New Delhi: Ola electric has recalled 1,441 units of its S1 Pro scooters that belonged to the same batch as the one that caught fire last month, as a pre-emptive measure which is part of a detailed diagnostics and health check. This comes after a spate of fires in electric scooters grabbed headlines in recent times.
The company said the Pune incident was likely an isolated case and reiterated the safety credentials of its battery pack that is compliant with AIS 156–the latest regulation for batteries in the country, as well as European standard ECE 136.
“Our internal investigation into the March 26 vehicle fire incident in Pune is ongoing and the preliminary assessment reveals that the thermal incident was likely an isolated one,” the company said in a statement. “As a pre-emptive measure we will be conducting a detailed diagnostics and health check of the scooters in that specific batch and therefore are issuing a voluntary recall of 1,441 vehicles.”
Last week, Hyderabad based startup Pure EV had issued a recall of 2,000 units of ETRANCE+ and EPLUTO 7G electric scooters to check imbalance issues in batteries and chargers. This followed an explosion in one of its scooters that claimed one life and left two others injured in Hyderabad. In September last year, two Pure EV scooters similarly caught fire in the city. Prior to this, another e-scooter player Okinawa initiated the recall of 3,215 units amid various instances of fire in electric two-wheelers across the country. In all at least 6 cases of fires in EVs have been reported in a month.
Last Thursday Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari called for companies to voluntarily recall vehicles and proposed strict penalties for those that dont do so. He also said that an expert committee has been set up to probe such incidents.
“Several mishaps involving Electric Two Wheelers have come to light in the last two months. It is most unfortunate that some people have lost their lives and several have been injured in these incidents,” Gadkari said in a series of tweets. “”We have constituted an Expert Committee to enquire into these incidents and make recommendations on remedial steps. Meanwhile companies may take advance action to Recall all defective batches of vehicles immediately. Under the leadership of PM Shri@narendramodi ji, our government is committed to ensure safety of each and every commuter.”
Earlier, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, had also requested companies to voluntarily recall batches linked to EV fires. In its statement Ola also called for stringent safety standards in the country.
“We strongly support adopting a world class EV safety policy and standards architecture in India to ensure high quality products which enhance customer confidence in furtherance of our commitment towards our customers’ safety and grow the nascent EV industry,” it said. “Our battery pack already complies with and is tested for AIS 156, the latest proposed standard for India, in addition to being compliant with the European standard ECE 136.”
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“In view of the recent fire incidents involving our vehicles in Nizamabad and Chennai, PURE EV has decided to recall 2000 vehicles from the models ETRANCE+ and EPLUTO 7G of the concerned batches,” Pure EV said.
“Several mishaps involving Electric Two Wheelers have come to light in the last two months. It is most unfortunate that some people have lost their lives and several have been injured in these incidents,” Gadkari said in a series of tweets.
More than two dozen electric scooters have caught fire since the onset of summer in India igniting a furious debate on safety of electric vehicles. The fresh incident from Warangal is the fourth vehicle from Pure EV that has gone up in flames since September last year.
