Electric two-wheeler company Okinawa Autotech has announced that is voluntarily recalling 3215 of its scooters to fix any issue related to batteries. The batteries will be checked for loose connectors or any damage and will be repaired free of charge, the company said. The move has come nearly three weeks after a man and his daughter lost their lives in Vellore after their Okinawa electric scooter went up in flames due to a short circuit. Vehicle owners will be contacted individually and the repair will be done at authorized dealerships, the company said in a statement issued on Saturday, April 16. 

“This voluntary campaign is in the wake of the recent thermal incident and in line with the company’s long-standing commitment to customer safety,” the statement said. A total of 3215 units of Praise Pro scooters will be recalled and any issues related to batteries will be immediately fixed, the statement said. 

Several incidents of e-scooters catching fire have been reported in India over the past few weeks. After Ola Electric and Okinawa e-scooters caught fire and raised alarm, another electric scooter of Hyderabad-based Pure EV caught fire in Tamil Nadu, in the Manjampakkam area near North Chennai. 

Prior to this incident, a blue-coloured Ola S1 Pro e-scooter that was parked on the side of a road in Pune was spotted catching fire. The e-scooter burst into flames that soon engulfed the entire vehicle. After that, an Okinawa e-bike went up in flames due to an electrical short-circuit in Vellore on March 26, resulting in the death of M Duraivarma and his 13-year-old daughter Mohana Preethi. The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had ordered a probe into the incidents.

Recently on April 13, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant asked EV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to voluntarily recall batches involved in the EV fire incidents. Speaking to CNBC, he said that the time is ripe for the EV industry to instil a sense of confidence in consumers the way global automakers do by voluntarily recalling their vehicles over fire risks.

With IANS inputs