Nio electric car falls from third floor of office, killing two

Two employees were killed, according to Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Nio, when one of its vehicles fell from the third floor of its Shanghai headquarters.

One staff member and one worker from a joint venture were inside the car as it crash-landed from Nio’s Shanghai office.

The incident happened on Wednesday at around 05:20 PM, according to the company. As the car fell from the building, those who were inside perished.

According to Nio, it launched an investigation into the incident right away in collaboration with authorities.

The third-floor space where the car fell has variously been referred to as a showroom, a testing facility, or a parking lot.

“Our company has collaborated with public security department to launch the investigation and analysis of the cause of the accident. Based on the analysis of the situation at the scene, we can initially confirm that this was an accident (not caused by the vehicle),” the company said in a statement.

“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. A team has been set up to help the families,” it added.

Within a half-hour, thousands of netizens commented on Nio’s initial Weibo post before it was removed. Social media users reacted angrily to the final clause of the statement, “not related to the vehicle itself.”

The Chinese business to dominate the electric vehicle market is led by Nio. To allay customers’ worries about needing to charge their cars frequently, it has placed a lot of faith in interchangeable batteries in its vehicles.

Nio is a rival to the US-based electric car manufacturer Tesla, owned by multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who also operates a manufacturing facility in Shanghai.