Electric scooters and fires seem to be synonymous these days, and in what may be the worst EV fire mishap to date, 20 brand new electric scooters from a firm named Jitendra EV caught fire.
The scooters caught fire while being transported and were still inside the container when the fire started.
According to reports, these scooters were on their way from the factory in Nashik. The container contained 40 Jitendra electric scooters, and the upper deck, which housed 20 of these scooters, caught fire. This incident occurred on April 9, but no injuries were recorded.
This is the fifth incidence of an electric scooter catching fire since the start of summer last month.
In Pune on March 26, an Ola Electric S1 Pro scooter caught fire. On the same day, heartbreaking news of the deaths of a father and his 13-year-old daughter from Vellore, Tamil Nadu, were received owing to a fire in the battery of his charging Okinawa scooter. That was the second time an EV had a casualty as a result of a fire.
In December 2021, a 60-year-old man died when his room was engulfed in flames as a result of a fire caused by a cargo scooter that was charging throughout the night. HCD India, located in Manesar, manufactured the scooter.
Following that, on March 28, another scooter caught fire in Tamil Nadu, followed by a Pure EV scooter engulfed in smoke in Chennai on March 29.
Taking notice of these accidents, a government investigation into the fire tragedies has been ordered.
Experts have been enlisted to assist with the investigation into the reasons of the fire in the electric scooters. Representatives from the Indian Institute of Science, NSTL Vizag, and the Centre for Fire, Explosive, and Environment Safety (CFEES) are leading the new government investigation ).
Reference- Network18, Twitter, Economic Times, Times Network, AajTak, NDTV Auto