EV fires: Yet another Pure EV scooter catches fire in Gujarat

EV fires: In yet another incident of electric vehicles catching fire in the country, a Pure EV's EPluto 7G e-scooter, which was put on charge caught fire in Gujarat on Friday. The video of the vehicle in flames went viral on social media. 

In the video, the scooter was seen in flames and the charger that is still plugged in the e-scooter. No casualties were reported. This was the fifth incident of fire-related to Pure Energy's electric scooters. Pure EV was yet to release a statement about the cause of the fire.

To date, four other Pure EV e-scooters caught fire, the fourth one being reported last month from Hyderabad. Pure EV had recalled 2,000 electric scooters in April.

As fires and explosions in electric two-wheelers continue unabated, the government is all set to introduce EV battery standards (BIS standards) for EV two-wheelers that will be expanded to four-wheelers at a later stage.

The BIS standards for EV batteries will look into "size, connectors, specification and minimum quality of cells, the battery's capacity".

NITI Aayog, in a recent discussion paper, also stressed upon the need for BIS standards as the first step towards a national battery swapping policy.

The preliminary findings from the government-constituted probe committee on EV fires also identified issues with battery cells or design in nearly all of the electric two-wheeler fire incidents in the country.

The experts found defects in battery cells as well as battery design in nearly all EV fires.

The government is now working on new quality-centric guidelines for EVs that will be unveiled soon.

Last month, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which comes under the Union Consumer Affairs Ministry, sent notices to Pure EV and Boom Motors after their e-scooters exploded in April.

(with IANS inputs)

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