At the beginning of February, the battery explosion of an electric vehicle set on fire the Hanover branch of the franchise chain Orange Bike Concept. The shop specialising in electric mobility offers a wide range of categories and brands from electric scooters to speed pedelecs. In addition, they offer chip tuning which is heavily criticized by motor and electric bike manufacturers. According to the police, the battery exploded after charging when lying dismounted on the ground. Police officers estimated the material damage caused at 500,000 Euro.
Shortly after the expert Dirk Zedler stated: "We know that various reputed battery manufacturers use every technology available to prevent their products from malfunction. On the other hand we had to state that the shop in question offers complete vehicles, conversion kits, batteries from little known suppliers as well as tuning kits on their website. With some of these products the statutory reference values for the legal operation of pedelecs and further vehicles on public roads are most probably ignored. Final statements cannot be given until the official findings as to the investigations of the causes of fire will be available."
Some days later the Orange Bike Concept managing director Steffen Kloiber stated that the fire had been released by a registered electric vehicle which had not been used for four years. For this reason, the rechargeable battery had been deep discharged.
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Author: Tillman Lambert
