In a webinar conducted by EQ Magazine on safety measures of EVs and batteries, numerous prospective on battery-related issues, advanced technologies, and a secured EV development were discussed adequately.
The insightful session was brilliantly moderated by Mr. Sayatan Chakraborti where he elegantly discussed various problems, upcoming technologies, and the safety management of EVs and batteries.
Mr. Sameer Jindal, Director Engineering – MG MOTORS Speaking about the recent fire incidents, Mr. Sameer stated, ” it’s very unfortunate for the growth of EV in the country, firstly it’s extremely important for all the OEMs and battery manufacturers to know customer’s behavior, expectations, and the mind-set, basically they expect a safer battery in the system with a wider operating temperature ranges, which the manufacturers should take care of”. According to Mr. Sameer Thermal management overall in the cell is very crucial as it has its engineering as well as the chemistry of the cell. In terms of thermal manufacturers have moved from MC chemistry to LFP for the safer side, and also from IP67 to IP69k a high jet pressure washing. Mr. Sameer extended the conversation by mentioning the solid-state battery, where he stated that, the solid-state battery in the future will be very less risky in terms of thermal incidents. As this has a solid electrode instead of the liquid electrode in the lithium-ion batteries, and this will be consisting of around 25 types of inorganic-organic material or the solid polymer electrolyte, which has a very high energy density so that the battery can get charged within 15 minutes. So indeed it is a battery for the future.
Mr. SayeeGanesh K – R & D Powertrain & Strategy – Okinawa Autotech Shared his views on the challenges from an auto EM perspective and mentioned that, it is the part of emerging EV fraternity in India. He further stated that comparatively, a two-wheeler perspective is totally different from the other E mobility sectors, and in India, the emerging EV Sector is driven by bold start-ups. in his point of view, whatever incidents happening broadly in the two-wheeler domain, there’s not only one issue after it, it’s a mix of multiple factors such as batteries, management systems, and the overall system limits push to the threshold. He further conveyed that from the perspective of delivery quality, safe and reliable products Okinawa Autotech is fully focused on the affordable market value, and the company’s board is also committed to it.
Mr. Abhijeet Sinha, National Program Director EODB & Project Director – NHEV Expressed his thought about the recent fire incidents and agreed with the other panelists, that there’s no, one particular reason behind the fire incident. So in further conversation, Mr. Abhijeet summarized the things and categorized them in 3 different groups. Firstly the administrative failure, by administrative failure Mr. Sinha refers to the test that every product has to go through that and the product has to be found a fit with the certification to be sold in the market. If the test did not happen this is called administrative surgery. Secondly, the technical failure, which refers means the test recommended test happened still the manufacturer did not bend the technology properly. The third is a regulatory failure, which means there are certain tests and frameworks met for an OEM to keep checking and keeping a tab regulation of them. If they imported cells from a particular source, they get the certificate and give a declaration that, if there’s any major component change done from our side, then we’ll come back to you for the revalidation purpose. But sometimes this does not happen and which turned out to be a regulatory failure.
Mr. Sanjay Bhatia , Business Consultant – EV commercial vehicles Expressed his views on safety measures and mentioned that, safety management is something that is missing in the whole piece, we should not focus much on, one particular technology default but the system needs to have a standard operating procedure for all the categories and stakeholders to manage the whole system. A proper management system is needed to build up around the whole public transport to make it reliable and safer.
Mr. Vaibhav Deshwal, Marketing Specialist – ABB Speaking about the charger standards Mr. Vaibhav explained the whole troublesome scenario very lithely and revealed the importance of bar infrastructure, the whole pair upfront area used for the vehicle to get charged. In EMC one should be aware of the kind of tests which are done, the first is emission and the second is immunity. Emission is basically, the electromagnetic interaction with the environment, which goes out from the product, and immunity is something that is coming inside the product. Similarly, there are certain more tests like the Radio Emission tests, RED certificates, and LVD low voltage directives, which according to Mr. Vaibhav are the required essential for the safety management.
Mr. Vinit Bansal, Founder & Managing Director – EV Motors India Conveyed his opinion and asserted that, battery technology is still in a developmental stage, and there are still several factors in terms of energy density, safety, and faster charging, that needs to be addressed for energy storage or battery development. So there’s still an evolutionary process going on. Mr. Bansal exceeded the conversation by acknowledging the public awareness, where the recent incidents impacted the public confidence substantially which leads to new technology development and has given a push to the industry and the Government.
Mr. Sachhin Patra, Deputy General Manager – EKI Energy Services Ltd Continued the panel discussion by mentioning the importance of Ev subsidies for the upcoming technology to mature and achieve the scale, which helps in the reduction of the per-unit cost of manufacturing. Along with the subsidy proposal Mr. Sachin mentioned certain other policy instruments which could be more important for EVs and the future advancement of technology.
