Since the sales of electric vehicles picked up globally, a persistent question has been around the battery, including their safety quotient. While hardly a few cases of battery fires have been reported in electric cars to date, the threat is very much real. Audi confirms this now, by recalling 540 of its e-trons sold in the United States.
The German car maker has voluntarily recalled all of its very first electric-car sold in the US. The company cites a possible risk of battery fires for this. The 540 units comprise of nearly half of the e-trons sold globally to date. Though the total number of recalled units is?1,644, with 540 sold units and the rest being in the dealerships, as per a report by CNET.
No, there have been no battery fires reported in the electric SUV till now. However, Audi mentions a wiring harness glitch in the affected models, which can lead to a leak of moisture into the battery cells. The fault came to Audi¡¯s attention after the company noted five instances of a ¡°battery fault light¡± being turned on due to moisture buildup.
Audi e-tron production line (Image: Reuters)
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Audi has assured that this is not a persistent issue, as the company will continue to sell the e-tron till the time the recalled versions are corrected. The fix is expected to arrive by August.
A bigger issue with the possible fires on electric vehicles is the fact that it is the batteries that are at risk, meaning these fires cannot really be extinguished by the conventional ways. Specific tackling methods are to be appointed at the time of such incidents, for which, first responders are now being trained.
A few incidents of Tesla models catching fire came into light earlier. A couple of these caught fire while charging, if the allegations are to be believed. While the investigations are still under way, Tesla CEO Elon Musk strongly asserts the safety of electric cars to be paramount, especially in comparison with the IC engine vehicles. Back in April, he did, however, promise in a tweet to release the investigation statistics in Tesla¡¯s quarterly safety report.