Amid increasing instances of fires in electric vehicles (EVs) being reported from parts of the country, the government has stepped in with a plan to formulate procedures on battery certification and quality control. The move is a bid to deter such incidents from reoccurring, which could put off potential EV buyers. The Center has formed a panel of experts that has representations from the Visakhapatnam-based Naval Science & Technological Laboratory; the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras; the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; and an expert of advanced chemistry.
“The committee will suggest ways to ensure the right quality of the product. They have to come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for testing and validation of key components and formulate a certification standard for the battery used in EVs,” said a top government official. The committee has to submit its report by the middle of this month, added the official.
India, alarmed at the unabated EV fire incidents, has sent show cause notices to EV manufacturers like Ola Electric, Okinawa Autotech and Pure EV, among others, warning them why a penal action should not be taken against them for delivering faulty electric two-wheelers to the public.
EV makers have received time till July-end to respond in detail to the notices, IANS reported.
Once the responses are in, the government will decide which penal action is to be taken, if any, against the EV makers at fault.
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.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is also awaiting responses from EV makers on show cause notices sent to them.
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. Experts found defects in battery cells as well as battery design in nearly all EV fires.
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which was earlier tasked with investigating electric two-wheeler fire incidents by the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, also found serious defects in the EV two-wheeler batteries.
These defects occurred because the electric two-wheeler manufacturers like Okinawa Autotech, Pure EV, Jitendra Electric Vehicles, Ola Electric and Boom Motors may have used lower-grade materials to cut costs, the DRDO probe had revealed.
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has now issued new performance standards for lithium-ion batteries to safeguard the consumers amid the rising EV fire episodes in the country.
Union Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari has already warned EV makers of strict action if they are found negligent.
“If any company is found negligent in their processes, a heavy penalty will be imposed and a recall of all defective vehicles will also be ordered,” he had tweeted.
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.
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