Bengaluru mall has separate parking for EVs in ‘baking sunlight’? Ather executive responds
There have been multiple instances of electric vehicles (EVs) catching fire in recent years. A user slammed the Bengaluru mall for a separate EV parking lot.
A Bengaluru-based photographer has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to point out that a popular mall in the city has a separate parking lot for electric vehicles (EVs) despite having a multi-storied parking facility for other vehicles.
Alleging "irrational fear psychosis", Nishant Ratnakar shared a photo of the outdoor parking lot meant for EVs at the south Bengaluru mall.
“Electric Vehicle parking zone,” says a board placed there.
“There is some irrational fear psychosis with regards to Electric Vehicles. While there is a big multi level parking (as seen on left), they make EVs to be parked in baking sunlight outside,” he posted on X, along with the photo.
“The security staff cites some recent fire incident in a truck transporting EVs as an anecdotal evidence for practicing such untouchability.”
The user tagged EV maker Ather Energy and its founders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, urging them to speak to the mall’s management to clear misconceptions about electric vehicles.
“ I hope EV industry leaders can talk some sense to these malls in Bengaluru,” he wrote, tagging Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal.
“This is peak fear psychosis by this prominent mall,” he wrote in another post.
Popular X account Peak Bengaluru tagged Aravind Prasad, head - charging infrastructure at Ather Energy asking for the company’s intervention.
“We will reach out to them,” he wrote.
There have been multiple instances of electric vehicles, especially two-wheelers, catching fire in recent years.
In April 2022, Ola Electric had said it was recalling 1,441 units of its electric two-wheelers in the wake of incidents of vehicles catching fire in different parts of the country, according to a company statement.
Okinawa Autotech had recalled over 3,000 units, while PureEV did a similar exercise for around 2,000 units.
The fire incidents had prompted the government to form a panel to examine and had warned companies of penalties if they were found to be negligent.
