How hard should you press the brake pedal of a million-dollar luxury car to be considered “overstepping”?

2026-10-08 22:39

23萬

Interface News Reporter | Liu Zeran Zhou Shuqi

Interface News Editor | 周姝祺

Zunjie, a million-level ultra-luxury brand jointly launched by Huawei and JAC,It is undergoing the most severe quality public opinion test since its establishment.

On October 8, a braking test video released by the automotive vertical platform Dianchedi triggered controversy across the Internet. According to the information released by the test party, during the continuous emergency braking test from 100 km/h to standstill, the brake pedal bracket of three Zunjie V800 vehicles all suffered breakage, which occurred during the third, fourth and second braking times respectively.

According to the Daily Economic News, the first two test vehicles were produced in August this year, and the third one was produced in September. Similar faults occurred on three vehicles produced across the month, making it difficult for the discussion to stop at accidental damage to single vehicles. It is unclear whether the three vehicles use the same version, the same supplier or the same batch of pedal assemblies.

Among them, the third vehicle tested on October 4 recorded a maximum pedal force of 1,596 N during the first braking, and the braking distance from 100 km/h to rest was 38.44 meters. In the second test, the pedal bracket broke, and the maximum pedal force recorded on the test results table was 1,612 N.

After the incident fermented, Zunjie issued a statement stating that Zunjie’s automotive braking system has completed full-process development and verification in accordance with the requirements of national standards GB 21670-2025, GB 7258-2026 and industry standard QC/T 788-2018. Since the delivery of the first batch of vehicles, no breakage of the brake pedal bracket base has occurred in actual user scenarios.

Zunjie calls the Dingchedi test a “non-standard extreme test condition” and says that even under this condition, it still hopes to provide users with higher safety redundancy. It will further optimize the design of relevant components, provide free upgrade options for delivered users, and carry out systematic reviews and enhancements on the design verification, test boundaries and production quality management of relevant components.

Relevant people who understand the car emperor said that the 100-kilometer braking test is not an extreme working condition, and many people will encounter it in high-speed driving scenarios. It is one of the most basic subjects of car testing. This is the first time that the brake pedal bracket of a relevant car model has broken in this program, and similar fractures have occurred at the same location in three consecutive experiments, which poses certain safety risks.

Zunjie did not announce the fracture analysis of the three test vehicles, the batches of parts and the reasons for the pedal fractures. It also did not explain whether the upgraded parts will adjust materials, structures or production processes. Information such as which vehicles are involved, when the implementation will start, and when the vehicles in production will switch to the new solution have also yet to be disclosed.

On the same day, Jianghuai Automobile (600418.SH) closed at the limit of 24.72 yuan, a decrease of 10.01%. Previously, JAC’s stock price had risen for several consecutive trading days, and on September 30, it issued an announcement of abnormal stock trading fluctuations.

Zunjie V800 was launched in August this year, priced from 766,000 to 1.016 million yuan, and is positioned as an ultra-luxury MPV model. Deliveries of the car began in September. National Day holiday,Huawei Managing Director and Chairman of Terminal BG Yu Chengdong delivered a Zunjie V800 to Fok Yingdong Group CEO Fok Zhenhuan.

這款新車Still in the early stages of launch and delivery, the controversy directly affects consumers’ expectations for the safety and manufacturing quality of a million-level model, which will affect the sales trend of Zunjie V800 to a certain extent.

The brake pedal assembly includes the pedal surface, pedal arm, rotating shaft, bracket base, sensor connection location and body mounting point. The force exerted by the driver is transmitted along this path, and every cross-sectional change, corner, stiffener, fixed point and material connection area affects the final stress distribution.

Normal and reasonable pedal design needs to ensure that this load path is continuous. The scope of test verification should also cover rapid heavy pedaling, continuous pedaling, eccentric pedaling, lateral force, temperature changes, material aging and different production batches. There must be neither breakage nor permanent deformation that affects pedal rebound, sensor recognition or subsequent braking operation after the test.

Qiu Jincao, a blogger on the social platform “JackQ_Talking” and deputy secretary-general of the Automotive Advanced Power Systems Branch of the China Society of Automotive Engineers, pointed out in an article that in the internal corporate standards set by General Motors, the brake pedal should be able to withstand a load of up to 2,700 N along the pedal stroke direction and a maximum load of 440 N in the lateral pedal stroke direction at any point on the brake pedal surface. This loading can be sustained, not only cannot break failure, but also does not allow deformation that affects rebound.

An automotive engineer told Jiemian News after watching the public video that the pedal bracket of the Zunjie V800 gave him an intuitive feeling that it had a “proto-production feel”, and some of the reinforced structures showed a “missing piece in the east and a piece in the west” form, which lacked integrity. He also noticed that the local section near the pedal fulcrum seemed to be narrowed, which may further cause stress concentration.

In the test video, Dongchedi also showed a comparison of the brake pedal brackets between the Zunjie V800 and other Hongmeng Zhixing models. The test party believes that there are relatively few reinforced structures near the V800 pedal shaft, and there are suspected injection molding weld marks in the fracture area, which may affect the local load-bearing capacity.

However, the above analysis is based on the parts and public images displayed by the test party, and has not been confirmed by the automobile company or independent testing agency. The specific structural design, material properties and fracture reasons still need to be judged based on engineering drawings and physical inspection.

Some opinions believe thatZunjie V800The brake pedal is mainly made of plastic material, which may affect its sturdiness. A chassis engineer told Jiemian News that mechanical pedals are now mostly made of plastic, with the main purpose of being lightweight. The cause of pedal breakage mainly depends on design standards, physical structure, materials and other factors.

“Generally (the brake pedal) is pressed constantly, and the design redundancy factor of this component is quite high.”

At present, there is still controversy in the outside world as to whether the test method of understanding the car is reasonable. Several engineers interviewed by Jiemian News pointed out that the brake pedal should not be directly stepped on by the driver under any circumstances. This is the bottom line of car safety.

What kind of structural strength the brake pedal and its bracket should have can be determined from the existing technical standards andLook for references in historical cases in the automotive industry.

The mandatory national standard “GB 21670-2025 Technical Requirements and Test Methods for Passenger Car Braking Systems” implemented on January 1 this year puts forward structural reliability requirements for key components such as brake pedals and their brackets.

In the case where driving, emergency and parking brake systems share relevant components, the standard requires that qualified key components be made of metal or materials with comparable properties and must not cause significant deformation during normal operation, and requires that their structural strength be checked in conjunction with the manufacturer’s design documents.

The above regulations have corresponding applicable conditions and do not give a unified limit load value. The brake control force range of 65 to 500 N used in the standard is aimed at the vehicle braking performance test and cannot be understood as the maximum load-bearing capacity of the pedal.

For the pedal assembly, the recommended industry standard “QC/T 788-2018” stipulates that the brake pedal strength test uses a longitudinal load of 1500±20 N, each time is held for 5 seconds and repeated 5 times. After the test, the permanent deformation shall not exceed 5 mm, and no cracks or damage shall occur. This standard is mainly applicable to mechanically articulated metal pedals, and other types can be implemented by reference.

This test condition has changed during the standard development process. The National Automobile Standardization Technical Committee’s early revision draft adopted the conditions of 2000 ± 50 N and maintained for 30 seconds. The official version in 2018 was adjusted to 1500 ± 20 N and maintained for 5 seconds, both repeated 5 times.

With the development of electronic brake pedals, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has organized and formulated special group standards. Its 2025 draft for comments proposes a strength test load of 2000±20 N or the strength test load agreed between the supply and demand parties, maintained for 5 seconds and repeated 5 times.

The preparation instructions clearly recorded that the automobile companies and suppliers participating in the discussion believed that 1,500 N was too small and suggested increasing it to 2,000 N, while taking into account the impact of temperature on the strength of plastic and resin materials. The standard has been officially released by the end of 2025, but the specific values still need to be confirmed by the final text.

The 2000 Ox also appears in the 2026 Formula Student regulations in China and Germany. This rule requires pedals and related mechanisms to withstand corresponding forces without failure. However, the rules of racing events do not have the effect of mandatory standards for mass-produced passenger cars.

It should be noted that national standards and industry recommended standards are usually established in laboratory environments.Use static or quasi-static loading in specified directions。懂車帝What is performed is continuous emergency braking of the entire vehicle.此時What the pedal bears is a dynamic composite load including impact, vibration and repeated loading. The destructiveness of this impact is usually much greater than the static load of the same value.

Some Internet controversy data and standard comparison Chart: Jiemian News reporter Liu Zeran

Another theory surrounding the breakage of the pedal is that the related structure may serve as a collapsible protection function in the event of a crash.Qiu Jincao pointed out that collision collapse is a directional fracture with an induced position, which is completely different from the position of this fracture, and it is impossible to use this position to protect personal safety during the collision; secondly, the direction of force received by the collision fracture is also different.

“The collapse threshold of the collapsible brake pedal is an engineering design value set by the automobile company based on collision safety goals. However, the industry has clear boundary principles and universal design scope. The core principle isIt must not be triggered under normal braking conditions, and it must be reliably triggered under collision accident conditions.The former is far more important than the latter. “

The structural strength of the pedal is also related to whether the redundancy of the entire braking system can function. Hongmeng Zhixing’s official website states that Zunjie V800 adopts a full-link redundant security architecture and currently supports dual redundancy of brake actuators.

With the electronicization of the braking system, electro-hydraulic braking systems (EHB) and electro-mechanical braking systems (EMB) have begun to be applied.The brake pedal is no longer physically connected directly to the brake actuator, but a sensor measures the pressure of the driver’s brake pedal.Pedaling force, angle or travel, passed to the brake controller.

The above-mentioned chassis engineer told Jiemian News that electronic pedals are generally equipped with two sensors and signal lines, and brake controllers and actuators can also adopt redundant designs. If one road fails, the other road can still recognize and execute the driver’s braking request. The dual brake actuator promoted by Zunjie V800 mainly solves the braking capability after a single point failure occurs at the execution end.

The fault in this controversy occurred in the pedal mechanism further upstream. Both sets of sensors and brake actuators still share the same set of pedals and brackets. If the sensor cannot continue to recognize the driver’s pedaling action after the bracket is broken, both sets of actuators may not receive braking requests.

這Similar to a computer equipped with two sets of backup power supplies, if the shared power-on button is damaged, just adding more power supplies does not guarantee that the user can still start the computer through the original button.

“If the pedal is broken, and indeed the sensor cannot measure the driver’s braking signal, then the only option isOperate the electronic handbrake switch or press and hold the P buttonAll in all. “The above-mentioned chassis engineer told Jiemian News.

Zunjie currently does not recall the delivered Zunjie V800. In history, similar brake pedal safety issues have triggered recalls by multinational automobile companies.

In 2020, Ford recalled 2,627 vehicles in China due to the risk of the Mustang brake pedal bracket breaking. The State Administration for Market Regulation disclosed that after Ford changed the bracket material from nylon to polypropylene, the peak load bearing capacity decreased, and the original engineering specifications and design verification procedures did not take into account sufficient design margin, which may cause the bracket to break from the pedal pivot position during emergency braking.

Ford then replaced the improved pedal bracket free of charge and adjusted the production materials. In the United States, the company officially apologized to car owners and also asked dealers to suspend the display and delivery of new vehicles in affected inventory until rectifications are completed.

In 2016, the Volkswagen Group also initiated recalls for Touareg and Porsche Cayenne brake pedal circlips that may have loosened and pivot pins shifted.中国涉及车辆合计超过20万辆。

Because the relevant automobile companies had announced recalls overseas but failed to submit a recall plan for the Chinese market in a timely manner, the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine required them to submit technical reports, implement a unified global recall plan, and temporarily suspended the import of relevant models.

The failure mechanisms in the above cases are not exactly the same;However, disclosing the cause of the defect, clarifying the scope of the impact, and replacing or installing improved parts constitute the basic path for automobile companies to deal with problems with critical braking components.

For Zunjie, free upgrades can alleviate the direct concerns of delivered users about the reliability of parts, and also need to promptly transform the automobile company’s commitment into service actions that need to be performed. The V800 is still in the early stages of delivery, and the processing speed may affect subsequent delivery pace and potential consumer decisions.

JAC has previously listed Zunjie’s product development, manufacturing and quality delivery as its “number one project”. In May 2025, JAC also disclosed that the comprehensive test mileage of the Zunjie S800 vehicle reached 15 million kilometers, and key functional systems completed more than 7 million times and 400,000 hours of stress testing, and established a quality management system covering incoming materials to delivery.

For Zunjie, the controversy directly touches on the security trust that ultra-luxury brands rely on to build premium prices. The bottom line of regulations will not increase with the selling price, and consumers will have higher expectations for the safety margin, verification adequacy, and problem response speed of million-level products.

Zunjie’s launch communication repeatedly emphasized that “safety is the greatest luxury” and “full link redundancy”, and the picture of the broken pedal bracket formed a strong contrast with this set of brand expressions.

Hongmeng Zhixing has continued to expand its cooperation scope and product lineup in recent years. In September this year, Yu Chengdong publicly stated that the product, design and marketing service teams “have been overloaded” in the past few years, and said that he would further concentrate resources to improve products and user experience.

As multiple cooperation projects advance in parallel, how to implement unified quality management requirements to different models, extending from component design verification to supplier management and mass production consistency, has become a problem that this cooperation model needs to continue to solve.

The controversy surrounding Zunjie’s brake pedal breakage incident is far from truly over.

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