China's regulators have proposed new rules that would effectively end the industry's race to launch cars quickly, requiring automakers to complete extensive reliability testing before new models can be approved. Voyah, the premium electric-vehicle brand under state-owned Dongfeng, says it already exceeds these standards by a wide margin.
On October 10, four government departments jointly released a draft notice on strengthening product design and testing verification for automobiles. Under the proposal, from January 1, 2027, newly declared models must complete verification covering reliability and durability, structural integrity, software reliability, and environmental adaptability, with reliability testing of no less than 30,000 kilometers (about 18,600 miles).
The move is widely seen as a brake on the industry's habit of rushing new models to market with compressed development and validation timelines. According to the Chinese outlet 电动邦 (Dian Dong Bang), the new rule shifts the competitive focus from who launches first to who builds cars that last and survive crashes.
Beyond national standards
Voyah highlights its brake pedal design as an example. The current national standard requires the pedal to withstand a 2000N static vertical load without failure. Several automakers have already raised their internal standards to 2300-2500N, but Voyah says its own threshold is 3000N — 50% higher than the national requirement. For context, an adult male's maximum braking force is around 1200-1500N, leaving a large safety margin even in the most extreme emergency stops.
The company attributes this redundancy to a combination of multi-layer high-strength steel main beams, IPB2.0 integrated brake-by-wire, and dual independent hydraulic backups. Voyah also applies stringent standards to its body structure. While mainstream luxury joint-venture models use 1500MPa hot-formed steel in A-pillars and B-pillars, and high-end flagships reach 2000MPa, Voyah uses a 2200MPa integrated hot-formed laser-welded door ring covering the side structure from A-pillar to B-pillar and the bottom crossbeam. The company claims this strength is comparable to the landing gear of a J-20 fighter jet.
The Voyah Dreamer 9 uses a 2000MPa aluminum-silicon coated door anti-collision beam, with high-strength steel accounting for 70% of the body and hot-formed steel 23.6%. The roof strength exceeds 120kN, equivalent to supporting 12.2 tons, allowing six cars to stack on top of one another. The Voyah Zhuiguang S achieves a body torsional stiffness of 48,415 N·m/deg, about 1.5 times the mainstream level in its class and surpassing flagships like the Rolls-Royce Phantom and BMW 7 Series.
Battery and durability tests
Voyah also applies tougher standards to battery safety. While the industry typically tests battery pack bottom impact at 150J of energy, Voyah says it tests at 1000J — about 6.7 times the industry norm. Its thermal runaway tests are more than twice as demanding as industry standards, ensuring that a single cell failure does not spread and the entire pack does not catch fire or explode. The batteries support IP68 and IPX9K waterproofing, withstanding submersion in one meter of water for 72 hours, far beyond the conventional 0.5-hour standard.
The company's Taishan X8 EV completed what it calls the industry's first "beyond-national-standard bottom collision followed by direct road driving" challenge, covering 206.7 kilometers (about 128 miles) without repair after impact, with zero faults, alarms, or high-voltage abnormalities. Voyah also conducted a live teardown in August 2026 of a Taishan X8 EV that had undergone tests equivalent to 300,000 kilometers (about 186,000 miles) of daily use, including 20+ types of rough roads and 10 impact conditions. The 2200MPa door ring remained intact with no deformation, and the door opening dimensions matched the factory baseline.
Voyah says it sets a 10-year, 300,000-kilometer durability target, far exceeding the industry average, and aligns its products with Chinese, American, and European standards, with vehicle functional safety at the highest ASIL-D level. As the new rules make 30,000 kilometers of reliability testing a minimum threshold, Voyah's existing 300,000-kilometer validation program positions it as a benchmark for state-owned enterprise manufacturing, according to 电动邦.
