Electric Scooter Explodes Claiming Life Of A 7 Year Old In Mumbai

EV battery fire incidents are seemingly increasing in India. Reportedly, a battery of an EV scooter exploded in Vasai near Mumbai claiming the life of a seven year old boy. The deceased boy was identified as Shabbir Ansari and was a student of class 2. The case has been filed at Manikpur police station and an investigation is underway.

The electric scooter belongs to the father of the deceased, which he had bought for his personal use. The incident occurred on September 23, when the father of the deceased boy kept the battery of his scooter for charging overnight. As per the police report, the battery exploded and started a fire that spread to the living room of the apartment. Unfortunately, the fire severely burned Shabbir who was asleep in the room. He was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead.

Currently, there is no information about the make of the electric vehicle that caused the mishap. This is not the first time that an EV-related explosion or fire incident has occurred. In March 2022, the battery of an Okinawa electric scooter exploded claiming the lives of a father and daughter of Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

During the same period, an Ola S1 Pro electric scooter in Pune, Maharashtra, went up in flames. In April 2022, a scooter from Pure EV, a Hyderabad-based EV brand, caught fire while being parked. While there has been only one reported incident involving an Ola electric scooter, there have been multiple fire incidents with Pure EV and Okinawa scooters.

The Government of India launched a probe into the matter and sent out show cause notices to electric two-wheeler manufacturers Ola Electric, Pure EV, Okinawa Autotech, and Jitendra EV earlier this year. The investigating team reported the inferior quality of the components used in the battery packs to be the primary reason for the fire incidents.

The government needs to focus on the safety of EV users in India. It needs to lay out stringent rules for EV manufacturers to mitigate such incidents. Also, a battery fire could prove to be tricky to deal with compared to a conventional car/motorcycle fire. Therefore, fire departments need to be trained accordingly to deal with such situations.