At the Ideal i8 launch event, the video of the collision performance test with heavy trucks caused a public uproar. On July 31st, the victim in the video, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile, issued a statement stating that the behavior "constitutes serious infringement and exceeds the scope of normal commercial competition", and the company reserves the right to pursue legal responsibility. On the evening of August 3rd, Ideal Automobile issued a response regarding the "collision test with Chenglong truck".
Ideal Automobile stated that the purpose of this test is only to verify and improve the passive safety performance of Ideal i8, and is not to evaluate the product quality of any other brand. The test results should not be interpreted as judgments about the quality of other brands' products. The second-hand Dongfeng Liuqi Chenglong brand trucks used for testing are only used as mobile barriers, and the company has no intention or guidance on their quality. The unexpected involvement of Dongfeng Liuqi Chenglong brand in public opinion controversy caused by the testing process was unintentional. Ideal Automobile emphasizes that it does not have a direct competitive relationship with Dongfeng Liuqi Chenglong.
On the evening of the same day, the testing party of the Ideal i8 collision test, China Automotive Research Institute, issued a statement stating that the test project only verifies the safety of the Ideal i8 vehicle and does not involve the safety performance evaluation of other brands of vehicles in non-standard vehicle to vehicle collision tests. At the same time, China Automotive Research Institute reserves the right to pursue legal and reputational actions against platforms and personal media that maliciously interpret or mislead. As of the time of publication, China Automotive Research Institute has not released test data, reports, or visual materials on any platform or media, nor has it made any official response to this incident.
Previously, Chenglong Truck had released multiple posters with captions such as "Only by living can one be qualified to talk about ideals" and "The backbone of the dragon, fearless of challenges", possibly in response to the recent video controversy of "Ideal i8 colliding with heavy trucks".
