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Ather CEO Says EV Fires Are Due To Imported Battery Packs & Here Is More About That

EV Ultimo Team

02-04-2022

Ather CEO Says EV Fires Are Due To Imported Battery Packs & Here Is More About That

Tarun Mehta, Co-Founder, and CEO of Ather Energy, stressed that the recent electric scooter fire were caused by imported electric vehicle (EV) battery packs as they are not developed for the Indian weather conditions. Mehta, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, said that companies were not investing enough time to design products, implying that there was a need to test enough before the launch.


"Base testing standards of government bodies will never cover all real world situations," said Mehta, adding that there isn't enough knowledge in the Indian electric vehicle ecosystem about various aspects.


Tarun Mehta also feels that the demand for high-speed electric scooters in the market could also be contributing to battery overheating issues. Powering a higher grade electric motor with the same battery pack meant for a less-powerful motor generates more thermal load on the battery. Ather is investing in the development of battery packs that are well suited for the Indian conditions.


New research at NREL, published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, delved further into promising opportunities, as well as limitations, of using LTO/LMO battery cells for stationary storage use. This project evaluated the temperature-dependent performance of LTO/LMO cells with various electrode loadings. Researchers determined that using thicker electrodes in battery designs can increase the cell capacity and energy density, while decreasing overall cell costs. However, these thicker electrodes require ions to travel a longer path, limiting the utilization of electrodes. Temperature adjustments can alleviate these negative impacts but may introduce added complications. The trick is to design a battery that offers the best balance for stationary applications.


Battery-powered vehicles have made a significant mark in the transportation market, but that market still needs lower-cost batteries that can power vehicles for greater ranges. World class researchers around the world are racing to develop new technologies for sustainable mobility technologies and solutions for passenger as well as freight transportation. New battery related technologies are improvising to not just power the future but to not let climate change impact the performance of battery packs. Several startups like British Columbia-based MakerMax, and Recurrent have worked on building tools to analyze internal characteristics, and external factors to predict discrepancies, and the safety index of a battery. By giving consumers the means to answer their battery questions, like how will the battery performance transition in different conditions, like summer or winter, et cetera, we could bridge this information gap that is a hinderance to the electric vehicle revolution.


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