Investigation into Ideal Auto fire incident: The car itself was not to blame

In the early morning of August 7, Ideal Auto explained on its official Weibo account a recent vehicle fire incident. The cause of the accident was initially determined to be an object suspected to be a piece of iron that was rolled up by a high-speed vehicle and pierced through a high-pressure oil pipe, causing fuel to splash and ignite at high temperatures in the exhaust pipe.

The accident said that at around 16:09 on August 6, 2020, an Ideal ONE was involved in an accident on the Sihui and Lianzhou directions of the Erguang Expressway in Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, causing the vehicle to catch fire. Currently, two people in the car are staying in hospital for observation, and the rest of the passengers are safe.

Ideal Auto said that according to relevant videos and data at the time of the vehicle accident: at 16:08:54, an object suspected to be an iron sheet with a length of about 20 cm appeared in front of the vehicle and then entered the bottom of the vehicle. At this time, the vehicle was traveling at 115 km/h; at 16:08:59, the fuel line pressure dropped abnormally; at 16:09:06, the driver pulled over and the vehicle caught fire.

According to cloud monitoring data, after the accident, there was no abnormality in the battery and range extender. The preliminary cause of the accident was determined to be an object suspected to be a piece of iron that was rolled up by the high-speed vehicle and pierced the high-pressure oil pipe, causing fuel to splash and ignite at high temperature in the exhaust pipe. The specific cause of the accident and detailed analysis results are subject to detailed investigation and analysis of the accident site.

It is worth mentioning that in May this year, an Ideal ONE caught fire on the street in Changsha. In response, Ideal Auto said that the accident was caused by an accident in which the Ideal staff accidentally left the paint protection pad in the front cabin during the maintenance work before delivery.

The following is the full statement of Ideal Auto:

Description of the accident

At around 16:09 on August 6, 2020, an Ideal ONE was involved in an accident on the Sihui and Lianzhou directions of the Erguang Expressway in Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, resulting in a fire. Ideal Auto staff rushed to the scene as soon as possible to confirm the user's condition. Currently, two people on the vehicle are in hospital for observation, and the rest of the passengers are safe.

According to the relevant videos and data at the time of the vehicle accident: at 16:08:54, an object about 20 cm long, suspected to be an iron sheet, appeared in front of the vehicle and then entered the bottom of the vehicle. At this time, the vehicle was traveling at 115 km/h; at 16:08:59, the fuel line pressure dropped abnormally; at 16:09:06, the driver pulled over and the vehicle caught fire. According to cloud monitoring data, after the accident, there were no abnormalities in the battery and range extender. The cause of the accident was initially determined to be that the object suspected to be an iron sheet was rolled up by a high-speed vehicle and pierced the high-pressure oil pipe, causing fuel to splash and be ignited by the high temperature of the exhaust pipe. The specific cause of the accident and detailed analysis results are subject to detailed investigation and analysis of the accident site.