Electric vehicles catching fire a good thing for industry, hints Ather CEO

Electric vehicles inarguably bring the next phase of our commute. The advent, however, was marred by a series of incidents where electric scooters, bikes, and cars caught fire. Amid severe criticism, the makers of electric vehicles have tried to defend against the incidents. Now, Ather Energy CEO Tarun Mehta has shared his optimism about the current state of EVs in India. Mehta said EV fire incidents are good and have “ended up maturing the industry.”

According to Mehta, fire mishaps involving electric vehicles have caused manufacturers to shift their focus to quality. The EV makers are now producing products with better quality and investing substantially into their upkeep in the future. The shift in the priorities of EV manufacturers, Mehta believes, has helped the industry mature. Essentially, the fire mishaps have not exactly been detrimental to the industry.

Mehta spearheads what is one of the most reputed electric vehicle manufacturing companies in India. Founded in 2013, Ather Energy was catapulted into the mainstream right after the government launched initiatives to encourage its adoption. The company, in June, announced its highest-ever monthly sales of 3,787 units happened in May.

Ather Energy has managed to stay away from the criticism around EV fire mishaps, especially amongst the competition brewing in the industry with the arrival of new players, such as Ola Electric, PureEV, and Okinawa Autotech. Mehta said no fully functional Ather EV ended up catching fire and the recent fire incident involved a faulty unit. That, Mehta said, is because the company has focused on good quality.

“We’ve never rushed through a launch. We’ve never tried to skip a testing step. We’ve been building up over the last seven-eight years and we’ve stayed extremely focused, Mehta was quoted as saying in a media report.

Ather Energy recently launched the third generation of 450X, which is the company’s popular EV. The upgraded Ather 450X has a better range, thanks to a more powerful battery. Ather claims a TrueRange of 105km and a Certified Range of 146km. The design has also been tweaked a bit to incorporate the new Ather Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS).

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