Videos of an S1 Pro of Ola Electric
catching fire in Pune went viral on social mediaon Saturday afternoon. The same day, another electric scooter caught fire leading to two casualties in Vellore, Tamil Nadu.
While Ola Electric is investigating the issue and is yet to find the root cause of the problem, other EV companies plan to work closely with component and battery manufacturers to get to the bottom of this safety issue as this could flatten the spiralling sales chart of EVs in the country.
Battery makers said design and chemistry need to be looked into.
“An ideal situation would be to keep the battery cold always and at a low temperature,” said Anand Kabra, managing director of Battrixx, a battery pack supplier for electric two-wheelers. “However, India being a low-cost market in the two/three-wheeler segment, companies are not ready to invest in active cooling solutions,” he added.
Even in the absence of a cooling solution, industry experts said a high degree of safety redundancy can be built into battery design through fuses and other means to check thermal runaway and ensure increasing temperature in one cell does not cascade onto the rest of the battery.
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Battery makers may also move away from cobalt, an unstable material that can cause fire.
“We might move to sodium and other technologies in future, where the risk of fire or thermal runaway gets eliminated or largely reduced,” Kabra said.
Battery swapping could also help minimise risk of fire, experts said.
“In battery swapping, the battery can be cooled down when it’s charged outside of the vehicle,” said Chetan Maini, chairman of Sun Mobility, which is exploring battery swapping partnerships with several auto majors.
“There is a stringent regulatory framework in place for battery makers. A lot more testing is required as capacities scale up,” he said. “The challenge is for two and three-wheelers.”
Government think tank Niti Aayog is expected to
roll out a battery swapping policy in the next four months, which could play a key role in enabling the EV industry to reach critical scale.
That is because consumers will not need to own battery – which accounts for 50% of the cost of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers (e2w and e3w) – once disruptive business models such as battery swapping and leasing are in place. This will bring down upfront vehicle cost of e2w and e3w much below their ICE (internal combustion engine) counterparts.
Meanwhile, to minimise fire risk and keep consumer confidence intact, EV makers should recall models involved in firing incidents till they sort out battery-related issues, industry experts said.
Insiders also said there is a hurry to get to market to reap the benefits of the central government’s FAME-II (Faster Adoption of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles-II) scheme and state subsidies, which is pushing manufacturers to ignore basic safety tenets. FAME-II subsidy will end by the end of FY24.
EV maker Ather said it designs its batteries “to prevent the initiation and propagation of thermal runaway”.
“India has adopted some of the most stringent tests for batteries such as the AIS 156,” a company spokesperson said over email. “While all Ather scooters comply with AIS 156, we have also adopted more stringent internal standards for thermal runaway than what AIS 156 mandates today.”
Every Ather scooter goes through a range of stringent tests and validation processes including its battery, the person said. “These tests are done to mainly validate that none of these events lead to any kind of safety hazard to the rider.”
Bengaluru-based Bounce, which is operating a battery swapping model, said its batteries are tested in all climatic conditions. “These batteries have been through stringent testing in real-life climatic conditions before the launch and has resulted in completion of over 30 lakh EV trips on our dock-less scooter sharing business,” its cofounder and CEO Vivekananda Hallakere said.
Insurance premiums may go up:
“It may be premature to predict premium changes based on a couple of stray incidents,” said Adarsh Agarwal, chief distribution officer – corporate business at Digit Insurance. “However, if this happens more often, then insurers may have to resort to increasing premium rates.”
Insurance premiums are calculated using historical data and the effect of such incidents won’t immediately reflect on insurance policies issued to EVs.
“It’s important to understand that once an insurance policy has been underwritten and issued, it cannot be cancelled,” Agarwal said. “At the time of renewals, insurers may have to take a call on premiums or relook at underwriting models. EVs come with a warranty and such events typically fall under the purview of the OEM, at least in the initial years.”
