Okinawa Electric Scooter Dealership Gutted In Blaze Due To Short-Circuit

An Okinawa Autotech dealership in Tamil Nadu burnt down to ashes due to a possible short circuit in the showroom. 

According to IANS news agency, no casualties were reported and the fire was put out with the help of locals but the entire showroom was gutted. 

A day before, the Gurugram-based company recalled 3,215 units of its 'Praise Pro' scooters. According to the company, the recall has been initiated to fix "any issue" related to batteries.

"The batteries will be checked for loose connectors or any damage and be repaired free of charge at any of the Okinawa authorised dealerships pan India," the company had said in a statement.

Several cases of fire in EVs have been reported recently.

On April 11, 20 electric scooters of Jitendra EV caught fire when they were being transported from the factory in Nashik. According to the company, the incident occurred near the Jitendra EV factory in Nashik while the container was en route to Bengaluru.

The container had 40 scooters in all and half of them in the upper tier caught fire. No casualties were reported.

Last month, Ola Electric scooter S1 Pro caught fire in Pune. The same day, Okinawa's electric scooter Praise Pro caught fire in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, killing two people.

The central government has decided to depute a team of independent experts to investigate incidents of Ola electric scooters and Okinawa electric bikes catching fire.

The team of experts will travel to Vellore and Pune to probe the cases and ascertain the factors that are causing the fires in the Ola electric scooters and the Okinawa electric bikes.

The investigators will try to find out if there is a manufacturing defect that affected their operation.

Ola Electric had said it is investigating a case of one of its scooters catching fire after images were circulated on social media.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant last week asked EV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to voluntarily recall batches involved in the EV fire incidents.

Speaking to CNBC, he said the time is ripe for the EV industry to instill a sense of confidence in consumers the way global automakers do by voluntarily recalling their vehicles over fire risks.