Why e-rickshaws are suddenly stopping on the road? The Chinese BAT-BMS app behind it

Imagine hailing an e-rickshaw, settling in for your morning commute — and then, without warning, it just stops. No sputter. No warning light. Just... nothing. Videos of people using a Chinese app to stop e-rickshaws in the middle of the road have gone viral on social media. 

Across cities, drivers were furious, and passengers were left baffled and frustrated. And somewhere, someone had quietly flipped a switch. 

So what was going on? The culprit turned out to be something most drivers didn't even know existed — an app embedded inside their vehicle's battery system, capable of shutting it down remotely. The app had a name: BAT-BMS. Battery Alarm Telematics – Battery Management System. 

But here's the question nobody was asking loudly enough: who has the power to switch off thousands of vehicles at once — and why did they use it without warning? 

This is the story of an app most people had never heard of, and the chaos it quietly unleashed on India's roads. Scroll down. It gets more interesting from here.

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What is the BAT-BMS app?

The BAT-BMS app is a battery management system (BMS) monitoring app developed by Chinese company Shenzhen Grenergy Technology. It was originally intended to help owners monitor and manage their e-rickshaw's BMS, the electronic unit that controls how a lithium battery charges, discharges and powers the vehicle's motor. 

It provides information such as battery charge, voltage, current, temperature, cycle life, and the health of individual battery cells. 

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How does the app work? 

This BMS has a Bluetooth chip so a phone app can connect to it and show battery health, voltage and temperature. Before July 1, the app required no password and anyone standing nearby could connect to a rickshaw's battery without the owner's permission.  The person can then access the app's live control panel — including switches to turn charging and discharging on or off. 

Toggling the discharge switch off will immediately cut power to the vehicle, causing it to halt regardless of location, posing an obvious risk for commuters. As a result, the app was updated on July 1 to add password protection to the controls and limit access to the vehicle's owner. 

Risks for commuters

Individuals or pranksters remotely disabling e-rickshaws via the unsecured Bluetooth app presents an immediate risk to commuters. When an e-rickshaw's discharge function is remotely turned off, it instantly cuts power to the motor, causing the battery-operated rickshaw to jerk to a halt. 

On busy traffic routes in Noida, Delhi and other metros, vehicles driving behind the rickshaw are left with very little reaction time, increasing the chances of a high-speed rear-end collision multifold. 

These battery-operated lifelines for commuters are lightweight and have a relatively high centre of gravity. The driver can lose steering momentum and balance in case of a sudden power loss. There is also a serious risk of the rickshaw tipping or flipping over in case the vehicle is navigating a turn, slope or navigating through dense, congested intersections in case of a power cut.