After a series of reported incidents of EVs catching fires all over India, a new incident came to light on the 23rd of April (Saturday). A 40-year-old man lost his life and his wife and two daughters received high degree burns when an EV battery exploded inside his house in Vijayawada. The incident is very similar to the one that took place in Nizamabad, Telangana, three days prior to this incident. An 80-year-old died in that incident when an EV battery kept for charging exploded.
In Vijayawada, Siva Kumar bought a new electric bike on Friday and kept the detachable battery for charging in his bedroom for the night. According to the Police, the battery blew after a few hours, and the family was in deep sleep. The blast caused a fire in the house, which spread to the Air Conditioning Unit and other household materials.
The sounds and smoke alerted the neighbours, prompting them to break the door open to get the family out. Kumar died on his way to the hospital, and his wife and children suffered 30% burns and inhaled the fumes. “Their condition is serious and they are under observation for 48 hours,” said Inspector Janaki Ramaiah. The EV model is Corbett 14 (comes with swappable batteries) which is a product of Boom Motors.
In Nizamabad, 80-year-old B Ramaswamy lost his life under similar circumstances as well. The battery was kept for charging in the living room when it exploded on Wednesday. B Prakash, the son of B Ramaswamy and also the owner of the EV and two other members of the family were seriously injured in the incident.
The EV was a PURE (Power Using Renewable Energy) e-scooter, PURE is an IIT Hyderabad startup with a factory on the campus as well. The police arrested the people involved in the startup under the IPC Section 304-A (causing death by negligence). After the Nizamabad incident, PURE recalled their 2000 vehicles of ETRANCE+ and EPLUTO 7G models.
In light of the recent events, The Government of India is going to impose various rules and heavy fines on all the EV two-wheeler companies. Getting a constant push from the government for a few years now for moving toward clean energy like EVs has led to the import of sub-par parts for the making of these vehicles and it has led to a series of quality defects and now the public is paying the price for it with their lives. We hope all the issues are sorted out soon and no more innocent lives are lost in the upcoming months to such terrible incidents.