New electric vehicle (EV) safety regulations could disrupt months of production and supply chain networks, said Tarun Mehta, Founder and CEO of Ather Energy.
"There is a timeline challenge with new EV regulations. We would face a production freeze for months if we go with October 1, 2022 for new testing norms," Mehta told CNBC-TV18.
The government has amended testing standards for EV batteries for additional safety requirements and issued a draft notification for the norms. This comes after multiple incidents of EV fires this year.
Additional safety requirements have now been put in place for battery cells, battery management system (BMS), onboard charger, battery pack design, and thermal propagation due to internal cell short-circuits which can lead to fires. The new norms will come into effect from October 1, 2022.
Mehta claimed that several of the testing standards are not relevant to the automobile sector.
"We cannot relocate manufacturing in a matter of weeks; we need more time to achieve the standards."
He emphasised that while recent fires have shown that there is value to be created, selling requires a significant amount of work, which was 'discounted' by some players.
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Mehta stated that it took the firm nine months to resolve supply chain issues and that the company plans to ramp up sales to 10,000 per month starting October as demand increases.
“We want to become profitable within the next few years."
Mehta also said that the firm will focus on getting more investments over the following two years. "The last 18 months have been a wild wild west for the EV industry, with hundreds of players jumping in, and obviously there will be challenges."
Mehta said that meeting some of the testing requirements would necessitate the establishment of a new facility. " Expect a lot more closures in the EV industry rather than consolidation," he added.
(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)
First Published: Sept 15, 2022 5:35 PM IST
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