The adoption of EVs has been increasing in India over time, but there are still stray incidents that call into question the safety of electric vehicles.
A massive fire broke out at an Ola Electric showroom in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Visuals shared on social media showed black smoke billowing from the Ola Electric showroom in the Geeta Bhawan area of the city. A crowd gathered around the showroom as it was evacuated. No injuries or loss of life were reported.
Videos showed the smoke emanating from inside the showroom where Ola’s bikes were parked. The reasons behind the fire are still unknown, and police said they would be ascertained after an investigation. The police suspect that a short circuit or a battery malfunction led to the fire. The fire was eventually put out by the fire brigade.
“A fire break out was reported from Indore’s Ola Electric Showroom in Geeta Bhawan area. Acting on the incident, police have diverted the traffic. No loss of life has been reported from the incident and the entire building has been evacuated at present,” ACP Tushar Singh said.
There have been several fires associated with EVs in India. In 2022, an Ola S1 scooter had suddenly caught fire in Pune, and the videos had gone viral on social media. Around the same time, Pure EV had recalled 2,000 scooters after one of its scooters had exploded and killed one and injured three people in Telangana. Okinawa had also recalled 3,000 scooters after a man and his 13-year-old daughter had been killed after their scooter had exploded. An Ather scooter had also caught fire in Bengaluru.
This spate of EV fires in a short period of time had caught the attention of regulatory bodies. The government had issued notices to Ola, Okinawa and others and asked them why they shouldn’t be penalized for selling faulty EVs. The government had also deputed a team to determine the cause of fires in electric vehicles, and in August 2022, the body had said it would come up with draft specifications for EV batteries.
EV firms, though, had sought to downplay the fires. Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal had said that “EV fires will happen” after an electric Tata Nexon had caught fire in Mumbai. He had said that statistically, EV fires were less frequent than ICE fires, but hadn’t shared the source of his data. But with an Ola showroom now catching fire in Indore, this is the sort of publicity that EV firms can ill-afford — there is a niggling fear in most consumers’ minds about EV fires, and such incidents will lead many customers to wonder that with EV safety, there might be no smoke without fire.