Electric two-wheeler manufacturer, Ather, has released its investigation findings into the fire hazard that happened in Bangalore a few weeks ago and clarified that the incident was not a result of battery overheating. A video of an Ather 450X electric scooter trended on several social media platforms pushing the company to investigate and take corrective action.
The Bengaluru-based start-up further revealed that the cause of the fire was due to a "rare human error" and said, “we have since then updated our manufacturing operations, upgraded our equipment and introduced a two-step verification process for this process to prevent any such future occurrences.”
What happened?
Ather Energy stated that the root cause of the issue was in the wiring harness assembly. The fire was caused due to a short circuit.
“One of the connectors to the motor controller was torqued incorrectly which unfortunately resulted in sparking around the controller terminals,” the statement reads.
The company also claimed that their safety systems kicked in immediately and cut off further power flow limiting the damage. However, the wiring harness had unfortunately caught fire by then. The battery, BMS and dashboard remained completely unaffected during the incident.
“We would like to further clarify that the incident had nothing to do with a battery thermal runaway event and the battery continued to operate normally post the incident also. All our battery packs are de-signed, manufactured and tested by our teams in India and remain subject to the highest quality and testing standards in the world,” the company added.
However, despite this statement from the company, a couple of questions remain unanswered like if any other scooters might have rolled out to the customers before the updated manufacturing operations, equipment and two-step verification. Ather Energy’s 450 Plus and 450X are among the first electric scooters to be entirely designed, developed and made in India.
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