Expressing grief over several accidents involving electric two-wheelers in the recent past, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that the government will issue necessary orders on defaulting companies after receiving the report of an expert panel set up to probe these incidents. Will do In a series of tweets, Gadkari said: “We will soon issue quality-focused guidelines for electric vehicles. If a company is found to be negligent in its procedures, heavy fines will be imposed and all defective vehicles will be ordered to be taken back.
Stating that the Narendra Modi government is committed to ensuring the safety of all citizens, Gadkari said: “Companies can take advance action to immediately recall all defective batches of vehicles.” In the past few weeks, over a dozen electric scooters manufactured by Ola Electric, Pure EV and Jitendra EV apart from Okinawa have caught fire. The companies concerned have started their investigation.
An 80-year-old man died on Wednesday when the battery of an electric scooter exploded at his house in Telangana’s Nizamabad district. Soon after the Nizamabad incident made headlines, electric scooter maker Pure EV announced its decision to recall 2,000 vehicles belonging to the ETrance Plus and EPluto 7G models. Earlier this week, two-wheeler EV maker Okinawa Autotech also said that it is recalling 3,215 units of its Praz Pro scooter to fix any battery-related issues.
Meanwhile, NITI Aayog on Thursday released the draft battery swap policy for electric vehicles. In this, among other things, along with giving incentives, suggestions have been given for strict testing system. This draft policy has been brought at a time when there has been a growing concern about the safety of these vehicles after several cases of fire in electric vehicles.
Under this, in the first phase, priority will be given to all metros having population of more than 40 lakhs for the development of battery swapping network. Keeping in view the importance of two wheelers and three wheelers, cities with a population of more than five lakh, including state capitals, union territories, will be included in the second phase. The policy emphasizes on providing equal opportunities across all business models. This includes the sale of battery-less electric vehicles (EVs) with or under replacement of batteries.
It added that demand-related incentives for EV procurement under existing or new schemes may be extended to battery-swapped electric vehicles. The draft policy suggested, “The size of the incentive may be determined on the basis of the kWh rating of the battery and the EV.” Or the department will prepare.