- According to Nio’s statement, two people were killed when a Nio electric car fell on three floors during testing.
- The company did not say in its statement what caused the accident.
- Social media users in China said it was Nio’s responsibility to make sure the test drive was safe.
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Two people were killed after an electric car made by Tesla’s Chinese rival, Neo, fell three floors in Shanghai on Wednesday afternoon, according to a company statement on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo.
According to the statement, the two men were testing one of Neo’s cars at their Shanghai headquarters when the incident took place. One of the people was an NIO employee, while the other worked for a supplier.
Images shared on social media and published in Chinese media show chaos at the crash site.
In one of the images, rescue workers are seen surrounding a gray car lying on their side, according to a tweet by a China-based electric-vehicle news outlet. cnewpost, Broken glass and debris can be seen all around the vehicle.
CNEVPost (@CnEVPost) 23 June 2022
“Based on the analysis of the situation on the spot, it can be initially confirmed that this was an accident and not related to the vehicle,” Nio wrote in a Weibo statement. The investigation is on, it added.
The company did not say in its statement what caused the accident. Various media reports described the floor from which the car fell as a test-drive area, a car park or a showroom. NIO did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for comment.
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the car involved in Wednesday’s incident appears to be a model ET5, which has self-driving technology.
Another Nio vehicle was involved in a fatal accident last year. A Chinese businessman died in August after his Nio ES8, which had its self-driving system activated, rear-ended another vehicle on a highway in Fujian province, according to the SCMP.
Founded in 2014, Nio focuses itself on autonomous cars as a premium car brand. It is often seen as a rival to Tesla. Nio is publicly listed in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Several Weibo users questioned Nio’s approach to Wednesday’s incident.
Weibo influencer Zhongcao Daren Zhuge, who has 5.1 million followers, said on Friday that Nio was responsible for making sure the environment was safe for the test drive. “Why was the car not tested in a designated area? Why were there no guardrails and safety facilities? Did the staff receive safety training?” He wrote in a Weibo post.
