[sandeepmohan]

Damn! That is unfortunate. Not good for a company just about making in roads with a new scooter.

Reminds me of the early days of the TATA Nano fire episodes. A few incidents like this and you can say Goodbye.

Hope Ola have a plan in place to remedy such issues.

[Aditya]

Ola S1 pro electric scooter catches fire in Pune - Posts moved to a new thread.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Ola S1 pro electric scooter catches fire in Pune

It is frightening to watch these people try to handle a lithium battery on fire. One can't extinguish a lithium battery fire. Best is to cordon off the area and let it burn. Even fire departments do not have the chemicals or inert gases to extinguish these. Lithium is so light that it floats on water. Sand would sink down too. People took risk for nothing. Ola should include this in their statement if they are worried about public safety. Do not fight lithium fires, vacate the place.

[Sebring]

It has to be immersed in a tub of water or foam. That's the tough part

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

One can't extinguish a lithium battery fire. Best is to cordon off the area and let it burn. Even fire departments do not have the chemicals or inert games to extinguish these. Lithium is so light that it floats on water. Sand would sink down too. People took risk for nothing. Ola should include this in their statement if they are worried about public safety. Do not fight lithium fires, vacate the place.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by Sebring

It has to be immersed in a tub of water or foam. That's the tough part

Lithium is lighter than water, it will float and burn.

[PreludeSH]

Its discouraging for people like me who had some doubts about EV safety to see such things. It will put off buying an EV

My plan was to park the car when I buy it on the ramp to my basement garage. Always had reservations about parking them inside.

There should be some standards for safety tests of these EVs just like structural safety being done today.

[JithinR]

Think this would be another incident of an EV Scooter catching fire. This time it's Pure EV in Chennai.

It looks like none of the guys (don't remember seeing Aether yet) thought about cooling system for the battery.

https://twitter.com/sumantbanerji/st...kKUEHwlYg&s=19

[pogo0120]

When you look at these fires, one must appreciate Tesla for doing excellent R&D for their car batteries. Even though few tesla cars caught fire, all were root caused to non-battery issues like cigarettes causing fire, dangerous chemicals or after deadly impact (even petrol cars will catch fire after car accident involving fuel leak).

Today Tesla manufactures over 2 lakhs cars every quarter and is about to hit 2 million cars next year with two new plants, each car having over 60KWhr batteries.

Arizona is hotter than Rajasthan, even Atlanta is hotter than Chennai during summer days. I remember, my nose bleeding blood when I used to walk on Chandler, AZ, while working at Intel. Since I used to work in Atlanta, I thought, the heat should be ok, but my nose was bleeding due to extreme heat. Even in these places, Tesla works fine. Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I have driven with over a feet snow with a chain. Still, these places Tesla works, although the range is less. Regardless, fire is a very dangerous issue. I never found or read any literature on OLA or Ather, if batteries are liquid-cooled? Glycol?

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Lithium is lighter than water, it will float and burn.

I remember another thread in TBHP discussing a Tesla fire incidents. In one of those incidents, the fire dept dunked the car in a water container for several hours(after putting out the fire). I could not locate that thread, hence posting the link from tesla first responder's guide.

USE WATER TO FIGHT A HIGH VOLTAGE BATTERY FIRE. If the battery catches fire, is exposed to high heat, or is generating heat or gases, use large amounts of water to cool the battery. It can take between approximately 3,000-8,000 gallons (11,356-30,283 liters) of water, applied directly to the battery, to fully extinguish and cool down a battery fire; always establish or request additional water supply early. If water is not immediately available, use CO2, dry chemicals, or another
typical fire-extinguishing agent to fight the fire until water is available.

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/...e_Guide_en.pdf

[mathewspaul]

LOL, May be the scooter took 'Burnol' tweet from the CEO literally and "burned all"

[GTO]

From the business POV, this is a critical time for the Ola management and PR team. The Tata Nano's early fire incidents - isolated as they were - left a deep scar on the car's reputation. Tata's then PR team had handled the situation poorly.

Of course, it's a different matter today with social media. News spreads like wildfire (pun intended), but news outlets + online media + social media influencers can just as easily be bought if you have deep pockets. Currently, Ola has access to endless funds for such exercises.

Bhavish Aggarwal really needs to shut up on Twitter though. He is no Elon Musk and needs to realise that. Note: I say this as a big fan of Aggarwal's achievements. I really like the guy, but being a reckless loudmouth doesn't suit his stature.

[volkman10]

DRDO will investigate the fire in EV.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has asked the Center for Fire, Explosives and Environmental Safety (CFEES) to investigate the fire on an Ola S1Pro and an Okinawa Praise Pro e-scooter.

CFEES is a laboratory of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO)

An official from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said the Center could withdraw or stop selling the vehicles under investigation if they were found to be unsuitable for Indian conditions

Any e-vehicle that uses lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide, abbreviated as NMC technology, could be finally investigated. The technology is notorious for catching fire if the cooling system is not optimized

Link

[jomson13]

Do EV's undergo the routine homologation process that ICE vehicles undergo at ARAI, Pune?
I'm guessing they would have done some tests to certify these vehicles as being roadworthy.
I do not hear any discussions around the certifying authority - what am I missing here?

[Raghu M]

Just off topic, the vehicle caught fire, the company is investigating. I don't understand as to when we as people take safety seriously. Just look at how close people were standing and filming the incident. The small flares that broke out in between should have alerted them. Instead, they stood so close and filmed it. Just wondering if there was a blast from the battery, things would turn dangerous.

[srini1785]

DRDO will investigate the fire in EV.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has asked the Center for Fire, Explosives and Environmental Safety (CFEES) to investigate the fire on an Ola S1Pro and an Okinawa Praise Pro e-scooter.

CFEES is a laboratory of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO)

I suggest they also take a look at MSIL's Half-Star safety record.

I am not aware of CFEES and what they do but I think this investigation is an overkill. A EV is a rather straightforward piece of machinery. There's a motor, a battery and an inverter which controls the motor and feeds the associated circuitry for other loads. What is there to investigate?.

Personally it looks like some kind of Sabre rattling by the authorities. Then again, I am not sure if OLA cut corners on the electronic safety features that they should have provided like an over current protection or a thermal sensor.

Anyway lets wait for the report. If its made public that is.