People visit a car company selling electric cars made by China's Geely Auto in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov. 10, 2021.(Photo: Xinhua)

Geely's electric vehicle (EV) brand Zeekr said on Thursday that it felt regret about a car accident in Haining, East China's Zhejiang Province, that resulted in a pedestrian's death, but it denied online rumors about malfunctioning airbags in the car. 

The rumors claimed that "the airbag suddenly inflated" but Zeekr clarified that the airbag in car "inflated normally" and protected the driver from injury when the accident happened.  

According to a statement from the company, the car was travelling at 120 kilometers an hour when the accident occurred, and was not using driving assistance functions such as lane centering control. The company said that the dashcam video that has circulated online is false.

Haining police authorities posted a notice on the car accident on Thursday. According to the notice, a small new energy vehicle collided with a pedestrian, causing the death of the pedestrian on the spot and damage to the vehicle. 

Zeekr explained that the autonomous emergency braking system was not activated because the speed was beyond its functioning range, which is between 4 and 90 kilometers an hour.

"The responsibility and the reason for the accident is still under investigation, and we will closely follow the updates," Zeekr said. 

In September, the EV company delivered 12,053 vehicles, up 45.6 percent year-on-year.