After Okinawa and Pure EV announced voluntarily recall of some batches of their electric scooters following battery explosions in recent days, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari urged other companies involved in such incidents to follow suit. Failure to do so may result in heavy fines. , He also warned that the government would be ordered to recall if companies did not adequately address the issue of security.
Minister Gadkari wrote on Twitter, “Companies may take advance action to immediately recall all defective vehicles.”
On Thursday, Pure EV announced a voluntary recall of 2,000 vehicles belonging to the models ETrance Plus and EPluto 7G after at least two fire explosions. In the most recent incident, an 80-year-old man died on Wednesday when the battery of an electric scooter exploded while charging at his home in Telangana’s Nizamabad district.
Earlier, Okinawa Autotech had voluntarily recalled 3,250 Praise Pro electric scooters.
The government has constituted an expert committee to probe these incidents. Apart from Okinawa and Pure EV, Jitendra EV and Ola Electric are also under investigation.
“We are waiting for the expert panel’s report on Ola and Jitendra EVs,” said Giridhar Armane, secretary, ministry of road transport. Hindu,
Minister Gadkari warned that action against erring companies could include hefty fines as well as an order to recall all defective vehicles.
The expert panel includes four experts from Defense Fire and Explosives Laboratory, New Delhi, Naval Systems Development Laboratory in Visakhapatnam and Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.
Once the government-appointed panel completes its investigation, the ministry will also issue guidelines on the safety of electric vehicles. An official privy to the developments said that these could include safety parameters as well as various tests to be done to find out the number of samples to be tested.