Electric scooter maker Okinawa Autotech on Saturday announced a recall of 3,215 batteries of its Praise Pro scooters to fix any issues related to batteries. “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 company said.
Okinawa is a seven-year-old 100% electric two-wheeler manufacturing company founded by Jeetender Sharma with a portfolio of three low-speed and four high-speed scooters, with an electric motorcycle to be launched soon. The company said this recall was part of its comprehensive power pack health check-up.
“The batteries will be checked for loose connectors or any damage and be repaired free of charge at any of the Okinawa authorised dealers pan-India,” the company said. Okinawa said it was working closely with the dealer partners to contact customers individually and ensure that the repairs were done at the customers’ convenience.
Okinawa scooters were involved in fire incidents in Tirpur on April 11 and in Vellore on March 26, in which an Okinawa Praise Pro caught fire while charging resulting in the death of a man and his 13-year-old daughter. Other EV makers whose vehicles have been involved in such accidents include Ola Electric, Pure EV and Jitendra Electric Vehicles.
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This recall announcement comes immediately after Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said EV manufacturers should voluntarily recall the batch if any vehicle catches fire, in line with global practices of withdrawing batches and sharing of liability for damage between vehicle makes and battery makers. Kant had on March 13 urged vehicle manufacturers to test batteries properly and pay special attention to the battery management systems due to the complexities relating to its operations.
Kant was responding to the concerns about increasing number of electric two-wheelers catching fire.
The government is investigation the fire incidents by experts from the Naval Science & Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam, Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), and Indian Institute of Science.
