In yet another incident of EVs catching fire, 20 electric scooters manufactured by Jitendra Electric Vehicles went up in flames in a transport container in Nashik, Maharashtra, on Saturday, according to ET Auto. No injuries were reported.
The container, which was carrying around 40 scooters, was scheduled to take the EVs from Jitendra's factory in Nashik to Bengaluru. The company has said that it is investigating the "unfortunate incident".
This is the fifth instance of electric scooters catching fire in the past few weeks.
An Ola Electric S1 Pro scooter caught fire in Pune while Okinawa Autotech scooters caught fire in Trichy and Vellore, killing a man and his 13-year-old daughter. A Pure EV scooter also went up in flames in north Chennai.
We spoke to experts about what you should make of these fires. Read here.
"An unfortunate incident took place on 9th April near our factory gate in a scooter transport container. The situation was immediately brought under control by timely intervention from our team. Safety being of prime importance, we are investigating the root cause and we will come up with the findings in coming days," the company said.
Central Govt Investigates
The central government has put together a team, including experts from Indian Institute of Science and the Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) to investigate the accident sites in Vellore, Pune, and Trichy.
The team is also expected to investigate the Nashik incident.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha on the EV fire cases on 31 March, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had suggested that the incidents might have taken place due to high temperatures during summers.
"This is a very serious issue and we have ordered a forensic investigation into each individual event," said Gadkari, adding that the government will take "appropriate action" after the exact reasons behind the accidents are known.
The road ministry has also reportedly called senior officials of Okinawa and Ola for a detailed presentation on the fires.
The fire incidents come as a blow to an industry that has been witnessing exponential growth so far – around 132 percent in sales from 2020 to 2021, according to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV).
(With inputs from ET Auto)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)