Bengaluru, March 28
On Saturday evening, a video of an Ola e-scooter catching fire in Pune circulated on social media, raising consumer concerns around the safety of electric vehicles.
While Ola is investigating the root cause of the fire incident, this was not an isolated event of an electric vehicle catching fire in India. Last year, e-scooters of brands such as Okinawa and Pure EV also caught fire, along with multiple instances of electric buses catching fire across the world.
Puneet Jain, CEO of a lithium-ion battery manufacturing company, Natural Battery Technologies, told BusinessLine “the chemistry of lithium-ion batteries is such that the electrolytes and even the lithium metal in itself is very flammable. And if they’re not operated at the right parameters and temperatures, it can actually catch fire. In short, EVs driven by lithium batteries are at the risk of catching fire, but not any more than the risk of an internal combustion engine (ICE) or a petrol vehicle catching fire“.
Jain noted that the industry is seeing a trend of customers demanding higher mileage in EVs, and so OEMs opt for bigger batteries. But when one tries to incorporate a bigger battery in the scooters, they end up facing size issues. “So, some of the battery manufacturers try to work around these limited spaces with creative designs. However, these designs may turn out to be faulty, because the battery needs its space, proper thermal protection and cooling provisions. This could result in a little more riskier battery designs,” he added.
Further, talking about the other potential reasons for such a fire incident, Vikas Aggarwal, MD and Founder, Ipower Batteries Pvt Ltd, said: “The most prominent reason for EVs catching fire is that the battery went into a thermal runaway. This could happen because the battery is not designed according to the vehicle’s requirement of capacity, current and appropriate BMS (battery management system).”
Water proof
He added that the battery should be water proof, along with water proof connectors so that water does not flow when people wash their vehicle or is water logged. Other potential reasons for such an incident include internal short circuits of cells or while making battery packs. It could also happen when using inappropriate or bad quality chargers with the vehicle.
Impact on consumer sentiment
Commenting on the impact of this incident on consumer sentiment, Suhas RajKumar, CEO & Founder, Simple Energy, said: “It surely will hamper the confidence of the consumer, but on a positive note, consumers will start asking the right questions before buying an EV.” Soumen Mondal, Senior Research Analyst at Counterpoint, also believes that Ola scooter catching fire will have some negative sentiment because it is one of the leaders in e-mobility. However, he does not think it will affect the overall sales of EVs negatively.
Further, a Bounce spokesperson said that the company does not see this incident having a negative impact on the consumer sentiment. They added that out of all the bookings that Bounce has received so far, there are very few people who have opted out, and a majority (99 per cent) of them continue to be Bounce customers. In December 2021, Bounce launched its electric scooter Bounce Infinity E1, which is expected to start deliveries in a few weeks.
Both Bounce and Ather Energy pressed on the importance of longer testing durations to build a reliable electric vehicle. “Internal test standards ideally should be much more stringent, keeping in mind different variations like road load vibration and shock, extreme temperatures, high humidity, rain, flood dust and other such conditions. Clear understanding of all these factors is essential especially for the Indian environment and, therefore, a comprehensive and rigorous on road durability testing for a longer duration is a must,” said an Ather Energy spokesperson.
As electric vehicles continue to evolve with the amount of research going on in the EV segment, Counterpoint’s Mandal believes “fire instances will reduce in the coming days as traditional batteries such as NMC(Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt) are being replaced with more stable technologies which have a higher energy density, better heat tolerance and proper thermal runways system like LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate), Solid State, Blade battery, etc.”