Two Employees Die After Nio Electric Car Plunges Out Of Third Floor Office

Two drivers have died after the experimental electric car they were testing flew out of the third floor of its skyscraper headquarters in Shanghai.

The Chinese multinational automobile manufacturer, Nio said a member of staff and a person from a partner company died on June 22, after the ET5 model plunged from the testing facility.

The fatal accident reportedly occurred because the driver took the vehicle forward instead of reversing it, reports said.

"It's not a braking problem, (the driver) had hoped to put it in reverse gear, but instead put it in forward gear," one employee told Xin Huanghe.

In a statement, the Tesla rival announced that it has launched an immediate investigation along with government officials.

"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 carmaker said on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

"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.

The statement gave way to outrage on social media, with many slamming the company for claiming the crash was not caused by the vehicle.

One user wrote "it shows the cold blood of capitalism", while another comment read, "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."

The initial statement which attracted more than 1,000 comments within half an hour was taken down following the backlash.

The company later posted a revised version of the statement, which still refers to the crash as an accident but added that it was "not caused by the vehicle".

Nio, which has been referred to as China's 'Tesla killer', is paving its way to dominate the country’s electric vehicle industry.

The carmaker focuses to overcome customer concerns about frequent charging by developing battery-swapping stations for its vehicles as an alternative to conventional charging stations.