20 Jitendra EV E-Scooters Catch Fire In Nashik

This is the fifth and biggest EV fire incident in just a couple of weeks

In yet another freak accident, 20 Jitendra EV electric scooters went up in flames in a container, making this not only the fifth fire incident in a matter of weeks, but also the biggest one in the country yet. The accident took place near the EV manufacturer’s factory in Nashik on April 9, while the scooters were being transported.

A batch of 40 electric scooters were present in the container with 20 on the upper deck and 20 on the lower deck. From what we can see, the upper deck went up in flames while the authorities and firemen tried to control the situation. Fortunately, there were no casualties during the whole ordeal. The reason for the fire is not yet known, and the company has been reported to be investigating the root cause.

It started out as random & sporadic but now cases of #ElectricVehicles on fire are surfacing with increasing frequency. Just as I had feared.
Last Saturday, 20 #electricscooters from #JitendraEV were gutted near Nashik in a trailer.
It'll get worse before it gets better.#EV pic.twitter.com/2G5ZFXqBfn

— Sumant Banerji (@sumantbanerji) April 11, 2022

What’s noticeable, however, is that the fire broke out near the factory, while the scooters were being transported, suggesting that the e-scooters were brand new and weren’t used at all. This raises more safety concerns regarding EVs as in all previous accidents, the scooters were those in regular use.

• Check Out This Cool Motorcycle Chariot Powered By Husqvarna
• Upcoming Bikes in India
• Ather 450X Price in India

We are just one month into the summer season and we have already witnessed an Ola S1 Pro catching fire in the outskirts of Pune, two of Okinawa e-scooters catching fire on different occasions, and Pure EV EPluto 7G catching fire in Chennai. This is the fifth fire incident, severely harming the popularity and reliability of EVs in the country.

That said, kudos to manufacturers like Ather, Revolt, Bajaj and TVS for bringing out products that are safe for the consumers and have fortunately not recorded any such incident.

Apart from that, Jitendra EV recently signed an MoU with Log9 Materials, a Bengaluru-based startup. According to the MoU, Jitendra EV will use the aluminium fuel cell battery tech by Log9, a much safer battery technology as compared to a conventional li-ion battery pack and is also capable of charging completely in just 15 minutes. The aluminium fuel cell battery tech has a wider operating temperature of -30° to 60°C, as compared to li-ion’s 10° to 55°C operating temperature, significantly reducing the risk of batteries catching fire.