Ola, the ride-hailing startup that diversified into car rentals and manufacturing electric scooters, has announced a recall of 1,441 units of its much-hyped S1 scooters after high-profile incidents of battery explosions of electric scooters that have proved fatal.
The company will now conduct preliminary diagnostics and ‘health checks’ on the recalled units of the S1 Pro model. Earlier this month in April, the Gurugram based company Okinawa Autotech, and Power Using Renewable Energy (PURE) EV based in Hyderabad, recalled 3,215 and 2,000 units of their scooters respectively for safety checks.
Electric vehicles and particularly scooters are under increased scrutiny following an explosion that killed a 40-year-old man in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh, and previous incidents of catching fire that have raised questions on its safety and the responsibility of manufacturers to adequately test their products for Indian conditions before cashing in on a growing market with numerous but limited-budget customers.
The Vijaywada incident left the man’s wife and two children in critical condition, as the fire caused by the explosion spread to other appliances in their home and led to burns and asphyxiation before neighbours rescued them. Similarly, another incident in Telangana’s Nizamambad in the same week killed an 80-year-old man in his home and injured two others. His son blamed the “substandard quality” of the battery responsible for his father’s death.
On Thursday, Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said that companies should act ‘responsibly’ by recalling defective batches of vehicles before the government issues guidelines or acts against ‘negligence’.
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