HONG KONG (Reuters) -The founder of Chinese electric vehicle maker Xiaomi said on Tuesday he was “heavy-hearted” after three people were killed in an accident involving one of the company’s SU7s, and said it would fully cooperate with a police investigation.
The incident on March 29 marks the first major accident involving the SU7 sedan, which Xiaomi launched in March last year and which since December has outsold Tesla’s Model 3 on a monthly basis.
In a late-night statement on his Weibo account, nine hours after an earlier company response to the accident, Lei Jun said that “at this point, I feel that I should not wait any longer, I must stand up and promise on behalf of Xiaomi: no matter what happens, Xiaomi will not evade.”
Lei vowed the company would do its best to “respond to the concerns of families and society”.
A disclosure from the company earlier on Tuesday said initial information showed the car was in the Navigate on Autopilot intelligent-assisted driving mode before the accident and was moving at 116 kph (72 mph).
In a rundown of the data submitted to local police posted on a company Weibo account, Xiaomi said the autopilot system had issued a risk warning of obstacles ahead.
A driver inside the car took over and tried to slow it down, but then collided with a cement pole at a speed of 97 kph.
Chinese newspaper Economic Observer earlier reported that local traffic police had told the father of one of the victims that the car had caught fire after hitting the cement pole, and the car key had not unlocked the door.
Xiaomi’s shares, which had risen by 34.8% year to date, closed down 5.5% on Wednesday, underperforming a 0.2% gain in the Hang Seng Tech index.
In a separate statement issued on Tuesday night, Xiaomi said its SU7 standard version has collision warning and emergency braking, but currently does not respond to obstacles such as cones, stones and animals.
It also confirmed a fire following the accident. “There is no precise conclusion currently as to whether the car door was able to be opened at the time of the accident,” Xiaomi said, adding that it does not have access to the car now.
The company has two versions of smart driving systems on its SU7 EVs. Xiaomi said the car involved in the accident was a so-called standard version of the SU7, which has less-advanced smart driving technology.
(Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong, Zoey Zhang in Shanghai and Qiaoyi Li in Beijing; Editing by Sonali Paul, Jamie Freed and Jan Harvey)
