Electric scooter from Pure EV catches fire in Chennai [Video]

In the past few days, there have been three incidents of electric scooters catching fire. Well, here is another one. This time Pure EV’s electric scooter has caught fire. The incident happened near Mathur Toll plaza in Manjampakkam, Chennai.

The video clip is of just 26 seconds but as we can see that the scooter is burning fiercely and there is a lot of smoke coming. This is not the first time that Pure EV’s scooter has caught fire. In fact, this is the third time that Pure EV’s scooter started burning after a malfunction. The previous two incidents happened in September last year.

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Pure EV is investigating the incident, the scooter is now at the service centre being analysed. The manufacturer said, “We have taken cognizance of the incident reported with one of our customer vehicle in Tamil Nadu and preliminary information has been obtained from the concerned client and our dealer. The accident vehicle has been brought to our concerned dealer service station for further analysis. We are investigating the incident and will do a thorough assessment. We adhere to the highest safety standards through rigorous internal testing as well as special phase change materials being implemented in our battery packs to avoid rapid fire/blast kind of scenarios.”

The statement also said “PURE batteries come with the state-of-the art thermal management system, which is a combination of the electronics coupled with multiple active/passive materials, to avoid the thermal-runaway events. We also have a special vent mechanism so that the smokes get released immediately whenever there is any kind of event inside the battery, otherwise, a pressure cooker kind of scenario can take place, leading to sudden blast/explosion. Although we are yet to receive the full information in the enclosed thermal run away investigation form, however the preliminary information revealed that the white smoke has come out for long time (which is due to the melting of the organic based phase change materials) for many minutes, followed by the controlled thermal run away event and finally leading to the uncontrolled fire.”

DRDO to investigate EV fires

Defence Research and Development Organization’s CFEES laboratory has been asked to investigate the fire incidents of the Ola S1 Pro and Okinawa Praise Pro e-scooters. CFEES stands for Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety. The ministry also wants CFEES to suggest some remedial measures for improvement in each of the cases.

With the Ola S1 Pro, there were no casualties. However, the case is different from Okinawa. A man and his daughter died in the incident. Reportedly, the fire happened because of a short circuit when the scooter was on charge.

Ola themselves are also investigating the incident in which their scooter caught fire. Even MoRTH or Road Transport and Highways has launched an investigation regarding the scooter. The report said that the government is very serious about the safety of vehicles. Independent experts in the science and technology space will probe the incident and then they will file the report to the Ministry.

Source

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