A man was killed in Andhra Pradesh's Vijayawada city on Saturday when the battery of his electric bike exploded at his home within a day of its purchase.
The man has been identified as 40-year-old K Siva Kumar. His wife suffered burns and is reproted to be hospitalised in critical state. Their two children suffered from asphyxiation but were stable, according to the police.
The Vijayawada incident has come within days of another incident in Telangana's Nizamabad district in which an 80-year-old man was killed after battery of their electric scooter exploded at their home. Four family members also suffered burn injuries in the Nizamabad incident. The diseased son had been using the scooter for a year, according to the police.
In the Vijayawada incident, the detachable battery of the bike was kept on charging in the diseased's bedroom on Friday night and it suddenly exploded in the early hours when all were fast asleep, according to police. The explosion caused a minor fire in the house gutting the air-conditioning machine and some household articles.
Neighbours who saw smoke billowing out of the house broke the doors open and pulled out the family trapped inside. Sivakumar died while being shifted to hospital in an ambulance.
The police added that the exact cause of explosion is not yet known. Suryaraopet Inspector V Janaki Ramaiah said, "Fire services personnel also visited the scene to determine the cause. We have also spoken to the EV company to check whether electric short circuit could be the reason for the battery explosion."
These two incidents have reported in the midst of increasing reports of mishaps involving electric vechicles. Videos have surfaced on social media in recent days showing fires and explosions in stationary electric vehicles.
These recent reprots have included vehicles of Pure AV, the company whose scooter was involved in this week's Nizamabad accident.
A man from Assam's Guwahati earlier this shared on Twitter that his son met an accident because of malfunction in the scooter.
Balwant Singh wrote in a Twitter thread, "My son had an accident due to fault in regenerative breaking where on speed breaker instead of slowing, the scooter accelerated sending so much torque that he had an accident. The scooter went airborne crashing and skidding."
The Union government's think tank Niti Aayog had two days ago come out with a draft battery swapping policy for electric vehicles and had suggested incentives as well as a rigorous testing protocol for swappable batteries.
Further, Union minister Nitin Gadkari had on Thursday said companies found negligent will be penalised and a recall of all defective EVs will be ordered after receiving the report of an expert panel that has been formed to enquire into the matter.
(With PTI inputs)
