Fires Force A Rethink

Battery safety has turned a big question mark. Ashish Bhatia with Prateek Pardeshi checks on the push for building cost-effective and safe battery packs.

- Ashish Bhatia Prateek Pardeshi

The reliability of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) has taken a beating in the recent past with ad hoc fire incidents being reported across the countries. This has especially hit the prospects of two-wheeler EV startups that gained an initial traction by riding on the clean and green mobility wave. With the government intervening and compelling manufacturers to recall suspect product batches, including standardizing EV battery packs, the focus has gone beyond building cost-effective battery packs to building safe and stable battery packs. As per Pratik Kamdar, Co-Founder, Neuron Energy, “A lot of players are entering the industry without comprehensive knowledge of the batteries with regards to quality. The industry is still a fledgling one and the majority of dealers and customers are not educated or aware of the technology.” He advocated the need for a regulatory framework so that the EV manufacturers and battery makers are held accountable for use of cells, Battery Management Systems (BMS), and compliance with regulations. “Even low-speed bikes need to be regulated by the government. EV manufacturers and battery makers should use fire-resistant grade battery materials along with superior BMS and best quality cells so these kind of fire accidents can be avoided in the future," he asserted.

Draft EV Policy

1. This Policy highlights the possible ways in which various national and sub-national government agencies and Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) may provide direct and indirect financial support to Battery Providers (for the cost of batteries) and EV users (for the up front cost of purchasing EVs), with an aim of driving EV adoption by lowering the costs of EVs for users, relatively to ICE vehicles.