8 Deceased In A Fire Mishap Involving An EV Showroom

Alleged overcharging of E-scooters a possible cause

An electric scooter showroom fire in Secunderabad has left eight dead and several others injured. As per officials, Ruby Electric Scooters showroom was engulfed in flames late last night due to a short circuit in an electric scooter charging unit which then spread to a hotel on the upper floors of the same multi-storeyed building.

Officials said the fire broke out at the e-scooter showroom on the ground floor and consequently engulfed the top floor through the stairways. Some who were sleeping on the first and second floors came to the corridor through the thick smoke and died due to asphyxiation.

The Fire Department rescued several people using crane ladders, while a few locals also joined in to help. Videos also show a few people jumping out from the hotel windows in a bid to escape the fire.

Officials have said that an investigation is in progress to find out if the fire was caused due to overcharging of batteries at the electric scooter showroom or in the basement - where a lot of electric scooters were parked.

The most common reason for EV fires are short-circuits, either caused by water-ingress or overcharging. Overcharging Lithium-ion batteries causes dendrite build-up which leads to bulged up cells. This in turn results in the cells crushing into each other and, in due course, causing short-circuiting. 

Summing it up, More overcharge = More bulge = More compressive force = Eventual internal short circuit = Fire

When cells short circuit, they also release flammable gases, which in turn causes thermal runaway. This is a chain reaction that occurs when the temperature inside a cell rises faster than its heat dissipation rate, causing it to enter into an uncontrollable, self-heating state.

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In response to recent EV fire incidents, the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued stringent testing and checking norms for electric vehicle batteries to be enforced from October 1. Read more about this here.