In India, the excitement building up around electrical vehicles (EVs) is under threat of being stamped out.
Frequent incidents of such vehicles catching fire across the country are spooking customers—the latest one involved 20 electric scooters of Jitendra EV going up in flames on April 9 in Maharashtra’s Nashik after being loaded onto a transport container.
No one was hurt in what could be the biggest EV fire accident in the country so far.
The Nashik-based EV firm whose scooters caught fire has said it is probing the incident.
“An unfortunate incident took place on April 9 near our factory gate. The situation was immediately brought under control by our team’s timely intervention. Safety being of prime importance, we are investigating the root cause and will soon come out with the findings,” a spokesperson for Jitendra EV said.
This was the fifth such incident in India since March.
Last month, an Ola electric scooter and an Okinawa electric bike caught fire, leaving potential EV customers sceptical about safety concerns.
The government, in March, said soaring temperatures could be the reason. Experts, however, have blamed the poor battery design. They have, however, emphasised that these incidents will not derail India’s EV sector.