The government has amended the EV battery norms for safety concerns. The concern includes additional safety related to battery cells, onboard chargers and the design of battery packs. The issue was raised after a few fire incident cases were detected in electric two-wheelers.

The official release explains that the Ministry of Road and Transport has introduced supplementary safety provisions in the safety of battery standards, enforced from October 1. The Government-made amendments include additional safety requirements especially related to battery cells, onboard chargers, design of battery pack, and thermal dissemination, resulting in internal cell short circuits leading to a fire.

These amendments are mandatory for the particular categories of electric vehicles enforced from October 1, 2022, which is in progress, the release said. “Based on the endorsements of the Expert Committee Report on August 29, 2022, the Ministry has delivered amendment to AIS 156- Specific requirements for motor vehicles of L category along with electric power train. Amendment 2 to AIS 038 Rev. 2 – Specific requirements for Electric Power Train of M category and N category, having at least four wheels for carrying goods and persons in addition to the goods,” the release said.

L category motor vehicles specify less than four wheels, while M category vehicles determine at least four wheels used for carrying passengers. “The amendments AIS 156 and AIS 038 Rev.2 standards for the respective categories of electric vehicles will come into force from October 1, 2022”.

The release said the Ministry had dispensed a draft notice on August 25, 2022, to modify Sub-rule 4 of Rule 124 of Central Motor Vehicles Rule (CMVR) 1989 for mandating Conformity of Production (COP). This is due to traction batteries that are used in electric power train vehicles. Taking the EV fire accidents earnestly, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari warned companies of penalties if found to be negligent in April. Along with this, he also said that they would be ordered to evoke the defective vehicles.

Successively, Ola Electric recalled 1,441 units of its electric two-wheelers. In addition, Okinawa proclaimed its recall of 3,215 units of its Praise Pro electric scooter to fix batteries-related issues. Likewise, Pure EV also recalled 2,000 units of its ETrance+ and EPluto 7G models.