SHANGHAI — Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio has triggered a backlash, after it appeared to blame a bizarre accident at its Shanghai headquarters on two people killed when one of its cars plummeted from the building’s third floor.
The accident on Wednesday, which left two digital dashboard testers dead, went viral online with images showing rescue workers desperately trying to get inside the smashed vehicle as it lay on the ground surrounded by broken glass and debris.
New York-listed Nio issued a brief statement late Thursday, saying it was “deeply saddened” by the death of the pair — one an employee and another who worked for a Nio supplier — and had set up a team to help grieving family members.
But it added that its own preliminary analysis had found the accident was “not caused by an issue with the vehicle.”
Less than an hour later, it tweaked its statement slightly to emphasize that a final conclusion had not yet been reached.
But Nio’s comments set off a wave of criticism online, as skeptical netizens accused the carmaker of being “cold blooded,” while others questioned how it could rule out a vehicle problem so quickly.
“It took just half a day for the company to confirm that it has nothing to do with the car. Hard to believe that this was a professional and detailed investigation. I feel like they just want to claim their innocence for the sake of their brand reputation,” one said on China’s Twitter-like Weibo.
Another added: “Now it sounds like they are trying to hide something.”
For many, Nio’s brief statement about the accident raised more questions than answers.
“Why not test cars on the road? Is testing cars in a building legal?” one wrote on Weibo.
Comments about the accident, including under the hashtag “Nio’s response to the car plunge is coldblooded,” have been viewed more than 160 million times on Chinese social media.
Local Chinese media reports have said that Nio’s ET5 model was the car involved in the fatal accident at its headquarters. © Anadolu Agency/Getty Images The accident comes as Nio, founded in 2014, goes head-to-head with U.S.-based Tesla and Japanese rivals for a leading share of the electric-car market.
The company has previously faced safety questions after some of its vehicles caught fire while they were being charged. And last August, an entrepreneur in Fujian Province died when his Nio sport utility vehicle crashed with the driver assistance function on, raising concerns about self-driving vehicles
A report by the Shanghai Securities News this week said the car at the center of Wednesday’s deadly accident was a model ET5, launched late last year to compete with Tesla’s popular Model 3. Delivery of the sedan is slated for the third quarter of this year
This accident “will definitely impact sales,” one online commenter predicted. “Garbage company.”
Nio’s shares, however, were up more than 2% in U.S. trading following news of the accident, and they were also higher in Hong Kong, where it has a secondary listing.
The accident says more about Nio’s crisis management than the quality of its technology, said Tu Le, managing director at Beijing-based consultancy Sino Auto Insights.
“I don’t see this shaking consumer confidence in Nio products, or the EV sector generally, since this was more of a tragic accident that happened on their campus, rather than on a public road,” he added. “The tragedy still needs to be managed with empathy, decisiveness and truthfulness, which their initial, immediate response did not do.”
Additional reporting by Peggy Ye in Hong Kong.