A Man Sets Electric Scooter on Fire After It Breaks Down in Middle of The Road in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu /Ambur: In recent months, several instances of electric vehicles breaking down and catching fire have been reported from several parts of the country. After a man in Maharashtra tied his Ola electric scooter to a donkey with a rope as a form of protest, a man in Tamil Nadu got so frustrated that he set his e-bike on fire himself. According to media reports, the man named Prithviraj Gopinathan poured petrol on his Ola S1 Pro and set it on fire near Ambur in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.

Notably, he took this drastic step after the battery of the vehicle ran out after running around 50 to 60 kilometres, despite company's claims that the e-bike will cover 181km on a full charge. Further, when he demanded assistance, manufacturers said they could send someone to help only by 5pm.

After being stranded in middle of the road in the scorching heat, he set the bike on fire. He also posted the photo on his Twitter account.

"I asked my assistant to buy two litres of petrol, which I poured on the e-bike and set it on fire," Prithviraj told



media.

"A few minutes after I shared the video, a service engineer called me and requested me not to give any interviews to the media and promised to replace the e-bike. I bluntly told them my relationship with their company was over as soon as I burnt the bike. But he said a team has already left for his clinic in Ambur with a brand new e-bike and promised to deliver the bike tonight," Prithiviraj added. He further said he had been facing multiple problems with the e-bike ever since he had bought vehicle in January this year.

On Saturday, Ola Electric recalled 1,441 units of its electric two-wheelers due to cases of vehicles catching fire, according to a corporate statement.

In a statement, it said, "As a pre-emptive measure, we will be conducting a detailed diagnostic and health check of the scooters in that specific batch and therefore are issuing a voluntary recall of 1,441 vehicles. These scooters will be inspected by our service engineers and will go through a thorough diagnostics across all battery systems, thermal systems, as well as safety systems."