After fire incidents, Pure EV says open to guidelines on EV manufacturing from govt, blames media for hype, Auto News, ET Auto

New Delhi: Soon after two instances of fire in ePluto scooters went viral on social media final 7 days, electric vehicle startup Pure EV has explained it is open up to in depth set of rules on creation, storage and application of lithium ion batteries in EVs.

In a 4 page interior conversation notice that was despatched out to dealers and stakeholders, the firm explained it has recalled a single of the two damaged scooters to the manufacturing facility and is investigating the incident to know a lot more aspects about the interior root causes to the triggering of thermal runaway event in the particular battery.

ETAuto experienced to start with described the incident and reached out to the firm for an clarification on what went incorrect and how they prepared to stay clear of a repeat in future, but has gained no immediate response so far. The movies have ignited a discussion on no matter whether laws require to be strengthened to assure basic safety of batteries and a screening procedure of high-quality of parts getting imported be released.

“We welcome, if the Govt or the anxious regulatory overall body wants to difficulty in depth rules on the production, screening and validation approaches, transportation, storage and usage of the Lithium batteries to the EV OEMs, and basic safety manuals and checklists to the dealers and the stop customers, and the recurrent support/wellness check out-up/servicing protocols of the Lithium batteries although they are in use and idle conditions,” the startup included in its 4-page formal notice.

Moreover it explained, “this incident motivates the firm to make improvements to their basic safety information and take care of to work terribly tough to make lithium batteries available and affordable for the common person and democratize EV engineering.”

Prior to this, Hyundai Motor India recalled 456 units of its electric crossover Kona in December final yr above battery fire issues.

Why do batteries catch fire in EVs?

Battery fires are not exclusive to the car field but it’s usually been extremely challenging to pinpoint the precise root induce of the fire. The fashionable vehicle is a glorious tangle of wires and a simple small circuit can guide to a fire. As opposed to the ICE vehicle though, EVs use more substantial and a lot more advanced lithium ion batteries. Mostly, lithium batteries catch fire if they have been improperly manufactured or damaged, or if the program that operates the battery is not built beautifully.

The big weak spot of lithium-ion batteries is the use of organic and natural liquid electrolytes, which are volatile and flammable when running at large temperatures. Any severe external drive these as a crash can also guide to chemical leakage.
What drew media interest in the PURE EV case is that a fire incident seems to have occurred in both of those the scooters although participating in on the highway. Though it is continue to not obvious when and exactly where a single of the movies was taken.

Business specialists have also speculated no matter whether poor high-quality of imported lithium ion cells–a essential element of the battery that is not manufactured in India, could be the purpose for the fires. A considerable proportion of EV parts are sourced from China exactly where high-quality expectations vary extensively.

Blame it on the media

In the notice, the firm also arrived down closely on media for hyping up the incident and intentionally concentrating on it.

“It really is unlucky that many persons have right away drawn wilful and scripted conclusions on the PURE batteries/autos. All these compensated vendetta getting executed on a single distinct model by generating a single online video viral although just ignoring the plethora of incidents happening throughout various EVs and ICE autos in India, and which includes many EV/Battery factories experienced big fire incidents. Even the finest high-quality batteries made by entire world course suppliers have long gone for frightening thermal runaway activities, and various ICE vehicle fire incidents go unreported every day,” it explained.

“These persons/ influencers have intentionally attempted to malign Pure by getting the choose, the jury and the executioner in this distinct incident. By conveying that THIS distinct event has rattled the nascent EV field, the complete EV field has been maligned,” it included. “Denigrating capabilities of the a single distinct EV firm by speedy media/social-media trials & judgements and without the need of next thanks diligence will get rid of the sentiments of the complete public who are fascinated in EVs and in fact the tempo of the innovation.”

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