The EV fire saga continues as recently, the Tata Nexon EV caught fire. Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal responded to this incident by claiming that electric vehicle fires will happen and that they are normal. He retweeted a video of the burning vehicle on Twitter.
Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal claims more ICE vehicles catch fire in comparison to EVs:
Ola has been under a lot of fire from their customers who purchased the S1 Pro electric scooter which has been catching fire in regions where the summer heat was at its peak. The only point of reassurance for the brand was that other electric vehicles were also catching fire, recently the Nexon EV caught fire in Mumbai.
Bhavish responded to the criticism that he was subjected to due to the customer complaints about the incident involving the Electr S1 Pro.
It is not uncommon for electric vehicles to catch fire and this is not something that has only been happening in India. Such incidents are much rarer in comparison to ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles.
The Indian government has asked DRDO to investigate the scooter fires and come up with solutions to curb these incidents. Electric car fires have not been that common, it is the scooters that are catching fire more often. This was TATA’s first EV to catch fire in India.
The car was parked in Mumbai’s West Vasai and the fire department rushed to the spot along with policemen to bring the situation under control. The firemen controlled the flames but the exact reason why the EV caught fire is still unknown.
Tata Motors issued a statement following the incident. “A detailed investigation is currently being conducted to ascertain the facts of the recent isolated thermal incident that is doing the rounds on social media. We will share a detailed response after our complete investigation. We remain committed to the safety of our vehicles and their users. This is the first incident after more than 30,000 EVs have cumulatively covered over 100 million KM across the country in nearly 4 years.”
The company is looking into the matter and it is likely to prioritize this over everything else as the Nexon EV is the top-selling electric car in India. There are a variety of reasons that could have caused this fire such as short-circuiting, problems with the battery management system, and overcharging. In the past, there have been multiple scooters from other brands that have caught fire on roads.
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