Trial EV Accident: Electric Vehicle Startup Deeply Saddened; Driver Says 'Was Forced to Speed, Overload'

A day after four people, including two forest rangers, died and a woman warden went missing after their trial electric vehicle (EV) met with an accident in Uttarakhand’s Rajaji Tiger Reserve, electric vehicle startup Pravaig Dynamics on Tuesday said to news agency PTI that it is working with the investigating agencies to make more details available.

While the Bengaluru-based company said it was deeply saddened by the accident, which occurred during a demonstration of the vehicle, the driver separately stated that forest officials forced him to overload and speed up during the trial of the all-terrain electric SUV. Ashbin Biju, a BE Mechanical Engineer who was driving the vehicle, told PTI that he was neither inebriated nor tired. Eight killed in road accident in Uttarakhand.

The first test drive, approved by the Forest Department of Uttarakhand, happened on Monday morning without any incident. However, in the second round of the demonstration in the afternoon, forest officials forced him to take nine personnel (a total of 10, including the driver) against the seating capacity of eight (including the driver), according to his statement reported by PTI.

“The ranger standing at the rear of the vehicle ordered me to go to the Chilla Dam road and asked me to go to other off-road obstacles as part of the demonstration,” he said, adding they asked him to “accelerate” despite “my repeated requests to not go outside the planned range.” “I refused to comply 2-3 times and did not accelerate the speed beyond 30-40 kmph,” he said, adding he “succumbed” to the pressures from the other officer and “gave a little acceleration burst.”

“As it is an electric vehicle, the acceleration is fairly high, and it reached a speed of 70 kmph in a fraction of a second,” he said. “Due to loose, unstable roads with mud and dangerous rocks, the tyre burst, and the vehicle lost control from the rear and hit a tree sideways before colliding at high speed into the embankment wall between the road and river.” He said he did not remember what happened after that.