"Doors Locked After Collision, Then Battery Caught Fire," Witness Says
A fire broke out in a Xiaomi electric vehicle that collided with a highway guardrail in China, resulting in the deaths of three occupants.
According to the local Chinese media Nanfang Dushibao on the 1st, the Xiaomi electric vehicle SU7 (Speed Ultra 7; Chinese name S?q?) exploded after crashing on a highway in Anhui Province in eastern China on the 29th of last month, causing casualties. Xiaomi dispatched a special response team to the scene to investigate the cause of the accident together with the police and the bereaved families.
Videos capturing the accident situation are spreading on Chinese social networking services (SNS). The footage shows the vehicle hitting the highway guardrail and then catching fire.
A netizen who identified themselves as a family member of the occupants explained, "On the evening of March 29, after the vehicle collided with the guardrail, the doors were locked, and the battery caught fire, burning the three people inside the car."
The accident vehicle is known to be the standard version of the SU7. The currently sold Xiaomi SU7 lineup consists of three types: Standard, Pro, and Max.
The SU7 is the first model launched by Xiaomi, an electronics manufacturing and sales company, which entered the electric vehicle industry in 2021 and released this model three years later in March last year. Xiaomi Chairman Lei Jun expressed confidence, stating that the SU7 Ultra is an electric vehicle that surpasses the Porsche Taycan Turbo in acceleration and top speed. The batteries are reportedly supplied by China's BYD and the world's number one company CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited). Xiaomi also started pre-orders last month for the supercar-class electric vehicle SU7 Ultra.
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