After the recent fire incidents of electric vehicles, over 6,600 EVs have been recalled by 3 manufacturers. As per the government, the Electric vehicle fire incidents were reported in March in Tamilnadu while in Andhra Pradesh similar incidents were reported in April. Following this, 3 manufacturers recalled their products in April. When a question on the incidents of fire involving electric scooters and the action taken by the government was raised in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Krishna Pal Gurjar, Minister of the state of heavy industries, responded. He informed that incidents of fire in electric vehicles were reported in Tamil Nadu in March and Andhra Pradesh in April. In all these cases, the ministry of road transport and Highway (MoRTH) has sent notices to the chief executives of the manufacturers concerned.
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As he said, a total of 6,656 electric two-wheelers have been recalled by manufacturers. From Okinawa recalled 3,215 units of vehicles on April 16, Pure EV recalled 2,000 units of vehicles on April 21 and Ola Electric recalled 1,441 units of vehicles on April 23. When asked about the impact of the fire incidents on the sale of electric vehicles, The minister replied that according to the statistics available on the Vahan portal, “there is no downtrend in the sale of EVs.”
He also added, “Testing of components for EVs is done as per relevant standards, as specified in Rule 126 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rule, 1989 to ensure compliance. Based on the information on fire incidents available, MoRTH has issued a show cause notice to the CEOs and MDs of the concerned two-wheeler electric scooter manufacturers, to explain the reasons why the relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act should not be invoked against them,”
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, On April 21, also said that he has appointed an expert committee to examine EV manufacturing issues, especially two-wheelers, and to make recommendations to add to upcoming guidelines for EV manufacturers. The committee included independent experts from DRDO, the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bengaluru, and Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) Visakhapatnam.