Electric carmaker NIO denies deleting data in fatal crash

Chinese electric carmaker NIO said on Monday it did not delete or modify any data in a car involved in a fatal crash while its driver was using its NOP assisted driving software.

"NIO's service staffers were then cutting out the electricity, which would not cause loss of any data," NIO said via its official Weibo account after a Beijing law firm made an online comment, accusing NIO of trying to delete data related to the accident.

The accident took place on Thursday in Fujian Province in southeast China.

Thirty-one-year-old entrepreneur Lin Wenqin was killed. The crash happened when the NIO ES8 car was in the NOP mode, or navigate on pilot, a type of assisted self-driving software.

The police investigation of the cause of the accident was still underway, NIO said that it was cooperating with the police and waiting for the outcome of the investigation.

The company said on its Weibo account that it would not make any further statement about the case until the release of the police investigation.

It was the second reported fatal accident of a NIO in just two weeks.