Scooter recall hits India's 'Tesla of two-wheelers'

Image source, Ola Electric

In the southern India state of Tamil Nadu, the factory floor of the electric scooter firm, Ola Electric Mobility, is home to a large number of robots.

This start-up is backed by a Japanese investor. The company hopes to make more electric scooters at this factory than any other plant in the world.

Much of the assembly line work is done by robot.

The workforce is the most striking thing about this factory, which is spread over 500 acres.

Most of the staff is made up of women. It is a first job for many people.

Image source, Getty Images

Product roll out has not gone smoothly.

In just 24 hours, 100,000 orders were placed for the S1 and S1 Pro, which are powered with rechargeable batteries.

Since the first deliveries were made in December some customers have complained on social media of technical problems and earlier this week the firm was forced to recall 1,441 scooters from a particular batches.

The incident in which a new vehicle spontaneously caught fire after it was parked was well-publicised.

A company statement on Sunday said that the thermal incident was likely an isolated one and that it would carry out diagnostics and health checks on the recalled scooters.

The scooters will be inspected by our service engineers and will go through a thorough diagnostics across all battery systems, thermal systems, as well as the safety systems, according to the statement.

The company declined to comment further after being approached for more information.

There have been at least three other fires involving different brands of electric scooters, including Indian start-ups.

Image source, Krishna Jaiswal

India is shifting to electric vehicles.

The arrival of affordable electric scooters in India last year was exciting for road users and the government.

India is trying to figure out how to wean its population off petrol and diesel in favor of electric vehicles.

India is challenging net zero emissions targets like many of its neighbours, but it is also fending off rising inflation.

Parth Charan, a journalist who has road tested its vehicles, said that the company had positioned itself as the "Tesla of electric two-wheelers".

The government announced in March that the firm will get state support to manufacture EV batteries that can store a total of 20 gigawatt-hours of power.

Some of the problems India's EV manufacturers are facing are related to a lack of research in to the domestic market and light regulation.

We have long relied on technologies made in other countries and never questioned its applicability to the Indian ecosystems. The founder of Log9 Materials, which makes a rapid charging battery for two-wheelers, says that India has its own dynamics.

The market for auto makers in India is very challenging due to the extreme weather conditions and poor roads.

Mr Singhal feels that a lack of regulation has allowed manufacturers to rush products on to the market without proper quality control and testing.

Image source, Getty Images

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) is calling for tougher regulation of the EV two-wheeler market.

An advisor at the NITI Aayog says that it would be wrong to conclude that we are not stringent. Almost 37,000 electric scooters have been sold in India and only a few have experienced technical problems.

We can't blame the entire industry or the batteries of the electric vehicles. There may be more than one reason. It would not be appropriate to comment until the investigations are over. He says that their main concern is safety.

Over a million kilometres of the scooters have been tested at 15 accredited labs, and the scooters have been robustly tested.

Krishna Jaiswal was shaken by his scooter fire and told the BBC that within 15 minutes the scooter turned in to ashes.

We have lost faith in him. He says that his friends wanted to buy but have decided not to.