Relevance: GS-3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment; Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc; Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life; Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation.

Key Phrases: Electric Vehicles (EVs), internal combustion engine, battery management system, thermal management, lithium-ion batteries, thermal runaway, battery designs, climatic and road conditions, FAME India scheme.

Why in News?

• Two incidents in quick succession of electric scooters catching fire has promted the Centre to order an investigation into the leading companies - Ola Electric and Okinawa Autotech - the manufacturers of the vehicles.

Key Points:

• The electric two-wheeler volumes have been growing at an exceptional pace in India.
  • Their total sales, including high-speed and low-speed models, increased by 132.26% to 233,971 units in CY 2021 as compared to 100,736 units sold in CY 2020.
• At a time when EV sales are soaring amid rising fuel prices and cost of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, the fire accidents involving two leading electric scooter brands have stoked fears over their safety.
• These two incidents are not the first to hit headlines, last year, e-scooters of brands such as Okinawa and Pure EV also caught fire, along with multiple instances of electric buses catching fire across the world.

Causes:

• The reasons could be internal and external — whether the fire incident was due to the vehicle design operation or the external environment which triggered the fire.
  • Battery health is impacted due to a combination of factors — the most critical variables are the quality of cells, thermal management through BMS [battery management system], chargers, the way the batteries are packed, and rapid charging.
• The chemistry of lithium-ion batteries is such that the electrolytes and even the lithium metal in itself is very flammable. And if they’re not operated at the right parameters and temperatures, it can actually catch fire.
  • The biggest drawback of Li-ion batteries is that the liquid electrolyte used is flammable when operating at high temperatures. A crash impact can also cause the chemical to leak and catch fire
• The most prominent reason for EVs catching fire is that the battery went into a thermal runaway.
  • This could happen because the battery is not designed according to the vehicle’s requirement of capacity, current and appropriate BMS (battery management system).
• Further, the Industry is seeing a trend of customers demanding higher mileage in EVs, and so OEMs opt for bigger batteries.
  • But when one tries to incorporate a bigger battery in the scooters, they end up facing size issues.
  • To overcome it, some of the battery manufacturers try to work around these limited spaces with creative designs. However, these designs may turn out to be faulty, because the battery needs its space, proper thermal protection and cooling provisions. This could result in a little more riskier battery designs.
• When designing batteries for Indian conditions, the battery not only needs to be compatible with extreme road conditions but also with grid charging. Typically, the range, reliability and performance of every electric vehicle is affected heavily by climatic and road conditions.
• It is of utmost importance that the battery should be water proof, along with water proof connectors so that water does not flow when people wash their vehicle or is water logged.
  • Other potential reasons for such an incident include internal short circuits of cells or while making battery packs.
  • It could also happen when using inappropriate or bad quality chargers with the vehicle.

While India has adopted the stringent AIS 156 standard to ensure safety, a lot more needs to be done to ensure EVs become safer. Meanwhile, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) have asked Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) to probe the actual circumstances.

Way Ahead:

• Such Incidents, though will hamper the confidence of the consumer, but on a positive note, consumers will start asking the right questions before buying an EV.
  • Now the manufacturers will have to work harder to allay these fresh concerns over safety.
• Importance of longer testing durations to build a reliable electric vehicle.
  • Internal test standards ideally should be much more stringent, keeping in mind different variations like road load vibration and shock, extreme temperatures, high humidity, rain, flood dust and other such conditions.
  • Clear understanding of all these factors is essential especially for the Indian environment and, therefore, a comprehensive and rigorous on road durability testing for a longer duration is a must.
• Moreover, Experts suggest that EVs driven by lithium batteries are at the risk of catching fire, but not any more than the risk of an internal combustion engine (ICE) or a petrol vehicle catching fire.
• Industry experts believe that as electric vehicles continue to evolve with the amount of research going on in the EV segment fire instances will reduce in the coming days as traditional batteries such as NMC(Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt) are being replaced with more stable technologies which have a higher energy density, better heat tolerance and proper thermal runways system like LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate), Solid State, Blade battery, etc.

Conclusion:

• The buzz around lithium battery-powered vehicles and ‘clean mobility’ has been growing louder, sparking splashy investments into the EV sector and governments sops for their adoption.
• Only the players who are seriously looking into quality will sustain in the future. Companies that are not ensuring quality standards are playing with the lives of their customers.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. Comment briefly on the prospects and challenges of e-Mobilty in India.