A video of a PureEV electric scooter catching fire was shared by Sumant Banerji of Economic Times on Twitter. The incidents occurs just days after the Ola electric scooter and Okinawa Autotech electric scooter caught fire. It is raising questions about the safety of electric vehicles.
The center on March 28 decided to depute a team of independent experts to investigate two incidents of electric two-wheelers catching fire, CNBC-TV18 reported, quoting government sources. While the Ola electric scooter caught fire in Pune, the Okinawa two-wheeler caught fire in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore.
Another one…Its spreading like a wild #Fire .
After #Ola & #okinawa #electric scooter from #PureEV catches fire in Chennai.
Thats the 4th incident in 4 days..
The heat is on.#ElectricVehicles #OLAFIRE #lithiumhttps://t.co/pFJFb7uKD7 pic.twitter.com/jJqWA48CNf— Sumant Banerji (@sumantbanerji) March 29, 2022
The experts will travel to Vellore and Pune to probe whether structural or external factors have caused the fire in the Ola electric scooter and the Okinawa electric bike. Notably, both two-wheelers had been tested and received type approvals before they were launched. The investigators will try to find out if there is a manufacturing defect that affected their operation. According to a Reuters report, lithium-ion batteries (used in the Ola scooters), whether used in electric vehicles or electronic devices, can catch fire if they have been improperly manufactured or damaged, or if the software that operates the battery is not designed correctly.
Reasons
Softbank Group-backed Ola Electric said last week that it has also launched an investigation to find out what is causing the electric scooters to catch fire. Ola launched the probe after a Twitter user from Pune shared a video of his Ola scooter bursting into flames. Responding to it, the company had said in a statement: “We are aware of an incident in Pune that happened with one of our scooters and are investigating to understand the root cause and will share more updates in the next few days.” The customer is absolutely safe, the company added.
Hormazd Sorabjee, the editor of automobile magazine Autocar India, said the incident highlights safety issues with batteries. “ Ola Electric must investigate and give us answers. Thank God no one (was) injured.”
Meanwhile, Ola emphasized that safety was its top priority.
“We are aware of an incident in Pune that happened with one of our scooters and are investigating to understand the root cause and will share more updates in the next few days,” the company said. “We take this incident seriously and will take appropriate action and share more in the coming days.”
Safety is top priority. We’re investigating this and will fix it. https://t.co/HsTFh4cbhw
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) March 26, 2022
For the PureEV incident, several suspected that overheating of the battery could have led to the incident. “Looks like EV bikes are not well tested for Indian summer. Repeated incidents like these will shake the confidence of consumers in EV bikes,” Tushar Gokhale tweeted.
Credits- Money Control
