Focus on battery safety & quality as 4 electric scooters catch fire in a week
With at least four incidents of electric two-wheelers catching fire being reported in the past seven days, the focus has shifted to the safety and quality of batteries being employed by the manufacturers in their products.
Since March 26, fire incidents involving electric two-wheelers have been reported in Pune, Vellore, Tiruchirappalli and Chennai. The models belonged to brands such as Ola, Okinawa and Pure EV.
The electric two-wheeler volumes have been growing at an exceptional pace in India. Their total sales, including high-speed and low-speed models, increased by 132.26% to 233,971 units in CY 2021 as compared to 100,736 units sold in CY 2020.
According to data from the industry body Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), the 10 leading manufacturers of electric two-wheelers in CY 2021 were Hero Electric (46,214 units), Okinawa (29,868 units), Ather Energy (15,836 units), Ampere (12,417 units), Pure EV (10,946 units), TVS Motor Company (5,368 units), Revolt (4,687 units), Bajaj Auto (4,532 units), Benling India (4,421 units) and Jitendra New EV (1,930 units).
Most of the new electric two-wheeler models being introduced now are powered by lithium-ion batteries. In terms of capacity, efficiency and lifespan, these are better than lead-acid batteries.
Lithium, cobalt and nickel are some of the critical raw materials used in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. Among them, cobalt is highly flammable.
According to Ather Energy, which sells electric scooters like 450 Plus and 450X, most cells that are currently used in EV batteries are designed for countries with colder climates.
“When designing batteries for Indian conditions, the battery not only needs to be compatible with extreme road conditions but also with grid charging. Typically, the range, reliability and performance of every electric vehicle is affected heavily by climatic and road conditions.
To manage these external conditions, a robust battery management system (BMS) has to be built to ensure safe, reliable performance. While India has adopted the stringent AIS 156 standard to ensure safety, a lot more needs to be done to ensure EVs become safer,” said a spokesperson from Ather Energy.
Benling India CEO and ED Amit Kumar told FE that one of the reasons behind electric two-wheelers catching fire can be the use of NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) chemistry-based lithium-ion batteries.
“In this technology, the battery size is compact and less breathing/cooling space is given to cells. So they catch fire due to heat inside the battery. Since the breathing space is less, even if one cell sparks, then other cells also catch fire very easily since the distance is less. China is already phasing it out and shifting to LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries as they had some 300,000 incidents of vehicles catching fire last year. In India, 99% of EV companies still use this NCM, which is 10-12% low in price,” Kumar added.
Bounce CEO and co-founder Vivekananda Hallekere noted that battery health is impacted due to a combination of reasons – the most critical variables being the quality of cells, thermal management through BMS, chargers, the way the batteries are packed and rapid charging.
“Any of these individual elements or a combination of these elements can have an adverse impact on the health of the battery. Any compromise on the health of the battery can lead to a risky situation,” Hallekere said.
The company had launched Infinity electric scooter in India in December 2021. The Infinity is priced at Rs 68,999 (ex-showroom) with the battery and charger, and Rs 45,099 without the battery.
“Bounce is confident in battery safety. We have been one of the largest high-speed EV fleet operators in India since 2019 and we have had the experience of running and operating large fleets across cities like Bangalore, Hassan, Vijayawada and Hyderabad in varied weather conditions, including hot summers for over 2 years and millions of kilometres,” Hallekere said.
Simple Energy founder and CEO Suhas Rajkumar observed that developing the EV is just half the battle as a lot of fine-tuning and testing has to be done after that to ensure that it has the desired efficiency and quality.
“Since this is a resource-intensive step, some brands skip it, hoping that all the components work together just fine. Needless to say, this is risky as it leaves the vehicle vulnerable to failures such as overheating and thermal runaways. This was one of the key focus areas in the development of Simple One, where our proprietary BMS and thermal management system was stress-tested under extreme conditions to ensure it can survive every usage scenario, allowing us to sustain industry-leading power output for longer,” Rajkumar said.
Simple Energy company had launched the One electric scooter in August 2021 at Rs 1.10 lakh (ex-showroom).
The electric scooters of Ather Energy, Benling India, Bounce and Simple Energy come with lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion battery manufacturer Lohum’s co-founder and CEO Rajat Verma told FE that there needs to be a deep focus on rigorous quality assurance programs for cell and component quality, and also across the entire production process.
“In addition, should an incident occur, there should be existing programs in place for investigation and resolution,” Verma noted.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has already asked Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) to probe the Ola electric scooter fire incident and suggest remedial measures.