Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal meets Nitin Gadkari amid EV fire row

Days after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) ordered an investigation into an EV fire incident involving the Ola Electric S1 scooter, Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal met with Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to discuss India's potential to become the world's EV hub and Ola's future plans.

Bhavish Aggarwal took to Twitter to share glimpses of his meeting with the Union minister.

"Met Shri Nitin Gadkari ji and discussed India's potential to become world's EV hub and Ola's plans. Demoed the scooter to him! His belief in bringing together an electric revolution and making sustainable mobility a reality is really inspiring for us at OlaElectric!," wrote Bhavish Aggarwal on Twitter. 

On March 29, MoRTH had ordered an investigation into the Ola Electric scooter fire incident that took place in Dhanori area of Maharashtra's Pune on March 26.

The ministry had said in a notification that the Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) will investigate the Ola Electric scooter fire incident. CFEES is an arm of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). 

In a letter to CFEES, the ministry also asked it to share the findings along with the remedial measures for improvement and to prevent such incidents in the future.

The Ola scooter fire incident came to light when users shared videos of an Ola Electric scooter up in flames. There was, however, no casualty in the incident.  

After being under pressure from customers for delay in delivery of e-scooters, Ola electric started deliveries on December 16, 2021.The company had opened pre-launch bookings of its electric scooters in July for Rs 499 and had received 1 lakh orders in just 24 hours. 

The scooter comes in 10 colors with in-house developed 8.5 KW motor and 3.97 kWh battery packs. 

The Ola electric scooters S1 and S1 Pro are priced at Rs 99,999 and Rs 1,29,999, respectively (ex-showroom including FAME II subsidy and excluding state subsidies).

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