As many as four incidents of electric two-wheelers catching fire have been reported over the past four days, leading to growing concerns about how EV batteries are coping with the heat of the Indian summer and terrain. The incidents of fire in EVs have been reported from Pune last Saturday, when an Ola S1 Pro electric scooter was engulfed in thick white smoke. On the same day, another incident was reported from Vellore, where an Okinawa electric scooter left plugged for overnight charging caught fire, leading to the deaths of its owner and his 13-year-old daughter.
Also Read: Govt Orders Probe Into Electric Scooter Fires
While the increasing incidents of spontaneous combustion in electric scooters may ring some alarm bells, many OEMs are now coming forward, saying that their products and batteries are safe, and will not face such issues of overheating and catching fire. In response to questions put forward by carandbike, Bounce Infinity CEO and Co-founder Vivekananda Hallekere said his company is confident about battery safety.
Also Read: Ola S1 Pro Electric Scooter Catches Fire In Pune
Bounce Battery Swapping Station offers customers to quickly swap out a used battery for a fully-charged battery. While the swapping system sounds convenient like the use of conventional fuel filling stations, the weight of the batteries make it slightly inconvenient for users.
Also Read: Pure EV Electric Scooter Catches Fire In Chennai
"Batteries catching fire has been in news, we would love to tell you more about why this happens and why Bounce is confident in battery safety. The learning is that it's not just one thing but many things to be done right. Bounce has been one of the largest high-speed EV fleet operators in India since 2019 and we have had the experience of running and operating large fleets across cities like Bangalore, Hassan, Vijaywada and Hyderabad in varied weather conditions, including hot summers for over two years and millions of kilometres," said Hallekere.
Batteries catching fire has been in news, we would love to tell you more about why does this happens and why Bounce is confident in battery safety. . The learning is that it's not just one thing but many things to be done right. Here is a thread on the same (1/n)
— Vivekananda Hallekere (@vivekanandahr) March 30, 2022
"Battery health is impacted due to a combination of reasons; the most critical variables are the quality of cells, thermal management through BMS, Chargers, the way the Batteries are packed, Rapid Charging. Any of these individual elements or a combination of these elements can have an adverse impact on the health of the battery. Any compromise on the health of the battery can lead to a risky situation."
"Bounce uses premium grade cells, high quality battery packers using the right infra & technology for Packing the Batteries & testing them and Bounce carries out stringent QCs at the time of purchasing batteries. Additionally, Bounce does not use rapid charging, which can be detrimental to the health of the battery by making the battery behave erratically and this could adversely impact the thermal management," added Hallekere.
Also Read: Bounce Infinity E1 Electric Scooter Review
With battery-as-a-service option, customers can continue to use the Bounce Infinity E1 electric scooter, and as soon as it runs low on charge, the battery can be swapped for a fully-charged unit at a Bounce swapping station.
According to the company, Bounce Infinity has the largest swapping network in India servicing over 3,000 swaps per day, totalling about 1,80,000 kilometres. In the last two years, Bounce has completed over a Million swaps catering to over 50Million kilometre, enabling more than 20,000 customers per day. The charging stations and batteries used by Bounce are smart and IoT-enabled which has put in place various intelligent mechanisms which ensures safe power management, the company maintains. Bounce Infinity, which also has its own electric scooter, called the Bounce Infinity E1, says multiple two-wheeler and three-wheeler OEMs have signed up with Bounce to use its batteries and battery-swapping network.
