An Ather Catches Fire In Chennai, But It Isn’t Like The Other EV Fires

Bengaluru-based EV startup Ather Energy, on the evening of May 27, put out a tweet informing that there was a fire incident that took place in the company’s Chennai premises that day. An Ather’s electric scooter was involved in an accident and was taken to the company's service centre in Chennai. The scooter caught fire, but, no other scooters were damaged and, fortunately, no people were hurt during the fire incident.

The company, in a statement, has disclosed that the said scooter was water-washed, post which the crack in the battery case (likely caused as a result of the accident it was involved in) was discovered. And by that time, water had already seeped into the pack, which resulted in a short circuit, that was then followed by a thermal runaway event that caused the fire.

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To ensure this doesn’t happen again, Ather mentioned that it has increased the number of pre-checks of EVs involved in accident cases. The company also mentions that there were a couple of screws on the battery pack of the scooter that caught fire, that were found to be “non-standard parts of varying lengths”, which could have increased the stress levels on the battery. Here’s the full statement:

The EV manufacturer says, “Please only use on-spec components (whether you get it serviced from the company or not).” This seems a bit tricky, as information on the specification of screws and nuts is something that is difficult for normal customers to have. The responsibility of providing and using official parts at Ather dealerships lies with the company.