Fire breaks out at Ather Energy Chennai premises, cause under investigation

In a highly unexpected if not uncommon by now incident, an Ather Energy experience centre in Chennai caught fire on Thursday adding to the raging debate of safety in electric vehicles (EVs).

In its response to ETAuto, the company said it is investigating the cause of the incident but could not confirm if the battery in any of the vehicles was not to blame.

“There has been a minor fire incident at our premises in Chennai. While some property and scooters got affected, thankfully all employees are safe and things are under control. The experience centre will be operational shortly,” the EV maker shared on its social media platform.



The first instances of fire in EVs were reported in September last year. Following this, in the last 6 months over 2 dozen EVs and even a few dealerships have caught fire but this is the first such instance for Ather, a company which has been widely regarded as the most credible of EV manufacturers in the country. The company also has the backing of India's largest two wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp, which has a 35 percent stake in the startup founded by Swapnil Jain and Tarun Mehta.

"This is highly unexpected as Ather is known to be diligent with its processes. Lets wait for the actual cause of the fire to know what really went wrong," said an industry veteran.

Only two days back, a Hero Electric scooter was charred in Odisha. Before this, an Ola Electric S1 Pro scooter caught fire in Pune in March, and in a tragic incident on the same day, a father-daughter duo died in Vellore in Tamil Nadu as the battery of their Okinawa scooter caught fire.

Tamil Nadu reported two more incidents of EV fire in the month before 20 electric scooters from Jitendra EV caught fire near Nashik. In another terrible incident, an explosion in the battery of an electric scooter by Coimbatore-based Boom Motors killed a 40 year old man in Vijayawada.