Two-wheeler EV Batteries to face mandatory safety checks and approvals

The government is coming up with strict mandatory quality checks for batteries amid the rising concerns about safety. The GoI will also impose the conformity of production (CoP) of EVs.

The government has decided to soon come up with strict mandatory quality checks for batteries and even cells of those batteries that will be used to power two-wheeler EVs. This step has been taken amid the rising concerns about safety due to many e-scooters reportedly involved in fire incidents. Therefore, this measure is very important to ensure safety and restore the faith in these vehicles.

These steps are the after effects of the fire incidents which had companies like Ola Electric, Pure EV, and Okinawa come under government radar. The Road and Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari even went on to say that if in any ways the OEMs were found negligent while considering the safety standards, the companies will face consequences. This was also a result of using poor quality batteries and cells that were being imported and being used to ramp up the production of these 2-wheeler EVs.

But now government is getting serious about this issue and hence they have set up a committee of experts which will soon come out with standards that have to followed and quality checks up to cell level will be mandatory. The GoI will also impose the conformity of production (CoP) of EVs. One official went on to say, “We will bring new Automotive Industry Standards (AIS) to meet up with the requirement. We will also soon put out new rules to ensure there are proper quality checks at all levels”.

Currently if we look at the battery safety checking, there is a practice to only conduct tests on battery packs and manufacturers have been selling batteries as the part of the entire EV package. An industry expert and insider said, “Cells are the basic component of the batteries and if we are not checking the quality of cells, we can’t really ensure the quality of the batteries will be good. Most of the OEMs are importing cells and simply assembling them to make batteries. The government’s fresh move is in the right direction.”

Former Director of Automotive Research Association India, said, “Battery manufacture should be covered under AIS 037 and should attract independent type approval and CoP procedures. The government should expediate steps for the mandatory marking scheme for batteries under BIS by issuing quality control orders. Currently, it is treated as part of the vehicle and type approval is covered under the vehicle as an entity.”