Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal meets Union Minister Nitin Gadkari; discusses EV, Ola's plans, tweets founder

Ola Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday to discuss the future of electric vehicles in the country even as reports of Ola electric scooters catching fire are doing the rounds. 

Aggarwal wrote on Twitter: "Met Nitin Gadkari ji and discussed India's potential to become world's EV hub and Ola's plans. Demoed the scooter to him! His belief in bringing together an electric revolution and making sustainable mobility a reality is really inspiring for us at Ola Electric!"

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The meeting comes at a time when a four-member probe committee set up by MoRTH is looking into recent EV fires, including an Ola Electric scooter.

Several cases of EVs catching fire

According to a PTI report, a Twitter user in the western city posted a video of his Ola scooter bursting into flames.

"We are aware of an incident in Pune that happened with one of our scooters and are investigating to understand the root cause and will share more updates in the next few days," the company said in a statement.

Electric scooters from Jitendra EV caught fire when they were being transported from the factory in Maharashtra's Nashik. According to PTI, around 20 electric scooters of the company were damaged in the fire. Jitendra New EV Tech has been selling EVs since 2016.

Met Shri @nitin_gadkari ji and discussed India's potential to become world's EV hub and Ola’s plans. Demoed the scooter to him! His belief in bringing together an electric revolution and making sustainable mobility a reality is really inspiring for us at @OlaElectric! pic.twitter.com/eRhHcOHfOd

— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) April 14, 2022

The government's action so far

The government has taken very seriously the four incidents of fire in two-wheeler electric vehicles (EVs) in the past one week and will take appropriate action against the manufacturers after a forensic investigation, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told Lok Sabha on April 14, 2022, PTI reported.

Nitin Gadkari said that as of March 25, as many as 10,76,420 EVs were registered in the country, and 1,742 public charging stations (PCS) were operational.

"A total of four incidents of fire in two-wheeler EVs have been reported in the past one week, and this is a very serious issue. We have ordered a forensic investigation into each of the individual events from experts of Centre for Fire Explosive, DRDO and IISc, Bengaluru," he said during Question Hour.

The minister said India's standards for approval of EVs and batteries are apt with the global standards, and the government will take appropriate action after the exact technical reason behind the accidents is known.

"We are waiting for the report from the expert committee. After receiving the report, we will find out exactly what is the reason behind that. On the basis of that report, we will take appropriate action against the manufacturer," he said.