20 electric scooters burn in fiery flames in yet another EV fire incident

A container truck carrying electric scooters caught fire on Mumbai-Agra national highway in Nashik recently, resulting in half of the electric vehicles blazed to ash, reports PTI. The report also says that despite the devastating fire, no one was injured due to the incident.

The fire incident reportedly took place at around 4:15 pm near a hotel in Pathardi Phata. The report metions that the fire was doused in an hour by personnel from CIDCO and Ambad MIDC fire stations. However, 20 of the total 40 electric scooters that were being transported by the container truck were gutted due to the fire. The exact cause of the blaze is still a matter of investigation.

While the internal combustion engine vehicles are more prone to fire risks, electric vehicle fire can be devastating because of the lithium-ion batteries onboard these vehicles. Once an electric vehicle catches fire, dousing it becomes difficult. Throwing water on a lithium-ion battery that is on fire might make it difficult to extinguish the flames. This is because water reduces lithium in the electrolyte leading to the release of hydrogen gas, which is highly flammable. Hence, throwing water at an EV fire increases the intensity of the flame.

In recent times, several fire incidents across India have taken place involving electric scooters. While those incidents involved single units of electric scooters, this time multiple electric scooters got burned. However, The reason behind the container truck fire is yet to be disclosed.

This is the fifth fire incident in India in recent times involving electric vehicles. On March 26, an Ola Electric S1 Pro scooter was caught on fire in Pune. On the same day, another electric scooter fire incident caused life of two people in Vellore of Tamil Nadu. On March 28, another electric scooter in Tamil Nadu caught fire, immediately followed by another electric scooter fire the next day in Chennai.