NIO ES8’s burning incident results from battery short circuit caused by chassis impact

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- China’s EV startup NIO said a firing incident occurring to an ES8 SUV on April 22 resulted from short circuit after its battery pack was struck in chassis impacts, which was unlike most accidents that were caused by battery quality.

The startup on April 30 gave the statement via its official Sina Weibo account that the damaged NIO ES8 was sent to a service spot in Xi’an for the front window shield replacement and the front bumper repair. Its chassis was not checked prior to the maintenance since this part was not included the demanded items. The maintenance was completed on April 21, and then the vehicle was placed at the parking lot of the service center.

According to the statement, the smoke emerged at 1：41 p.m. on April 22, and seven minutes later the flame appeared. Fortunately, the fire was quenched very soon after a fire brigade came to the scene and no casualty or property damage happened in the unexpected incident.

“The vehicle’s chassis suffered severe impacts before the maintenance, which largely deformed the battery pack’s left-rear shell and the cooling plate. The squeezed inside structure of the battery pack led to short circuit, eventually giving rise to the fire”, said NIO.

Tesla also sent a team to investigate a video circulating on China's Twitter-like social media that showed a white Tesla Model S parked in a Shanghai parking lot bursting into flames right before NIO’s incident. Apart from that, Chinese automaker BYD also reported a burning accident occurring to a BYD e5 car in Wuhan on April 24, while the battery pack remained intact.