- Ola Electric has recalls 1,446 units of its Ola S1 Pro electric scooter
- The announcement comes almost a month after an Ola S1 Pro caught fire in Pune
- Ola says they will thoroughly test the Ola S1 Pro units for different diagnostic parameters
Ola Electric has announced a recall of 1,441 Ola S1 Pro electric two-wheeler units after one of its scooters caught fire in Pune last month. These 1,441 Ola S1 Pro electric scooters are from the same batch as the scooter which was involved in the fire incident. Incidentally, Ola Electric is third EV manufacturer to issue a recall in India, after Okinawa and PureEV recalled some of their units last week following fire incidents. Okinawa Autotech announced a recall of over 3,000 units, while PureEV had recalled around 2,000 electric scooters.
Ola says that the investigation of the Pune incident is ongoing, and a preliminary assessment has found that Ola S1 Pro catching fire was an isolated case. However, as a precautionary measure, the company has recalled 1,441 S1 Pro units belonging to that specific batch for a detailed inspection.
“As a pre-emptive measure we will be conducting a detailed diagnostic and health check of the scooters in that specific batch and therefore are issuing a voluntary recall of 1,441 vehicles,” the company said in a statement.
As per the company, the batteries inside the scooter are already tested for the AIS 156 standard prescribed for India. Further, the battery systems are also compliant with ECE 136 European standards. In its statement, Ola Electric says that these S1 Pro electric scooters unit will be tested thoroughly by its service engineers for every battery system, thermal system and safety system diagnostics.
“These 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,” reads the statement.
Last week, Ola Electric’s head Bhavish Aggarwal said that the company had tasked a ‘world-class agencies’ to find the cause of the S1 Pro bursting into flames in Pune.
“We are doing an in-depth report, it will take a few weeks,” said Mr Bhavesh Agarwal. He added, “We will share that with everyone. Our intent, Government’s intent and industry’s intent are to make sure consumer confidence on electrification remains high.”
Minister suggests penalties, voluntary recall
Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, in a series of tweets last week, had suggested heavy penalties in cases of EV manufacturers defaulting on quality standards. He had also asked companies to voluntarily recall EVs that may pose a threat to their riders. Two people have lost their lives in two separate EV fire incidents last week.
