Rising electric scooter fires need a closer look

Electric scooters have been catching fire, forcing us to question what’s wrong. We know something is wrong because electric scooters are not new. We also know that electric cars are not catching fire. To understand this, here’s a sliver of science. The Lithium-ion batteries used for electric scooters sometimes get overheated and burst into flames. This is a malfunction. But there’s more. First, there has been a huge spurt of purchases of electric scooters, partly because they are more affordable, if somewhat slower. Second, it is unclear if all the scooters that caught fire were powered by certified batteries. As of now, they must adhere to the UL2272 standards.

Despite about 15 manufacturers in India, the quality of the batteries is unclear. Could some of them have been imported from outside, with no quality control, to meet the growing demand? Third, were these batteries and scooters ever tested for the reality of a scorching Indian summer?

Fortunately, India has deftly handled similar snags, previously. Remember the case of CNG buses bursting into flames about 21 years ago? It caused a short-lived bus-phobia, but that was overcome by addressing the tech challenge. The electric scooter issue calls for the government to support manufacturers to collectively fix the problem and testing under Indian conditions, and accelerate increased battery certification while shifting manufacturing to India instead of imports from uncertain facilities.

Electric vehicles are important to fix the polluted air. Fining the manufacturers is one idea, but India’s best technical and regulatory minds should also be called in to conquer this challenge.

(The writer is the founder and director, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group)