The 2022 Guangzhou Motor Show is going down in China now, and it got off to a rather explosive start with a big fire at one of the manufacturer’s booths. As reported by Jiemian, a Chinese news website, a concept car from Chinese auto company IAT Automobile is the vehicle that caught fire.
Videos embedded in Jiemian’s news story give us an idea of what transpired at the booth. Footage shows a small, personal mobility vehicle being doused in water from fire crews as heavy smoke and flames reach upward. Another video from behind a curtain shows tall flames going way over the concealing curtain. A motoring journalist/podcaster, Lei Xing, at the show captured some images of the vehicle and a video of the fire — his tweet is below. The photos of the concept appear to be pre-fire photos, as video of the vehicle on fire show it was heavily damaged by the flames.
#AutoGuangzhou2022 gets off to a “fiery” start. The concept from Chinese vehicle design and engineering company IAT that caught fire on the eve of this year’s Guangzhou Auto Show. pic.twitter.com/s2w0s6oQdr
— Lei Xing邢磊 (@leixing77)
December 29, 2022
Other reports out of China provide a few additional details about the incident. Pandaily published a statement from IAT Automobile, which you can find below.
“During the construction of our booth at the auto show, the working area accidentally caught fire for unknown reasons,” IAT Automobile’s statement reads. “The open flame has now been extinguished and no one was injured. We are actively investigating the cause of the accident, and a formal statement will be given when the cause is found out.”
China’s Sina News reported on the aftermath of the incident. It reports that water stains can be seen around the booth and that the smell of something burning remains in the air. Reporters took photos of the scene, but Time Weekly reports that representatives told them to delete photos after they were observed taking them.
IAT Automobile is a research and development company based in China that largely works as a supplier to other major automotive manufacturers. It was founded in 2007 and has already found itself entrenched in many areas of automotive development, from design to driver assistance technologies.
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