File photo/Zhang Jian (NBD)

May 17 (NBD) -- Chinese electric car startup NIO was again in the spotlight over safety issues. 

As shown in the company's official Weibo account, an ES8 puffed out heavy plumes of smoke at a residential plot in Jiading district, Shanghai at dusk on May 16. Fortunately, there was no fire, and no casualties and property damages were caused. 

An investigation is currently underway, NIO said. 

According to the car owner, the vehicle has parked in the garage for four days and was in an uncharged state when the incident occurred. A NIO team arrived at the scene quickly to handle the case, the car owner said. 

Appreciating the carmaker's quick response, the owner also expressed concerns and worries, hoping the company could find out the cause as soon as possible to enhance customer confidence. 

In response, NIO's chairman Li Bin and president Qin Lihong both made apologies and said an announcement will be made as long as they figure out the reason. 

National Business Daily noticed that the latest incident, the second happening to a NIO car in a month, came just four days after a Tesla Model S caught fire in a parking lot of San Po Kong district, Hong Kong. Four instances of Tesla models catching fire had been reported since this year.  

With regard to this, some netizens satirically joked on Weibo that NIO is indeed taking on its U.S. peer Tesla, but just in bad ways, while some argued that it is the battery suppliers, rather than auto brands, should be blamed for the incidents. 

An analysis by the Forward Industry Research Institute shows that 31 percent of fire-related cases involving new-energy vehicles since 2017 were resulted from battery combustion. 

In addition to a higher content of nickel in ternary batteries for the purpose of longer cruising range, the defective design of battery packs is a significant cause for battery combustion, said electric car industry experts. 

On April 22, NIO released the preliminary investigation results of the ES8 fire accident that took place in Xi'an on April 21. According to the report, the fire was due to a short circuit caused by the large-scale deformation of the battery pack's internal structure under the intense impact by external force on the chassis.  

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn