Ather Blames Wiring Harness Assembly Issues For Bengaluru EV Fire

Reacting to reports of an Ather Electric Vehicle (EV) catching fire in Bengaluru recently, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has blamed the incident on issues related to wiring harness assembly. 

“One of the connectors to the motor controller was torqued incorrectly which unfortunately resulted in sparking around the controller terminals. Our safety systems kicked in immediately and cut off further power flow limiting the damage. However, the wiring harness had unfortunately caught fire by then,” said Ather in a public statement on Twitter. 

Citing a ‘rare human error’, Ather Energy said that it has since revamped its manufacturing operations and introduced a two-step verification process to prevent such mishaps. Besides, the company also claims to have upgraded its equipment to strengthen quality control norms at its production plants. 

Ather also said that the incident was not connected to a battery thermal runaway event, adding that the battery operated ‘normally’ post the incident. 

A thermal runaway event occurs when the heat generated within a battery cell exceeds the amount of heat that is dissipated to its surroundings. It is triggered by a chain reaction within a battery cell which becomes difficult to stop once it has begun. 

The OEM also noted that the battery management system (BMS) and the dashboard remained completely unaffected during the incident. Assuaging its customers, the company said that its EVs are subjected to the ‘highest quality and testing standards’ in the world. 

The clarification comes days after an Ather 450X model caught fire in the startup hub. The victim Neera Arora took to Twitter to post a video of the burnt scooter and said, “Fire incident of newly delivered 450X model Ather has been importing Chinese Lithium Ion cells since 1 year to cut down losses & consumers are already facing range issues.”

Reacting to Ather’s clarification, Arora further raised questions and added, “How wiring harness burnt can create so much damage, almost half of the vehicle caught fire and burnt. Even if it’s true, how come “battery continued to Operate normally post the incident also.”

OEMs Under Scanner Again

This is not the first time that EVs have been involved in such an accident. In May last year, a fire broke out at an Ather dealership in Chennai which was purportedly caused by water seeping into the battery pack of its EVs. 

Earlier last month, an Ola Electric EV was also involved in an accident which the manufacturer later termed an ‘isolated incident’ and blamed it on high impact. Products of other players such as Okinawa, PureEV and Jitendra as well as Ola Electric have also  been involved in such fire incidents.

In many cases, many citizens have also lost their lives while many have had a death scare in such accidents.

A flurry of such incidents have raised concerns about the safety and efficacy of the emerging technology. The adoption of EVs in the country have also been hit by the regular news of EVs catching fire and being involved in accidents.

A majority of these incidents have likely been linked to imported Lithium-ion batteries imported from China. Without any quality control over such critical components, many EV manufacturers have been in the line of fire for not maintaining strict oversight over the manufacturing process. 

The spate of fires have also seen intervention by the government. Late last year, the government notified new standards for testing of EV batteries as well as new safety mandates related to the battery management system, on-board chargers, battery pack design, among others. 

Despite the safeguards, incidents related to EV fires continue to be reported. The negative headlines seem to have hit the sales. For the third consecutive month, January 2023 saw a decline in the sales of two-wheeler EVs. Two-wheeler EV registrations fell slightly to 64,298 units last month compared to 64,527 units registered in December 2022.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.