Dongchedi Has Fallen, Who Exactly Stands Behind Huawei? Even ByteDance Can't Take Them On. Four Departments Issue a Joint Document, Turns Out It Was Only the Tip of the Iceberg!? Qiqibaba TALK Episode 997 20261012

This episode discusses the recent high-profile incident involving the snapped brake pedals on Huawei-related vehicles, exploring official actions such as Dongchedi pulling down the relevant videos and multiple government departments jointly issuing a document demanding an end to the phenomenon of "rushed cars." The program analyzes industry chaos among emerging EV makers, including extreme involution (rat race), reliance on low-cost suppliers, and drastically shortened testing cycles, pointing out numerous hidden quality hazards in the new energy vehicle sector and advising consumers to postpone their car-buying plans.

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Hello everyone, welcome to Qiqi Baba, I'm Qiqi. From the time humanity invented automobiles until today, there has probably never been an instance where three consecutive million-yuan luxury cars had their brake pedals completely snapped underfoot—a 100% breakage rate. Forget million-yuan cars; even for the most ordinary, standard commuter cars costing tens of thousands of yuan, you've never heard of someone slamming on the brakes at 100 km/h and shattering or snapping the brake pedal. Not even motorized tricycles have ever seen anything like this.

Now that things have developed to this point, the CCP authorities have stepped in, but in terms of results, I think they basically gave Dongchedi thirty lashes while giving Huawei just a gentle slap on the wrist. First, Dongchedi announced it would undergo an internal rectification for a month, and the videos regarding the Huawei brake pedal on their own app have already been deleted.

Needless to mention other platforms—they're obviously gone completely. But deleting them from their own app could only happen because the higher-ups made the demand; otherwise, they wouldn't have deleted content from their own platform. Next, four government agencies—the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the State Administration for Market Regulation—jointly published an article demanding an end to the "rushed car" phenomenon. Yet the entire text doesn't mention Huawei, Maextro, or anything of the sort at all. It only vaguely talks about phenomena like rushing to sell vehicles without rigorous testing just for the sake of competition, stating that these will be strictly inspected and stamped out in the future.

To put it plainly, it's just like the crown prince getting caught making a mistake, and a reckless minister blowing the whistle on it, making it known to the entire imperial court. The emperor, left with no choice, had to say: "Well, recently the crown prince hasn't been diligent in his studies, and his tutors are at fault. Let the crown prince return home to study properly, but those tutors must all be punished." Yet he couldn't even bear to lay a finger on the prince himself.

What is most absurd is that Maextro is still being sold on the market right now. It hasn't been pulled from sales, nor did they announce that they would refund all deposits to customers who pre-ordered, stop sales, pull the model, and recall them all to the factory for re-inspection. None of that happened, because they simply refuse to admit there is a problem with their brake pedals. Dongchedi, on the other hand, is like that minister who nitpicked the crown prince's flaws and made the whole court aware. But you see, Dongchedi also has a massive backer—ByteDance—so they couldn't deal with them too harshly either. Even though they directly slapped the crown prince in the face, well, leaving them unpunished wasn't an option, so they just made a token gesture by docking their salary, right?

Now, regarding this matter, here is what one blogger had to say.

The Cui Cui Sha (a nickname for a specific EV brand) incident, I believe, will definitely become a landmark event for the entire Chinese manufacturing and automotive industry. Let's wait and see how this develops. Actually, I was quite hesitant about whether to record this video, mainly regarding the topic of the Cui Cui Sha being cut in half. We call it the Cui Cui Sha car; in essence, it should be a durable good. It is absolutely wrong to promote or treat it as a fast-moving consumer good. Especially under the current grand backdrop of so-called "overtaking on a bend" with new energy vehicles, we are actually seeing a group of people who used to make mobile phones and consumer electronics using the logic of fast-moving consumer goods to direct those who are professionals in car manufacturing. Personally, because I played with racing when I was young, I have a racing license myself.

What I want to say is, look, in the domestic car circle, I actually have a lot of respect for Mr. Wei Jianjun of Great Wall Motor. That is a true, I mean, a career run with craftsmanship and genuine passion. As for the others, I think it's essentially the same as chasing traffic to make quick money. These people, others take three years to make one car, and I make three cars in one year—isn't this a joke? In our entire automotive industry in the past, you know, the speed of updating and iterating your car was very slow, right? Why was it slow? There is a reason for it. Your R&D takes five years, testing takes five years, right? You have hundreds of test cars, you have to run them in extremely cold regions, high-humidity regions, high-pressure regions, and you need hundreds of thousands of kilometers of real-road testing.

After running all that, it's to test the fatigue level of your parts under these thousands or tens of thousands of intense stress loads. Of course, the traditional automotive industry has also experienced such incidents in the past. But because behind every real case of such an incident is a bloody life, it has made every car company become more and more cautious. Of course, I hope that this time, through such an incident, it can make these so-called "new forces" of car manufacturing seriously reflect. You shouldn't wait until a bloody life is lost before you start thinking about this problem. Even, as we say, perhaps in the past year everyone has seen a lot of news, even on the road.

When such bloody incidents happen, our first reaction is to peel off the logo, peel off the wheel hub logo, peel off the front grille logo, or just cover it with a cloth. This is simply... what is it? It's just burying one's head in the sand, like the Emperor's New Clothes—if others don't see it, it means I'm wearing clothes, right? Please don't do this. I think these things in recent years are enough to make us seriously think and take warning. Of course, you might say, are these new energy car companies forced into this? Why are they forced? Because of the "involution" (rat race). Just look at the gross profit margins in the automotive industry now, and you will know why the road has completely turned into a situation where bad money drives out good. Everyone rushes in, and after that, there is full competition, and then involution. Theoretically, competition should produce good products, and full competition should eliminate the bad and keep the good.

But what is our reality? Of course, this also has to do with consumer perception. If the consumer's perception reaches the point where safety is the number one priority and a car is a means of transportation, then I believe we can filter them directly from the consumer group. But the reality is, as I said before, they have cultivated consumers into a concept of fast-moving consumer goods, especially young people now. Because whether it's the children at home or the kids around us around the year 2000 who are buying cars, they really only look at the color, the screen, the infotainment system, and whether it's comfortable to use, never considering other things like safety or technical parameters. When you talk to them, they just say the car is a "mobile home," a "mobile home." Experienced drivers might tell you, "What mobile thing?" Right? Home is still the most comfortable place. But this is also, I think, consumers aren't really stupid; they are actually brainwashed by this hype. Of course, we say that the full competition in this market, from the perspective of car companies, with poor financial conditions, anxious investors, extremely low gross margins, and price wars, all force you to not be able to do long-term development. You must do this "fast." Otherwise, if you don't deliver a new car every month, if you aren't growing every month and every quarter, then the valuation will drop, investors will get cold feet, financing will fail, and all your supply chains and finances will have problems. Don't even talk about grinding on one car for three years; after three years, this company might be gone. So this is also what we say...

This consequence brought about by such thorough involution (rat race)—of course, if you analyze it on a deeper level and ask why there was such sudden, thorough involution right out of the gate, the answer goes back to what we mentioned at an even higher dimension: institutional forces led to a total mismatch in the production relations across the industrial chain, right? On the surface, your massive subsidies and support policies from industrial funds achieved what we call "overtaking on a bend" within the higher-dimensional national narrative, fulfilling that strategic goal. But this defies economic common sense; it defies natural laws. And what is the result now? The result now is that with so many flooding in, everyone starts rat-racing and competing, and it's an unhealthy involution, an unhealthy competition, and in the end, you are the ones footing the bill.

And of course, someone foots the bill—from a new car rolling off the lot to a used car that no one will take, the bill you foot might be the exorbitant price. But when safety accidents happen, the bill that many people foot is their lives. So these costs are all borne by individuals. That's why, with this whole Cuicuisha incident included, I think there are many aspects worthy of our reflection and serious thought.

This chaotic competition in China is not natural market competition; it is far more brutal precisely because it relies entirely on connections and that sort of thing. Moreover, through such competition, it won't produce a good outcome anyway. At any rate, what lies behind Huawei right now is certainly far more complicated than just Ren Zhengfei, because it wouldn't otherwise warrant the CCP government protecting it to this extent. Some people also say this matter is merely the tip of the iceberg in the industry.

Speaking of the brake pedal issue, if I say this is just the tip of the iceberg, would you believe me? In fact, what is currently happening in the industry is far, far more than what you can see. So today, using this incident as an entry point, let me boldly talk about some of the real conditions in current car manufacturing that you don't get to see. In addition, let me issue another warning: if it's not an absolute necessity, postpone your car-buying plans for this year as soon as possible. Once I finish explaining, you'll understand completely. First of all, to everyone who held back and didn't buy a new energy vehicle over the past two years: you truly avoided so, so many traps. Do you know? The contrast is stark: I see most people outside the industry cheering, thinking domestic new energy vehicles are already invincible across the world and far ahead. But if you ask the people actually manufacturing cars on the front line, everyone knows very well in their hearts that we still have a very long way to go before we build a genuinely good car. To tell the truth, quite a few industry insiders wouldn't consider replacing their car with a new energy vehicle these years. At least for me, starting from 2024, I resolutely won't touch 90% of the new energy vehicles produced domestically, because the more you know in this industry...

...the more you find certain things simply unbelievable. Because in an environment of extreme involution in car making, you simply cannot expect some domestic automakers to have any bottom line; you cannot expect to buy a car of genuine high quality and high standards. Especially when automakers are waging price wars, many of them will use the cheapest suppliers without any bottom line—many of which are small makeshift workshops—or force auto parts suppliers to slash prices. Do you know what the procurement cost was for that brake pedal in a luxury car worth over a million yuan? A little over 80 yuan. Therefore, behind price cuts, there must be a drop in quality. For example, for million-yuan-level cars from traditional luxury brands, that brake pedal is definitely made of high-strength alloy, perforated cast aluminum alloy, or carbon fiber, with each pedal costing several hundreds or thousands of yuan, because this component is far too critical. Speaking of this, why did I say in my previous few videos that now that luxury brand prices have dropped to this level, you can buy one if you have the means—especially if it's the only car in your household? German luxury brands sometimes have quality issues too; with industrial products, that's just unavoidable. What you might not know is that they...

...don't follow our national standards, because they have a set of internal safety standards that are stricter than Chinese standards, European standards, and American standards. Take their brake pedals: our recommended national standard is that it shouldn't fracture under 1,500 newtons, but the requirement for BBA (Benz, BMW, Audi) is generally close to 4,000 newtons without fracturing. Moreover, for this component, they conduct temperature tests from minus 35 degrees to 80 degrees Celsius; it must not break not only when stepped on straight from the front, but also when stepped on from the left or right sides. As far as I know, when it comes to this brake pedal, many of these luxury brands still use fully imported parts—manufactured in Europe and shipped by sea to China for assembly—while another portion is supplied by domestic suppliers, but they must strictly comply with their global parameter standards. You can say luxury brands are quite lousy at smart technology, but when it comes to their internal safety standards, our national standards still have a very, very long way to catch up. If you have worked at an automaker or an auto parts company and deeply participated in BBA projects, you would know how difficult those Germans are to deal with—they are deadly serious, and on principle questions of quality or safety, they simply don't...

There will be no backing down. As for some domestic car companies, I won't go into too much detail, but you will find that starting from the last year or two, various problems with many domestic new energy vehicles have begun to erupt in a concentrated manner. Let me just give you a random example: after driving a new car for two years, the half-shafts have been replaced three times, the control arms have been replaced twice, the stabilizer links have been replaced four times, and the steering gear and air suspension have been replaced whenever possible. These are already very serious design and manufacturing defects. To put it bluntly, it is to rush the delivery cycle, cut out testing stages, and then constantly make minor adjustments—we also call it cost reduction—because they want to pursue a rapid market launch and sell at a shocking price. Furthermore, there is the issue of rusting. It is already 2026, and some car companies are still having rusting issues; this is a regression. It is not a technical problem, but purely a matter of conscience. Doing rust prevention well means adding many more processes, and the production line also needs to be rectified; these additions are all costs. However, when selling cars at 4S dealerships, consumers don't care. You are more concerned about the appearance, whether the interior looks good, whether the space is large, whether the leather is soft, and you cannot see the durability-related things.

You might say, 'Oh, if the quality is so poor, why haven't I seen any recalls?' Let me tell you, the number of recalls for domestic brands this year has increased by nearly seven times compared to last year. This does not even include the behavior of secretly applying patches under the guise of service upgrades. I can say this: the number of publicly recalled quality defects currently may only account for 1%, and the remaining 99% are secretly applying patches to you in the name of service upgrades. People within the industry are well aware of this, they just don't talk about it. But consumers still feel that they are taking advantage of free upgrades! Just like a brand-new flagship SUV from a brand that was launched just a few months ago a few days ago; because the hood was too soft, the entire hood would shake while driving. Anyone who has worked in manufacturing knows how outrageous and low-level this design and manufacturing defect is. But here is the key point! Later, the official launched an activity euphemistically called 'front hood driving texture upgrade,' calling you to come back for service, and then stuffing shock-absorbing cotton into it to apply a patch. I have been in the industry for more than ten years, and I have...

I have never seen such an absurd defect; it is truly unheard of. There is also a popular influencer-recommended car with high sales; recently, they have also been contacting owners one by one to replace the brake booster assembly, which is a very important core safety component. Are you aware of these things outside the industry? No. Sometimes I see you asking around, comparing parameters and configurations, and then deciding on a car, and I think that is a bit too sad. Because a lot of gray information within the industry will simply not appear on the internet and will not be indexed. Also, didn't you ask me which cars to avoid? Let me tell you, models that frequently undergo OTA updates—upgrading the battery one moment, the powertrain or chassis the next, and then the steering control—do you think this is a good thing? The industry is all too clear about this. Believe me, the more frequent the OTA, the more likely it is a 'rushed' car, because these core hardware components should have undergone complete and extensive testing before leaving the factory. Once delivered, it should be perfect; it should not be sold and then have consumers perform human testing, only to have problems occur one after another.

They are in a rush, applying patches under the guise of service upgrades, so just remember that the essence behind OTA is a rushed car being patched. In fact, regarding this brake pedal incident, I know that many leading car companies had already set up special task forces that very night, working overnight to inspect their own models. The impact of this incident is far more significant than you imagine. So, why do I tell you to at least wait until the second half of next year to buy a car? Because the authorities have already started to take action to rectify this chaos. It has already begun; they are first launching a one-year special action for vehicle quality improvement. As for why this special action was launched suddenly, there is no need to say more, right? In fact, a few months ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had already gone directly to various car companies for spot checks, the kind where they enter without notice. You may not realize it, but this is already a very serious rectification. So, starting from the second half of the year, domestic car companies will carry out comprehensive upgrades and optimizations for the quality and reliability of new cars. This is one of the reasons why some car orders are currently backlogged but cannot be delivered, because according to their original manufacturing and parts...

Various standards simply cannot pass this special action. They are also trying to find ways to rush the switching of suppliers and improve the quality level of parts. No one dares to go against the wind. Many new mandatory requirements concerning safety will be officially implemented next year. The quality of the cars you buy next year will be very different from this year. Therefore, the second half of this year is considered a transition period, because switching suppliers, improving quality and manufacturing standards, and optimizing production lines will take at least six months to a year. That is why I say, if you really want to buy a car, and a reliable one that you can drive for a few more years, you should wait until next year, preferably the second half of next year. 2027 will be the biggest turning point for the quality of Chinese new energy vehicles; I can only say this much. OK, I am Big Brother, talking about new things in buying cars.

As for China, in order to dump electric vehicles across the globe, this is an inevitable outcome! Everyone knows that normally, if you want to roll out a car, you need at least three years of testing! No carmaker can release new models at the speed Huawei does—not a single one can do it, it is simply impossible, because there is not even enough time for safety testing. Not to mention, you still have to design it, and you still have to manufacture it, right? What's more, when you release a new car, you always need some area of improvement, a boost in some new performance metric—this is a basic requirement. But now, you see, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in order to carry out this dumping, right, to dump electric vehicles abroad in various countries—no other carmaker could pull this off.

And now, even the most fundamental brakes—which are tied directly to safety—can suffer this kind of problem. If nothing is done about it, I feel that if things keep developing like this, I am really afraid that with these Chinese cars, you buy one, take it home, and one day while driving, the roof just flies straight off, automatically turning you into a convertible. Alright, that is all for this episode. If you would like to support me, please join the membership channel, because I really hope to chat with everyone in real time during member live streams. That wraps up this episode, see you next time. Qiqibaba TALK Episode 997, 20261012.