Maextro Pledges Brake Pedal Redesign After V800 Fails Emergency Stop Tests

Maextro, the luxury marque formed through the Huawei-JAC partnership, has committed to redesigning a key braking component and will hand existing owners a free upgrade after a widely circulated test video raised questions about the V800 MPV’s stopping ability.

The controversy traces back to a clip published by Dongchedi, an automotive information outlet, which put three Maextro V800s through repeated emergency stops from 100 km/h. In each case, according to the testers, the base of the brake pedal bracket fractured — once on the third hard stop, once on the fourth, and once on the second attempt in a freshly purchased vehicle. With the foot brake no longer usable, the drivers said they had to trigger the emergency braking function tied to the Park button to bring the cars to a halt.

Maextro pushed back on the framing of the exercise while still promising action. In a statement, the brand said no bracket fractures had been reported by customers since deliveries started, and it characterized the video’s conditions as “non-standard, extreme” rather than representative of real-world driving. Even so, the company said it wants a wider safety margin in such scenarios, will revise the bracket base’s design, and will conduct a broader review of its validation procedures, test parameters and production quality controls.

The episode landed hard on the stock market. JAC (SSE: 600418), the Anhui-based automaker that builds the V800 with Huawei, closed down 10.01 percent at its daily limit. Public reaction was split: some commenters urged JAC to open an investigation, while others asked whether repeated maximum-effort braking reasonably mirrors everyday use.

Positioned at the top of Huawei’s HIMA (Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance) portfolio, Maextro introduced the V800 on August 5 as a flagship MPV aimed squarely at the chauffeur-driven business segment long dominated by the Toyota Alphard and Lexus LM. Launch pricing ran from 766,000 yuan to 1,016,000 yuan. The free retrofit offer effectively turns a public relations headache into a service campaign, though how many of the roughly 36,000-plus vehicles HIMA moves monthly belong to Maextro has not been broken out. For a young brand still building trust in the ultra-premium tier, the speed and substance of the fix — rather than the test itself — may prove the more lasting test.