Is the EV Battle for Adoption Ignoring Safety? | TechTree.com

Is the EV Battle for Adoption Ignoring Safety?

In the recent past fires reported from two-wheelers prompted the government to announce a rigorous testing mechanism, but will that suffice

 

Nitin Gadkari is a man of his words. As the longest serving surface transport minister, he has overseen some really major changes in the sector including construction of top-notch highways in record time and the push towards adoption of electric vehicles as a means to reduce India's carbon footprint.

In the Parliament yesterday, Gadkari announced that there were 13 lakh EVs registered presently in the country, which in itself doesn't sound too much, given that there are 28 crore vehicles plying on Indian roads. However, even this number has come from the government's sustained efforts over the past couple of years. 

Gadkari also said under the FAME-II program 2,877 new public EV charging stations will come up in 68 cities and an additional 1576 of them across nine expressways and 16 highways in the country. This proves that the government does not intend taking its foot off the pedal when it comes to quicker and more effective EV adoption. 

Make no mistake! The minister means business. However, when we juxtapose the fact that the surviving sales growth of EVs, especially in the two and three-wheeler segment, might slow down a bit as the safety norms get tightened following the recent instances of vehicles catching fire, there is a cause for worry. 

The government testing agencies are already tweaking the parameters for these vehicles, especially to avoid overheating of the lithium-ion batteries that was mentioned as one of the key causes for the fires. Industry experts said the recent fire accidents proved that EV makers were cutting corners on the basic safety norms to make the vehicles viable for users.  

In fact, an expert committee set up by the government, even came out with a report that cast doubts on the safety norms as it did not find adequate venting mechanisms in case of overheated cells so that additional energy got released as part of the battery management system. 

Though some companies have attempted to smoothen the ruffled feathers by setting up battery innovation centers to showcase the fact that they're serious about the vehicle quality, it remains to be seen whether government will bite the bait or prefer to wait and watch for a few months to see if EV makers are actually walking the talk. 


TAGS: Electric Vehicles, electric motorcycle

 
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