The probe seemed into fireplace incidents involving three firms, together with Ola Electric, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, and was the nation’s top-selling e-scooter maker in April.
“In Ola’s case, the battery cells had been discovered to be a problem in addition to the battery administration system,” mentioned one of many sources, who has direct information of the report.
In March, India launched an investigation over security considerations after a spate of e-scooter fires, together with one the place a person and his daughter died when their e-bike “went up in flames”.
India desires e-scooters and e-bikes to make up 80% of whole two-wheeler gross sales by 2030, from about 2% at present. However considerations over security jeopardise client confidence and will derail development of a sector that’s key to the nation’s carbon discount targets.
“The federal government has taken samples of cells from the three firms to make additional checks,” the particular person mentioned, including that the ultimate investigation report is anticipated in about two weeks.
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Ola, which sources its cells from South Korea’s LG Vitality Resolution (LGES), says it’s working with the federal government on the difficulty and has appointed an exterior knowledgeable company, along with conducting its personal probe.
“As per the preliminary evaluation of those specialists, there was no fault of the Ola battery administration system in any respect and it was probably an remoted thermal incident,” an organization spokesperson mentioned in an announcement.
“The Indian authorities’s report has not but been launched or shared with us. We can’t touch upon the report as we now have not but recognized the foundation explanation for the Ola scooter incident in March,” LGES in Seoul mentioned in an announcement to Reuters.
On April 18, an government at LGES in India, Prashant Kumar, advised Reuters that the corporate and Ola are “collaborating on an unlucky incident and in search of to know the foundation trigger.”
The federal government probe additionally seemed into fireplace incidents involving scooters constructed by Indian startups Okinawa and PureEV. In Okinawa’s case there was a problem with the cells and battery modules and for PureEV it was the battery casing, mentioned the primary supply.
PureEV and Okinawa didn’t reply to an e mail in search of remark however have beforehand mentioned they’re investigating the fires and have issued a recall of some scooters.
The preliminary findings of the investigation have prompted the federal government to think about testing battery cells of e-scooters earlier than they’re allowed to launch, mentioned the second supply.
India presently checks the battery packs however not the cells that are primarily imported from South Korea or China.
“If India decides to check the cells, it must construct the infrastructure and experience,” mentioned the particular person.
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