NEW DELHI: As the incidents of electric scooters bursting into flames continue, Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj on Friday took a dig at the underlying process of manufacturing by start-ups and questioned the regulatory environment for electric vehicles (EVs).
“I am amazed that people with no R&D (research & development), no engineering, no real purchase function, nothing more than half an assembly facility are importing parts, which have not been validated for the marketplace and are just putting it out…"
"The relevant authorities in the government have deliberately diluted the norms. Under the guise of low-speed vehicles, you can bring any junk from anywhere and put it onto the roads,” said Bajaj. Bajaj added that the issue is not the fire itself but the underlying process of the manufacturing. He also took a dig at the ever-increasing number of players in the domestic EV market and said that people who have no business being in the business of EVs are trying to be in this space.
“You have 10 large manufacturers in the internal combustion engine space, but in the EV space, there is a new EV maker every day. You call them start-ups, I call them upstarts,” he said. Since the onset of summer, over half a dozen e-scooters, especially ones manufactured by start-ups, have exploded due to exact reasons yet to be known. These incidents, which also have claimed lives, have reduced demand for EVs last month.