Two people were killed after an electric car made by China’s Tesla competitor, the Niu, fell three floors in Shanghai Wednesday afternoon, according to the company's statement on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China.
One member of staff and a person from a partner company were both killed in the crash, which took place on Wednesday at around 5.20pm local time.
The company said the pair, who were described as "digital cabin testers", were inside the vehicle as it fell from a parking garage in the firm's Innovation Port building.
Photos in Chinese media showed the vehicle lying on its side with its roof caved in, surrounded by broken glass and emergency workers.
The third storey area from where the car fell has been variously described as a showroom, a testing facility or a car park.
Social media outrage
"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.
Nio's initial statement on Weibo attracted more than 1,000 comments within half an hour, but was then taken down.
The last sentence of the statement "not related to the vehicle itself" triggered many angry responses from social media users.
One comment read "it shows the cold blood of capitalism", while another said, "the last sentence is so indifferent. They [test drivers] came to test the vehicle, but you say [the accident] has nothing to do with the vehicle?".
Yet another Weibo user said: "It should be public security bureau to confirm if it's an accident or not."
'Tesla killer'
The car involved in Wednesday’s accident is a Nio ET5, which features self-driving technology, according to the South China Morning Post.
Another Nio that had a fatal accident last year. A Chinese businessman died in August after his Nio ES8, whose self-driving system was activated, was another vehicle on a highway in Fujian Province, according to SCMP.
Founded in 2014, Nio markets itself as a luxury car brand Focus on self-driving cars. Often seen as a file A competitor to Tesla. Nio is publicly listed in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.
NIO is one of China's biggest home-grown companies with the aim of taking over the electric vehicle industry. It focuses on using interchangeable batteries in its cars to help lower the amount of charging time.
The company has often been dubbed China's "Tesla killer", in a reference to Elon Musk's rival US-based electric carmaker. Tesla also has a huge manufacturing plant in Shanghai.
