A 29-year-old youth, working as a supervisor in a private firm in Bengaluru, escaped unhurt after he jumped out of his electric scooter which suddenly caught fire on Saturday morning in Zuzuvadi on the outskirts of Hosur in Tamil Nadu.
Satheesh, who bought the electric bike made by Okinawa a year ago, was riding from Zuzuvadi to Upkar Layout when his scooter caught fire. The youth immediately jumped off the vehicle and he escaped unhurt.
However, the electric scooter was gutted completely. Satheesh, who doused the fire using water with the help of locals, has filed a complaint with the SIPCOT police station.
The scooter – i-Praise+ -- is manufactured by Okinawa, an electric vehicle manufacturer based in India since 2015. Saturday’s incident brings focus yet again on electric vehicles catching fire, probably due to the scorching heat.
The incident also comes a month after a 49-year-old man and his minor daughter died due to suffocation after their e-scooter went up in flames in Vellore in northern Tamil Nadu.
The father and daughter were sleeping inside the house when the battery, which was plugged into a socket for charging, exploded at around 1 am. Soon, the house was engulfed with smoke, and they died due to suffocation.
Several incidents of e-bikes catching fire have been reported from across Tamil Nadu in the past few weeks.
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Published 30 April 2022, 08:48 IST