the Maextro V800 adopts Huawei's intelligent vehicle technologies under the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance.

The controversy started on October 8 when auto information platform Dongchedi posted a video showing the testing of three new Maextro V800s. The video showed that all brake pedal brackets snapped during hard emergency stops from 100 kilometers per hour to zero, according to The Beijing News.

In response to the test results released by Maextro, the Dongchedi tester posted multiple messages raising questions, including: "Is static loading the same as dynamic loading?"

While Maextro did not identify the testing agency, media reports cited by Yicai identified it as the China Automotive Engineering Research Institute. 

Maextro said that its test followed the industrial standard of QC/T 788-2018. 

QC/T788-2018 is a recommended industry standard covering mechanically hinged metal brake and clutch pedals. 

Zhang Xiang, secretary-general of the International Intelligent Vehicle Engineering Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the third-party testing institution followed proper procedures and the test report itself is valid. However, the third-party lab conducted static bench tests, while Dongchedi carried out full-vehicle dynamic tests. Even if samples pass these static tests, it cannot guarantee the component will remain safe under real-world driving. 

On October 8, Maextro said in a media statement that user safety is always its top priority. Even under non-standard extreme test conditions, it aims to deliver greater safety margins for customers. 

The company will further optimize the component's design and provide free upgrades for vehicles already delivered, per the media statement.

On October 10, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with other authorities, released a draft notice to tighten rules on automotive innovative design and research and development validation. 

It urged carmakers to prioritize safety‑risk assessment at the design stage. Companies must carry out failure‑mode analysis for innovative designs under complex and extreme conditions.