With the rising price of crude oil, demand for electric vehicles has grown at a significant rate, and a number of EV brands are entering the market in the country these days. While there are plenty of advantages to electric scooters, the increasing number of fire incidents in them has given birth to debate and discussion about the safety of vehicle owners as well as quality measurements taken by the EV makers.
From some fire occurrences in the past few months, we can see that not only new or small brands but some biggies are also under question as to their reliability, as the scooters from brands like Ola, Okinawa, and Pure EV failed to show their reliability and were met with hazardous fire blasts. Now the biggest question is: why are these electric scooters prone to fire? Whether the EV companies follow the proper guidelines set by the government and quality standards is debatable.
After scrutinising the fire mishaps in electric scooters, we can say that there might be some of the following reasons behind them: Most EVs are powered by lithium-ion or Li-ion batteries, which are also found in most consumer gadgets, from cellphones and smartwatches to laptops. When exposed to air, they are known to catch fire. When lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries fail, they experience a phenomenon known as thermal runaway.
The pressure and temperature rapidly rise throughout the procedure, and if the interior of the battery is exposed to air, it might catch fire or even explode. The presence of organic liquid electrolytes in the battery unit simply adds to the fire. A battery management system (BMS) is used to ensure that Li-ion batteries run safely. A faulty BMS, manufacturing defect, external damage, low cell quality, chain reaction, short circuit, or even excessive charging can lead to a fire or explosion in an electric vehicle.