A man from Ambur, Tamil Nadu, got so frustrated by the customer service of Ola Electric that he set his electric bike on fire after it stopped midway. The man has been identified as Prithiviraj Gopinathan, a physiotherapist at Ambur.
Gopinathan took to Twitter to share the video of him burning the Ola Electric bike. He tagged the official Twitter accounts of Ola Electric, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, Ather Energy, Hero Electric, and as well as American billionaire Elon Musk.
According to his Twitter timeline, Gopinathan has been facing problems with his Ola Electric bike for some time now. His bike would show that it was charged and could run for over 180 KMs, but the battery would die only after 50-60 KM, repeatedly causing him inconvenience. On the day of the incident, he had gone to Gudiyatham RTO because OLA had paid the registration fees there instead of his hometown Ambur.
While coming back from the RTO, his bike broke down in the middle of the road though it had shown enough battery power to cover the distance back home. He had called Ola for support as the battery of the bike died in the middle of the road without any prior warning. However, the company said it could send help only after 3-4 hours.
Irked by the reply, Gopinathan called his assistant and asked him to buy two-litre petrol. He parked the bike on the side of the road, poured fuel on it and set it on fire. He uploaded the video on his Twitter profile.
While going through his Twitter timeline, it was found that Gopinathan had been facing problems with the bike for over three months, but the company was not able to solve the issue.
Speaking to Times Of India, he said that after he shared the video on Twitter, the agency called him and urged him not to give interviews in the media. They also promised him to replace the bike. However, he said, “I bluntly told them my relationship with their company was over as soon as I burnt the bike. But he said a team has already left for his clinic in Ambur with a brand new e-bike and promised to deliver the bike tonight.”
Fire incidents in e-bikes
There have been a lot of complaints of electric bikes catching fire in the last few months. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari took cognizance of the matter and promised that the government would look into it.
OpIndia reached out to Gopinathan and Ola Electric for comments but could not connect.