The onset of summer in the country this year is turning out to be particularly fiery for electric scooters in India. In the fourth such incident in four days, an electric scooter from Pure EV caught fire near Mathur Toll plaza in the Manjampakkam area on the outskirts of North Chennai.
In the 26 second video clip, plumes of smoke can be seen bellowing out of the red colour scooter which is parked by the side of the highway. This incident follows three such cases since Saturday when an Ola S1 pro scooter caught fire in Pune, followed by a tragic incident in Vellore where fire in an Okinawa scooter led to the death of a man and his 13 year old daughter. Another incident of a fire was also reported on Monday from Trichy in Tamil Nadu.
The spate of incidents has put the spotlight on thermal efficiency of lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles and whether current regulations are adequate to prevent them. This is also the third incident of fire in a Pure EV scooter following two incidents in September last year.
When contacted, Pure EV said it was incognizance of the incident and was investigating the cause of it reiterating that it followed all the best practices including a state of the art thermal management system.
“We have taken cognizance of the incident reported with one of our customer vehicle in Tamil Nadu and preliminary information has been obtained from the concerned client and our dealer. The accident vehicle has been brought to our concerned dealer service station for further analysis,” the company said in a statement. “We are investigating the incident and will do a thorough assessment. We adhere to the highest safety standards through rigorous internal testing as well as special phase change materials being implemented in our battery packs to avoid rapid fire/blast kind of scenarios.”
The company also highlighted the mechanisms it has put in place in the worst case scenario of thermal runaway in its scooters.
“PURE batteries come with the state-of-the art thermal management system, which is a combination of the electronics coupled with multiple active/passive materials, to avoid the thermal-runaway events. We also have a special vent mechanism so that the smokes get released immediately whenever there is any kind of event inside the battery, otherwise, a pressure cooker kind of scenario can take place, leading to sudden blast/explosion,” the statement said. “Although we are yet to receive the full information in the enclosed thermal run away investigation form, however the preliminary information revealed that the white smoke has come out for long time (which is due to the melting of the organic based phase change materials) for many minutes, followed by the controlled thermal run away event and finally leading to the uncontrolled fire.”
The company also said it provides its customers with a detailed user manual to spread awareness about certain intricacies of Lithium battery technology and educate them about safety and operating guidelines.
“The objective of providing the thermal management materials was not only to improve the efficiency and life cycle/safety of our batteries, but also to suppress the immediate explosion kind of incident for a long time such that the user/people can suppress the fire with fire retardant materials or even with the simple sand or the users can take decision to remove the battery from the vehicle before the event of fire,” it said. “We will conduct thorough root cause analysis as soon as we receive the accident vehicle.”
Following the incidents at Ola and Okinawa, the central government has also sprung into action. The Road Transport Ministry on Tuesday asked the Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) to investigate the two cases. CFEES is the defence laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
While the investigations will reveal the actual cause of the fires, there is a fear of more cases in the days to come as temperatures soar across the country. It may queer the pitch for electric vehicles that have registered explosive growth in the country over the last few years.
“EVs are at an early stage of adoption, such incidents have the potential to harm the overall perception of EVs from a safety standpoint. It’s a major concern and must be addressed by the concerned authorities,” says Suraj Ghosh, associate director, powertrain and compliance forecasts, IHS Markit. “Also, besides parity in price, range and affordability with ICE, there must be parity of ‘ease of use’ too for EVs for faster mass adoption.”
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