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Accelerator Pedal Breaks in a Nio: Company Explains It Was Designed to Do That

On August 21, 2017, a Chery Tiggo 2 disappointed our colleagues from Z Drive in Russia. They were testing the SUV, and the gas pedal just broke. That had already happened with other Chery vehicles tested by Brazilian magazines as well. The issue emerged again in a very different car, an unidentified Nio.
Accelerator Pedal Breaks in a Nio 8 photos
Photo: Weibo
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It is not clear if the Weibo user Yuguo Tianqing 7577 is a woman or a man. CNEVPost referred to a male owner, but the Weibo post in which this person complained about the apparent defect has the picture of a woman, so we will treat the Weibo user as such.

Yuguo Tianqing 7577’s message on Chinese social media was to say how disappointed she was about her car. She would be speechless for driving “for so many years” and still having to hear that she had to take her car to the Nio service center for inspection with a broken accelerator pedal. The post brought pictures of the damaged component and tagged William Li, founder and CEO of Nio.

A Nio executive took care of the answer. Ma Lin, the company’s director of communications, apologized for the issue and said that the accelerator pedal is designed with a fracture-inducing groove if it suffers intense lateral forces. The idea would be both to protect the passengers in case of a crash and to avoid getting the accelerator pedal stuck in a position that keeps it activated.

According to CNEVPost, Nio’s explanation for the issue was that the owner’s shoe dragged the accelerator pedal when she was getting out of the car. That may reinforce the fact that the Weibo user is actually a man, but even a massive fellow would have a hard time breaking a piece of metal just by dragging it with his feet.

CNEVPost remembers that Chery, Tesla, and BYD vehicles had accelerator pedals fracturing. Volkswagen and Aston Martin would even have made recalls to fix pedals prone to breaking more than they should. Although more manufacturers are involved in similar issues, it definitely seems that the situation deserves a better explanation.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
Gustavo Henrique Ruffo profile photo

Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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