Ola Electric will be recalling 1,441 units of S1 Pro scooters amid the rise in cases of electric scooters catching fire. The company will conduct preemptive diagnostics and health checks of these scooters as a preventive measure. The company is still investigating the fire incident that occurred on March 26 in Pune wherein an S1 Pro scooter caught fire. However, a preliminary evaluation determined that it was an isolated incident.
Official statement
The company said in a statement, “As a pre-emptive measure, we will be conducting a detailed diagnostic and health check of the scooters in that specific batch and therefore are issuing a voluntary recall of 1,441 vehicles.”Ola Electric further said, “These scooters will be inspected by our service engineers and will go through a thorough diagnostics across all battery systems, thermal systems as well as safety systems.”
What exactly happened?
It can be deduced that the temperature was quite hot and the scooter was parked in the open sun. The reason for this situation is speculated as the battery pack clashed with the thermal runaway as the smoke is dark and thick. The Ola electric uses a Li-ion battery pack. This is not the latest technology but it has its own benefits.
The batteries with Li-ion are highly prone to thermal runaway and they have high energy density. The drawback of this type of battery is that if it ever undergoes fire there is no other way than to use a fire extinguisher to extinguish the fire outburst.
Ola s1: a quick recap
The Ola electric scooter comes in two variants namely the S1 and S1 Pro. The S1 gets a 2.98kWh battery and it weighs 121kg. The S1 variant will achieve 0-40km/h in 3.6 seconds and reach a top speed of 90 km/h. It has a claimed range of 121km. It will get normal and sports driving modes. The S1 Pro gets a 3.97 kWh battery and weighs 125kg.
The S1 Pro will achieve 0-40km/h in 3 seconds and go on to a top speed of 115km/h. It will achieve a range of 181km. It gets driving modes like normal, sport, and hyper. The Ola electric scooter can be charged with a portable home charger of 750W. This will charge the S1 and S1 Pro to 100% in just 4.50 hours and 6.30 hours respectively. The Ola hyper charger station can charge it to 50% in just 18 minutes. Both scooters also get a torque figure of 58nm.