Li Auto’s L9 Crashes Again During Test Drive

Li Auto‘s L9 model, claimed by the firm to be “the best household SUV within 5 million yuan,” on July 26 suffered another accident during a test drive.

Chat records circulated on Chinese social media platforms show that when the driver took a customer to test the L9’s acceleration function, the vehicle’s active brake failed and broke the axle after hitting a guardrail, and the right front side of the test car was seriously damaged.

According to a video taken by the driving recorder disclosed by Li Auto, the test drive took place on a rainy night. During the acceleration, the test driver suddenly encountered a narrowing from three to two lanes, causing the car to hit the metal guardrail at a speed of 86 km/h, damaging more than 30 meters of the guardrail.

Li Auto said that the front right suspension system of the vehicle was structurally intact, the right steering rod in the steering system was deformed, the right side of the front bumper of the vehicle was damaged, the two tires on the right side were flat and the right front wheel hub was deformed. The accident caused no casualties, and the air spring was intact.

However, the exposed chat records show that the test car’s active brakes failed and the front axle airbag blew at the time of the accident. In addition, the test car owner said he waited in the rain for two hours after the accident, and the salespersons who connected with him after ordering the vehicle had also been fired.

The L9 was released on June 21 and is expected to be delivered in August. It has been less than 10 days since the last L9 test drive accident. On July 17, CNR reported that during the test drive of the L9 model, the air suspension broke, and the vehicle completely lost support between the left front wheel and the body.

SEE ALSO: Li Auto’s L9 Test Car Suspected of Air Suspension Breakage

Li Auto responded that the test car rushed through a pit with a depth of over 20cm at a speed of 90 km/h, causing the breakage of the buffer ring inside the air spring. Some test cars use buffer rings in the trial production stage, which will fail occasionally when encountering major impacts.