BIS set to submit report on last year’s EV battery fires

NEW DELHI : Ahead of the summers, the consumer affairs ministry is working to plug any technical snags in electric vehicle (EV) batteries in order to prevent fires of the kind that broke out last year. After an initial government inquiry remained inconclusive, the ministry asked the technical team of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to investigate the cause, and its report is set to be released soon. TRENDING STORIES See All Premium LIC Housing Finance Q3 profit declines 37% on higher fi .

. . Premium Banks net interest margins to face pressure in FY24, ma .

. . Premium Future auditors to reply to RP’s plea Premium Tata Steel posts ₹2,224 cr loss So far, experts have blamed a combination of hot temperatures and poor thermal management system of the EV batteries.

They say the EV ecosystem should be fixed before summers set in this year. Official figures suggest that April 2022 was the third-hottest in the past 122 years. The central government had earlier served a show-cause notice to all electric vehicle manufacturers in India whose vehicles had caught fire.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told the Lok Sabha that notices were sent to all concerned EV makers to reply or face action. A government official said, “Show cause notice was served to the EV companies. For further investigation the issue was forwarded to Director General, BIS.

But that report was not very conclusive. So now the technical committee of the BIS is taking the investigation forward. We are waiting for their comments on the issue.

If there was any compromise on the safety parameters, action will be taken against the EV companies. ” However, the official added that there is a chance that the appliances were not able to withstand the record high temperatures last summer and that this is something that the companies will have to work on. “Incidents of EV fires did come down, perhaps due to cooler temperature,” the official quoted above added.

“If the battery manufacturers are compliant to FAME 2 standards it won’t be a problem. But most of the battery manufacturers have not yet complied with FAME 2. If the safety features are in place, rising temperature is not a problem,” said Sambit Chakraborty, a member of the advisory board at Indigrid Technology.

MINT PREMIUM See All Premium Can Dixon become India’s Foxconn? Premium How angel tax returned to spook Indian startups Premium Delayed margin recovery, competition woes dull Kansai N . . .

Premium Explainer: How short selling works and why it hasn’t pi . . .

Chakraborty added that the problem is that a lot of companies bought cheap Chinese cells in bulk in anticipation of high demand. “Now it is a question what they do with all these cells. Now the technology needs to be built around it.

And it takes time for the R&D to develop. It takes time and huge investment,” he further added. The union ministry of road transport and highway had issued the additional safety requirements for battery safety which came into effect from October 1, 2022.

These amendments included additional safety requirements related to battery cells, battery management system, on-board charger, design of battery pack, thermal propagation due to internal cell short circuit leading to fire etc. Moreover, the BIS had also come out with performance standards for electric vehicle batteries in order to ensure the safety of consumers. The standard “IS 17855: 2022″ had been formulated for lithium-ion traction battery packs and systems of electrically-propelled road vehicles.

Queries sent to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways remained unanswered till press time. Catch all the Corporate news and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News .

More Less OPEN IN APP.