A test car plunged several stories to the ground at EV maker’s NIO’s (NIO) Shanghai headquarters on Wednesday evening killing two people inside the electric sedan.

Footage of the incident, which appeared on social media, showed rescue workers trying to save the two people as the vehicle lay on its side, surrounded by broken glass and debris, Nikkei reported.

The vehicle was located in a parking lot on either the third or fifth floor of the NIO’s headquarters when the accident occurred, according to reports.

According to the Shanghai Securities News, as reported by Nikkei, the vehicle was NIO’s ET5, which debuted in late 2021 and rivals Tesla’s Model 3. The EV is slated for delivery in Q3 2022.

It was unclear at the time of writing what caused the accident.

NIO said it had immediately started an investigation into the accident in cooperation with the public security department, according to a Weibo post that was captured by CNBC. The Weibo post from NIO also said that the “accident” was not caused by issues with the vehicle.

The company has set up a special team dedicated to helping the families of the deceased.

The drivers of the sedan were rushed to Anting branch of Shanghai Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Yicai Global reported. One of the drivers died despite attempts at resuscitation, while the other was declared dead following a surgery Thursday morning, the news outlet said.

In 2021, a man died in NIO’s ES8 SUV while using the semi-autonomous driving system called Navigate on Pilot when the vehicle crashed.

As of Thursday at 12:35 p.m. ET, shares of NIO were trading at $22.54, down 1 cent or 0.06%.

NIO EV
Visitors look at a Nio ET Preview car at the Shanghai Auto Show in Shanghai on April 16, 2019. GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images
RELATED STORIES