Researchers Call Out EV Makers for Still Refusing Battery Safety Tests

KatadataOTO – The safety of EV batteries (Electric Vehicle), for both motorcycles and cars, is a crucial matter that manufacturers must pay attention to.

Because accidents involving EV batteries often have fatal consequences. It should be remembered that a fire from this power source is nearly impossible to extinguish.

Therefore, battery safety should be a concern for all parties, both policymakers and manufacturers.

Unfortunately, there are still manufacturers who are reportedly reluctant to conduct comprehensive testing in specialized laboratories. In this case, two-wheeled vehicles.

Photo : Alva

“I cannot name the product. But frankly, most motorcycle brand-holding agents (APM) say that it's not mandatory (to test EV battery safety),” said Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Evvy Kartini, Founder of the National Battery Research Institute in Jakarta some time ago.

She continued that one of the reasons in the past was the lack of available battery testing laboratories.

She mentioned that over time, the said laboratory was finally built to accommodate the need for testing batteries specifically for electric motorcycles.

“But when we encourage them to test, their reasons are that it's expensive and so on. When we talk about lives, there is no 'expensive',” Prof. Evvy asserted.

She also highlighted that electric motorcycles with batteries from China cannot deliver the performance they should.

“For example, the capacity should be 20 Ah, but it turns out to be only 11 percent. But people don't know that,” said Prof. Evvy.

In the future, she hopes the government can be stricter in enforcing regulations related to the safety of electric motorcycle batteries.

This could prevent potential fatal accidents, considering that many electric motorcycle users are now online motorcycle taxi drivers with high mobility.

Photo : KatadataOTO

“Safety is also something I am fighting for very hard. In Germany, if you talk about safety, it means no one gets hurt. Maybe in Indonesia, we haven't reached that point yet,” she said.

She also stated they are open to collaborating with any electric motorcycle brands that wish to test their EV batteries.

“This is my concern, to protect the users. And most of the users are online motorcycle taxi drivers,” she emphasized.