Despite the rapidly increasing sales of electric scooters in the country, the fire incidents in e- scooters are not taking the name of stopping. The latest incident is related to the Ather e-scooter. On May 27, a case of fire at Ather’s Chennai dealership came to light.
In this, an e-scooter of Ather caught fire during servicing. Soon after the incident, the company tweeted and informed us that no one was injured in the incident. At the same time, just a day after this, the company issued an official statement stating the reason for the fire was short-circuited. Let us see what else has been said in the report.
Short-circuit fire
In its official statement, Ather has attributed the cause of the fire in the e-scooter to short-circuit. According to the company, this e-scooter came for service at the dealership located in Chennai. There was a lot of dust and mud on the e-scooter, which was cleaned with water with high pressure. While removing the body panel, the team noticed a crack in the top case of the battery pack, which caught fire due to water filling.
Here’s an update on yesterday’s incident in Chennai pic.twitter.com/OcHN3avo5F
— Ather Energy (@atherenergy) May 28, 2022
Replaced screw
Two hundred twenty-four cells caught fire due to water filling the top case of the battery pack. As soon as the fire incident was detected, the e-scooter was immediately isolated and taken to a safe place. Due to this, not much damage was done. The company says that the team noticed some screws had been changed around the battery during servicing. Their varying length could put a lot of pressure on the battery top panel.
Safety is our top priority.
Ather says that it is fully committed to the safety of its users and products. According to the company, such an incident has been witnessed for the first time in a ride of 150 million km. This incident has not been observed in any existing e-scooters or during testing. Hence the company has decided to increase the number of pre-checks for accident cases to avoid such situations further.
‘Bad quality goods are used.’
Recently, a report was released by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO)’s Center for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. It was told that poor quality materials are used in e-scooters. At the same time, replies have been sought from Boom Motors, Pure EV, Ola Electric, Okinawa Autotech and Jitendra EV on fire incidents.
