Automotive Creator Content Finally Brought to Court for Testing Xiaomi SU7 Crash Video

JAKARTA - A Chinese court has finally opened a trial against a well-known automotive content creator who is accused of damaging the commercial reputation of products through controversial crash test videos. The trial was held on February 6 at the Haidian District People's Court, Beijing, with the defendant with the initials Gao.

Until the trial ended, the panel of judges had not announced a verdict. Citing a report from Carnewschina, Tuesday, February 10, prosecutors charged Gao with allegedly damaging commercial reputation after uploading a crash test video featuring the Xiaomi SU7 and Zeekr 007.

The trial lasted more than three hours, bringing prosecutors and defense teams together in a debate over the charges. Gao pleaded not guilty, while his lawyer demanded his release.

The prosecutor said that between July 22 and August 12, 2024, the defendant arranged and recorded a direct collision test between the Xiaomi SU7 and another vehicle, which was later known as the Zeekr 007. Investigators suspect that Gao concealed the fact that the additional battery power cable on the SU7 was manually removed before the collision.

In addition, Gao was accused of using misleading visuals to describe battery damage. Gao was also judged to have made claims without verification that the SU7 emergency call system failed to function after the accident, which was considered false information.

The video was uploaded to the Bilibili platform on August 13, 2024. Prosecutors argue that the upload caused significant reputational damage to Xiaomi's automotive products. Chinese media previously reported that the crash test was conducted at a speed of around 60 km/h with a high degree of overlap, and showed the difference in post-crash performance between the two vehicles.

Gao was detained by the police on November 27, 2024 on suspicion of commercial reputation damage and was officially arrested on January 3, 2025. The indictment was filed by the prosecutor in September 2025, in previous reports, Xiaomi assessed that the crash test was not thorough, the record was incomplete, and the conclusion was unreliable.

Meanwhile, Zeekr's legal department stated in August 2024 that they did not cooperate with any individual or organization in such testing. As well as affirming the right to take legal action against the spread of false information.

Chinese regulators also alluded to this case in a wider series of legal enforcement against misleading automotive performance content. A number of accounts have been sanctioned for selectively revealing test data and publishing conclusions that are considered misleading.