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Amid the ongoing issue with Electric Scooters all over India, Ola has issued a statement that it will be recalling over 1,400 units of its electric scooters.
There have been several accidents due to Electric Scooters throughout the country. For instance, a 40-year-old man died when the battery of his scooter, which was charging in his bedroom, exploded within a day of purchase. His wife suffered severe burns and was in critical condition and his children suffered from asphyxiation but recovered.
Or the case where an electric scooter battery explosion killed an 80-year-old man in Nizamabad. Ola has also seen accidents with its recently popular S1 Pro model.
There was a case where the scooter reversed when the rider was trying to accelerate leading to the scooter being damaged and the rider sustaining minor injuries. The rider also received terrible customer service from Ola.
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The more popular case is from Guwahati, Assam, where the S1 Pro accelerated instead of slowing down near a speed bumper, causing the scooter to become airborne and severely injuring the rider. The rider received several stitches and fractures due to the accident, for which the rider's father blamed Ola.
Ola was quick to respond as it towed back the scooter to investigate and claimed it was the rider's fault for overspeeding, not the scooter's, by publishing their report on Twitter.
Ola Electric, the EV arm of Ola, has been a nightmare for the founders as the company has been facing several issues ever since its launch. The vehicles, priced between Rs 85k to 160k, have been subject to criticism ever since they began sales as the scooters stopped functioning suddenly, had battery draining issues, terrible customer service, etc.
Some companies believe that the cause of batteries catching fire or exploding is due to negligence when charging the batteries. Certain experts feel that high temperatures cause the battery to overheat and cause short circuits, thereby catching fire. Faults in Battery Management Systems might also be a major reason.
Ola is not the first to recall its scooters amid rising concerns of battery explosions. Okinawa Autotech recently recalled 3,000 units while PureEV called back 2,000 units.
The government has warned the EV companies that they would be severely penalized if found to be in the wrong.
These unfortunate incidents, if not taken care of properly, might push people's trust away from EVs, moving India away from the EV boom. EV sales currently constitute a mere 1% of total vehicle sales, but this was set to grow. However, these accidents might make people fear for their safety and continue using gasoline vehicles.
However, even amid such a crisis, founder Bhavesh Aggarwal remains positive about the future. He recently expressed his wish to make India a global hub for EVs. He also said that Ola could launch self-driving EVs in two years. Ola had announced its plan to launch its IPO in early 2022, but there has been no news regarding the matter recently.
Article by Aman Agarwal.
This news piece is brought to you in association with jobaaj.com
