With two-wheeler electric vehicles on fire, customers are delaying buying EVs resulting in a drop in registrations in the month of June. Ola Electric which was one of the top EV players in the country has now slipped to the fourth position in the overall category. According to vehicle data, Ola Electric, operated by Bhavish Agarwal, registered 5,869 electric scooter registrations (till June 30).
The June tally for EV two-wheelers was led by Okinawa Autotech with 6,976 vehicles, followed by Ampere Vehicles Pvt Ltd at 6,534. Hero Electric stood third with 6,486 EV 2-W registrations across the country. Ather Energy increased from May to 3,797 vehicles, with Revolt seeing a huge jump in registrations to reach 2,419 vehicles in June.
Ola Electric was the country’s top EV company in April and has seen a steady decline in its position since then. Ola’s registration numbers have dropped by over 30 per cent on June 30 as compared to May 30.
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Okinawa sold 9,302 electric scooters in May and Ola Electric delivered 9,225 units of the S1 Pro electric scooter. According to Ola Electric, they were ready to see the impact of supply chain constraints, especially on the shortage of cells in June.
“We calibrated our business priority for the month to focus on improving our customer service and bring our TAT (Turnaround Time) to within 48 hours. In July, we are confident that supply chain issues will begin to fade away And our strong order book will be fulfilled,” the company said in a statement.
However, industry experts believe that the steady decline in EV2-W registration numbers is due to fears of new buyers amid rising incidents of fire, battery explosions and government investigations that traced battery faults. An expert committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has found loopholes in the safety system in the batteries of electric two-wheelers.
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As per initial reports, electric two-wheeler manufacturers instead of ensuring safety of riders have taken shortcuts to increase production and meet the growing demand. The expert committee found that EV manufacturers did not offer a mechanism to identify cell overheating and isolate failed battery cells.
The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which was earlier tasked by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to probe into incidents of fire in electric two-wheelers, also found serious defects in EV two-wheeler batteries.
These defects occurred because electric two-wheeler makers such as Okinawa Autotech, Pure EV, Jitendra Electric Vehicles, Ola Electric and Boom Motors may have used “low-grade materials to cut costs”, a DRDO probe revealed. was.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has now released new performance benchmarks for lithium-ion batteries to protect consumers amid rising number of fire incidents in electric vehicles in the country.
(With inputs from IANS)