The "broken axle" accident again haunts Li Auto, putting the Chinese electric car company back into the spotlight after recently announcing a massive recall.
According to the Chinese tech website kkj.cn, a black Li ONE was suspected of having another "broken axle" accident in Changsha late at night on November 7, with the vehicle's left front wheel showing obvious signs of coming off.
There were no obvious signs of an accident around the vehicle, so it is likely that the accident occurred without a collision.
More notably, the above report said that the car does not yet have a license plate, which means it could be a recently manufactured new car if it is not a used car.
On November 6, Li Auto issued a letter of apology, saying that its earlier statement about free hardware upgrades to the vehicle's front suspension was inappropriate and should be defined as a "recall".
Li Auto said at the time that it would replace 10,469 Li ONEs manufactured on or before June 1, 2020 with front suspension lower arms with higher ball-pin release at no charge. Vehicles built after June 1 already use the higher takeoff ball pins for the front suspension lower arm, so the recall is no longer in effect.
As mentioned above, if the Li ONE is a recent model, this means that the "broken axle" incident occurred even though the front suspension lower arm pins have been replaced.
Therefore, the effectiveness of the recall may not be entirely convincing to owners, the report said.
