Earlier Monday, a media report said an Nio technician was summoned for having personal access to the accident vehicle. The company denied this.
Nio did not have any act of data redaction and no employee was summoned by the police, the company said in a statement, adding that from the time of the accident until now, Nio has been actively cooperating with the relevant departments in the investigation and submitting the information required for according to the procedures.
To show respect to the deceased, Nio will not release further information about the accident until the investigation results are finally confirmed, the company said.
The following is the full text of Nio's statement, translated by CnEVPost:
Today, a lawyer from a Beijing law firm spread remarks on the Internet about the investigation of the August 12 traffic accident in Fujian, and we hereby states the following.
At 14:00 on August 12, Mr. Lin, an Nio user, died in a collision with an operating truck that was working in the Hanjiang section of the Shenhai Expressway.
In order to ensure the safety of the accident car battery after the high-speed collision, Nio service personnel carried out a power-off operation in the parking lot of the accident car at 17:00 on the same day, and the operation itself would not cause data loss.
In the afternoon of August 13, at the request of the relevant parties and in the presence of the client of Mr. Lin's family and the police, Nio technicians conducted the first on-site data extraction.
In the afternoon of August 16, the technical team from Nio headquarters arrived in Putian to cooperate with the police and forensic authorities for the next data reading operation.
From the accident to now, Nio has been actively cooperating with the relevant departments in the accident investigation and submitting the required information for the investigation according to the procedures.
The company has not done any data deletion, and no employee has been summoned by the police.
We once again express our deepest condolences to the deceased user. As a sign of respect for the deceased, we will not release further information about the accident until the investigation results are finally confirmed.
Lin Wenqin, the founder of Chinese restaurant brand Meiyihao, was killed in a traffic accident last Thursday while driving an Nio ES8 in Fujian. The ES8 had the autopilot function NOP (Navigation On Pilot) turned on, Meiyihao said in an obituary released on Saturday.
Lin Lihong, a lawyer appointed by Lin's family to represent him in the case, was quoted by Sina Tech earlier Monday as saying that the Nio technician had access to the vehicle in question without the consent of the traffic police, who summoned him yesterday to give a statement.
If the result of the investigation is that the vehicle data was tampered with or destroyed, the technician will be suspected of a criminal offense, and Nio will be held fully responsible for the accident, the lawyer said.
More From CnEVPost
