News Brief
An electric scooter on fire.
Seeking quick recall of faulty vehicles, Union Road Transport Secretary Giridhar Aramane has acted tough against the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers amid recurrences of fatal two-wheeler EV fires.
He asked the companies to quickly recall the faulty batches of vehicles on their own and warned they should be ready to face severe consequences for hiding any incident of fire or delay in recall.
Cracking the whip, Aramane asked all EV manufacturers to send their standard operating procedures (SOPs) and testing norms followed for quality checking of batteries and other equipment to the ministry in the next one-two weeks and also focus on research and development.
Aramane also flagged how only three manufacturers have recalled their vehicles while fire cases were reported in case of vehicles rolled out by six players. Sources said Aramane pointed out how the ministry had to pursue even in the case of three companies that were compelled to recall their faulty batches.
“The government is fully behind the industry for healthy growth, but not at the cost of consumers’ safety. The companies will have to put their house in order and seriously invest in laboratories and quality control,” the ministry maintained.