More than two dozen electric scooters have caught fire in India since last September causing much uproar, debate and anguish among the consumers about the safety of electric vehicle batteries. But even then the Wednesday evening fire in a Tata Nexon EV in Mumbai has taken the industry by surprise forcing consumers and industry observers to think differently.
While globally EVs from heavyweights like Tesla, General Motors or Hyundai have faced similar issues, this was the first time for a passenger vehicle in India. Not only that, this time the vehicle was not by a startup but by an established automaker that presumably knows everything there is to know about manufacturing electric vehicles. With more than 30,000 units on the road and cumulatively clocking over 100 million km, this was the first unsavoury incident for Tata Nexon EV.
Since the launch in early 2020, Nexon EV has been a runaway success helping Tata Motors steal early mover Mahindra’s thunder in the electric vehicle segment. Moreover, the addition of the electric variant also helped the Nexon brand emerge as the country’s largest selling SUV.
“A detailed investigation is currently being conducted to ascertain the facts of the recent isolated thermal incident that is doing the rounds on social media. We will share a detailed response after our complete investigation. We remain committed to the safety of our vehicles and their users,” Tata Motors said in a statement.
The government, which is concerned and undertaking various investigations to tighten norms for electric vehicle batteries, also swung into action ordering a fresh investigation into the fire incident.
Beginning with a couple of Pure EV scooters in September 2021, EV fires have become more commonplace. And they are not restricted to vehicles alone. On Thursday, an Okinawa dealership in Mangalore went up in flames. It was the second time of a fire at a dealership of the company, which was the country’s largest electric scooter-maker in May. Like in the previous case in Chennai, the company blamed it on an electric short circuit. Similar cases have happened with Hero Electric and Ampere as well. That the vehicles are not safe even in a dedicated EV dealership is an ominous sign.
“Things have gone out of hand now. We have hundreds of vehicles on the road. We aren’t sure about any of them now. We just hope nothing untoward would happen, or in the worst case, no lives would be lost,” an executive from a company that saw some of its scooters go up in flames, said.
When the first few instances came to light at the start of the summer, there was much speculation on the cause of the fires. The government was initially slow to act, not realizing the extent of the problem. Experts weighed in blaming poor quality lithium ion cells imported from China by unscrupulous companies, lack of efficient thermal management systems and poor testing and validation practices by new age companies. Some also blamed the weather citing extreme ambient temperatures in India for the rise in the number of cases.
The Nexon EV incident debunks a lot of these claims. At 30 degrees, the temperature in Mumbai is more warm than hot. Unlike two wheelers, the battery is liquid cooled while using the relatively stable LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) chemistry instead of the denser but vulnerable NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt). The battery itself is manufactured by Tata AutoComp that has a joint venture with China’s Guoxuan High-Tech that provides the imported cells.
Moreover, Tata Motors is the one company that is at the forefront of leading the charge for electric passenger vehicles and has the most ambitious plans among its peers. That even a vehicle from its stable can catch fire indicates that it will perhaps spare none.
Regulations
“EV fires will happen, happen in all global products too. EV fires are much less frequent than ICE fires,” quipped Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola Electric, which had seen one of its S1 Pro scooters catch fire in March. It had brushed it aside as a one off incident.
With the investigations underway, regulations would be tightened which should weed out the bad apples from the lot and potentially prevent similar instances in the future. The AIS 156 regulation looks set to be implemented across the board with some more stipulations. Recently the Bureau of Indian Standards came up with performance standards for EV batteries formulating new standards for lithium ion battery packs while harmonizing it with pre-existing ones. Separate standards for swappable batteries, their interoperability and for charging points are also being formulated.
“There has never been a better time for the BIS performance standards for EV batteries to be implemented. I am confident that these standards will ensure that only the best and most secure batteries reach Indian consumers in the long run,” Akshay Singhal, CEO and co-founder, Log9 Materials, said.
There is no easy fix. Experts say India should cut down on import of cells from China as much as possible but as Tata’s own example indicates, it is easier said than done. With a global shortage of lithium ion cells looming large at a time when demand is growing at an unprecedented pace, the dependence on China may actually go up.
“It is not advisable to use cells from China, but at least in the short term 4-5 years, they may be no other option,” said Sambit Chakraborty, industry veteran and member of the advisory board of Indigrid Technology. “Regulations can still be tightened to ensure poor quality cells from China or anywhere cannot be used. At the same time, all other components of an EV also need to be tested and mandated for our local conditions and that will only happen when the government cracks the whip.”
Even the most stringent regulations however, would only help limit the number of cases but there may be no fool proof mechanism to ensure zero mishaps. The complexities of the Indian market where overall fire safety itself is lax, the grid highly unstable and consumers prone to abusing vehicles, battery fires is a reality the market will have to accept.
“There will always be the odd case but that aside, the consumers need to be educated on how to live with EVs. These are not gadgets but machines that need to be handled with care,” Jeetender Sharma, founder and managing director, Okinawa Scooters, said.
In an industry where the technology itself may see widespread changes over the next decade, it is a fine line that regulators have to tread. Make the regulations too stringent and it may thwart development and adoption of new technology. Keep them too flexible and the chances of the industry manipulating them for their own good is high.
“The industry cannot be trusted blindly no matter what they may say. This is an issue of public safety so no company should be allowed to cut corners. To that extent, the rules have to be unambiguous,” Charkraborty added. “It has taken the ICE industry 100 years to get to this level of sophistication. It will also take the technology in EVs some time to stabilise and till that time there will be mishaps. But the learning curve will be faster.”
For the time being, EV fires are perhaps as inevitable as EVs themselves. One would hope, the collateral damage isnt too high.
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The company said in a statement that “a detailed investigation is currently being conducted to ascertain the facts of this isolated incident”.
The Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Naval Science & Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam have been asked to probe the circumstances that led to the incident and also suggest remedial measures, the official added.
