Pure EV E-Scooter Goes Up In Flames

This is the third scooter by the company to catch fire in the last six months 

With the increase in the temperature and summer just starting to begin, we have one more case of an electric scooter catching fire. And this time around it was the Pure EV e-scooter. Besides, this happened just a couple of days after an Ola S1 Pro went up in flames in the outskirts of Pune.

The incident reportedly took place on the outskirts of Chennai, where a red Pure EV scooter which, judging by the footage, looks like the Pure EV EPluto 7G, was seen emitting a thick white smoke out of its underseat storage where the battery pack is placed. This fire incident raises some serious concerns regarding Pure EV e-scooters, as it is the third scooter by the company to have caught fire in the last six months.

After Okinawa and Ola’s fire incident, the central government has taken steps to investigate the incidents. Additionally, the Road Transport Ministry on Tuesday, March 29, has even asked the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for help in getting to the root cause of these mishaps.

That said, the exact reason for the fire is yet unknown, with the EV manufacturer saying that the incident is being investigated. Interestingly, just like the Ola S1 Pro, the Pure EV e-scooter too uses a lithium-ion battery pack with an NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) composition. These batteries are susceptible to thermal runaway, a phenomenon accelerated by exposure to high temperatures, which in turn causes a malfunction that releases energy abruptly, further increasing the temperature and leading to a fire. 

And to reiterate, we’re still in the initial bit of the summer, and have already come across three to four fire incidents in two-wheeled EVs, which could have serious repercussions on both their popularity, as well as the  people’s outlook towards EVs, not to mention safety concerns.

We reached out to Pure EV for a comment on the incident and here's what they had to say about it.