Two digital cockpit testers died Wednesday after a vehicle fell three floors from the company’s headquarters in Shanghai, the Chinese electric car manufacturer NIO said in a statement.
A member of the company’s staff and an employee from a partner company were inside the car, when it fell off the testing facility around 5:20 p.m. The company immediately started an investigation into the causes of the accident collaborating with local law-enforcement, but claimed in a statement that the accident was “not caused by the vehicle,” according to the BBC. (RELATED: Tesla Opens Showroom In Region At The Center Of China’s Uyghur Genocide)
Terrible story of two test drivers at #China’s electrical vehicle manufacturer NIO being killed when a car somehow smashed out of a building and came crashing down from a great height. pic.twitter.com/4ZNI2t7LqZ
— Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) June 23, 2022
The company’s initial statement published on Weibo attracted much attention and criticism. Comments disapproved of NIO’s apparent lack of responsibility and indifference toward the victims, according to BBC. The company removed the post and released a revised statement later on Thursday. “We feel very sad about this accident and would like to express our deepest condolences to our colleague and partner employee who lost their lives,” NIO added, the BBC reported.
NIO was founded in 2014 and is a major rival of Tesla, which also has a major factory in Shanghai. The cars work with battery-swaps instead of recharging them, which allows drivers to get back on the road more quickly. Last year, NIO’s sales were up by 109% since 2020, CNN reported. The electric vehicle manufacturer has recently launched an expansion campaign into Europe, and specifically Germany.