Exclusive: Pure EV's Response To The Fire Incident

Here's what the EV manufacturer has to say about its scooter that caught fire recently 

On Tuesday, a Pure EV EPluto 7G was seen going up in flames and emitting thick white smoke from its under seat area, in Chennai. Click here to read the full report on the fire incident. This accident along with the Ola and Okinawa fire incident has raised safety concerns surrounding electric scooters among consumers. Here is what Pure EV has to say about it.

We have taken cognizance of the incident reported with one of our customer vehicles in Tamil Nadu and preliminary information has been obtained from the concerned client and our dealer. The accident vehicle has been brought to our concerned dealer service station for further analysis. We are investigating the incident and will do a thorough assessment. 

Talking about the protocols and safety standards followed, the company says, “We adhere to the highest safety standards through rigorous internal testing as well as special phase change materials being implemented in our battery packs to avoid rapid fire/blast kind of scenarios.”

Highlighting the mechanisms Pure EV has put in place in the worst case scenario of thermal runaway, the company adds, “PURE batteries come with the state-of-the-art thermal management system, which is a combination of the electronics coupled with multiple active/passive materials, to avoid the thermal-runaway events. We also have a special vent mechanism so that the smokes get released immediately whenever there is any kind of event inside the battery, otherwise, to avoid a sudden blast/explosion.”

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The preliminary investigation done by the company reported that the EPluto 7G was offering a range of above 95km on a single charge, more than what the company claims. Apart from that, the customer had said the condition of the battery was good and was charging it every day for around four and a half hours.

“We are yet to receive the full information in the enclosed thermal runaway investigation form, however, the preliminary information revealed that the white smoke has come out for a long time (which is due to the melting of the organic based phase change materials) for many minutes, followed by the controlled thermal runaway event and finally leading to the uncontrolled fire,” concluded the statement given by Pure EV.

It was also reported that the scooter emitted smoke for about 20-25 minutes and was on fire for five to ten minutes which was then extinguished by sand and water. Prior to the scooter catching fire, the customer observed an abnormal noise from the vehicle while riding. The damaged scooter will be received at the Pure EV factory by April 8, where it will undergo a thorough investigation and root cause analysis.

This fire incident is scary and apart from raising safety concerns, it is also something that can have serious repercussions on the popularity, as well as people’s outlook towards EVs. Moreover, this is the third scooter by Pure EV in the last six months to have been involved in such an incident. The issue regarding thermal management and runaway is something that needs to be looked closely into and rectified by the EV manufacturers. This is only the beginning of the summer season, and lithium-ion batteries are prone to overheating and in extreme cases catch fire. We do hope that this is the last time we come across something like this.