Here’s what caused Ola, PureEV, Okinawa, electric scooters to catch fire in India

A number of electric scooters by companies including Ola Electric, PureEV and Okinawa caught fire in India between March and April this year. In some case, users of these electric scooters managed to escape from what could have been a major incident, unscathed. In other cases, a father-daughter duo died as an electric scooter caught fire in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore. Now, an initial investigation into these reports have hinted towards the probable cause of these incidents.

A Reuters report citing two government sources said that faulty battery cells and battery modules have been identified as the two leading cause of spate of incidents wherein electric scooters caught fire in India in the recent weeks.

“In Ola’s case, the battery cells were found to be an issue as well as the battery management system,” one of the two sources told the news agency adding that the Indian government had taken samples of battery cells from the three companies — Ola Electric, PureEV and Okinawa — to make further checks and give a detailed analysis into the cause of these incidents.

Responding to the development, Ola Electric, which sources its batteries from LG Energy Solution (LGES), said that it was also working with the government, which has appointed an external expert agency to probe the matter. The company is also conducting an internal investigation to determine the cause of these incidents. “As per the preliminary assessment of these experts, there was no fault of the Ola battery management system at all and it was likely an isolated thermal incident,” an Ola Electric spokesperson said told the news agency.

As far as electric scooters by other EV makers are concerned, the initial investigation found issues with the cells and battery modules for electric scooters by Okhinawa and with battery casing in the case of e-scooters by PureEV. Both the companies haven’t commented on the matter yet.

It is worth noting that the Indian government has set a target that involves e-scooters and e-bikes to make up 80 percent of total two-wheeler sales by 2030, which is significantly more than the 2 percent sale right now today. However, the incidents of electric scooters catching fire have raised concerns over safety of these EV, which in turn is likely to interfere with the government’s set target.

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