Due to the battery fires in electric scooters in last few days, electric vehicle dealership caught fire.
In 35 second video that surfaced, we can see that a dealership in Balaghat near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh belonging to Ghaziabad based e-Ashwa Automotive caught fire on Thursday. The dealership sells a range of electric scooters and rickshaws.
Fire Caused Due To Short Circuit
While the staff was trying to rescue the vehicles, one can easily see the blaze and the bursting sound. Short circuit in the electrical socket is the reason for the fire. Company also confirmed that no vehicle was either involved or damaged.
“The fire was not on account of any vehicle or any of its components sourced and it was a general incidence of electricity short circuit which although could have turned out to be a fatal accident but due to the immediate attention and action on the part of the owner of the outlet, its staff and neighbouring shopkeeper,” the company said in a statement. “The fire could get controlled within few minutes without much loss to any assets. There was no injury to any of the people present at the site”.
It added “Electric vehicles being one of the mega make in India project towards green environment friendly vehicles and is an ambitious project of current Govt, any incidence in such category of vehicle showroom attracts natural attention of all in general and media in particular”.
Recurring Incidents
The incident occurred close on the heels of four cases of fire involving scooters from Ola Electric, Okinawa and Pure EV in the last one week. This is also the third incident in the last four months of fire in an EV showroom.
In the month of December, fire was reported in a Hero Electric showroom in Vizag. In the month of January, there was fire reported in Ampere Electric showroom in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. Due to the increased number of fire incidents, concern on the safety aspects of the new technology has been raised. A team of experts has been constituted by government in order to investigate the fires in Ola and Okinawa scooters.