EV rental outlets cock a snook at safety rules

Hyderabad: Several hundreds of Electric Vehicle (EV) rental scooters are plying on city roads and putting the lives of delivery boys and pedestrians at risk. These EV scooters which are tied up with food commerce, quick commerce and logistics companies are not obeying the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR), as they are deploying high-speed scooters as low-speed ones.

As per norms, the speed of these vehicles must be 25 kmph but the actual speed ranges between 40 kmph – 55 kmph, the motor power is over 500 Watts against 250W, weighing over 60 kg and have overlooked the requirements of safety features.

The EV rental startups like ZYPP Electric, EVEEZ, Scoot, Eagle (Shema Electric), etc. have been buying thousands of mid-speed and high-speed scooters and deploying them as low-speed scooters for delivery workers across all major cities including in Hyderabad. The companies have tied up with Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, Big Basket, Zepto, Blinkit, Shadowfax, Porter, Licious, Amazon, Flipkart, among others. These companies as well as the partner companies onboard gig workers as their delivery partners without any requirement of a driving license. However, this vehicle does not require vehicle registration and wearing of helmets.

According to the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union, these companies are buying thousands of mid-speed and high-speed EV scooters and deploying them as low-speed ones. The toll of such violations has reportedly been increasing with new e-vehicle rental startups entering the market daily. This is a violation of Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR).

Following the violations from the EV vehicles, MoRTH has issued an advisory to the Department of Transport Commissioner and RTOs of all States in October 2022, however these norms are not being followed. The advisory includes that the EVs should take type approval certificate (TAC), should not exceed a limit of 250W motor and should be below 60 kg.

Shaik Salauddin, president of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union said, “These EV scooters have either not taken TAC or have tampered the conditions mentioned in their TAC. These are not registered with RTOs and have no registered number plates. Also, the odometers in these EVs have been conveniently tampered to show speeds under 25 kmph, whereas actual speeds range between 40 kmph – 55 kmph. The motor power is above 500W as against the prescribed upper limit of 250W and the weight is above 60 kg. These are violations by the EV rental startups, and the RTO and government must initiate actions against these startup companies,” said Salauddin.

He said, “The union has raised these serious concerns over the rampant violation and given a representation to the Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar and requested to take action against the same.”

These high-speed vehicles are putting the lives of pedestrians and other drivers at grave risk. Since this is a new category of vehicles and often State Traffic Police and RTOs are unaware of the legal status as well as compliances required by e-scooters. These start-ups and OEMs seem to be exploiting this information gap, says Salauddin.