A Seres brand electric vehicle caught fire at a service center in Sitapaila, Kathmandu Metropolitan City-15 on Monday morning. The incident involved a Seres electric car with registration number Bagmati Province 01-029 Ch 5950.
According to Swayambhu Police Circle, smoke emerged from various parts of the vehicle around 6 AM, leading to the fire. The fire was extinguished with the help of fire brigade services. The car was completely damaged, though no human casualties were reported as the vehicle was empty at the time.
The vehicle reportedly caught fire due to a short circuit in its wiring. Most parts of the car were damaged, with smoke simultaneously emerging from different sections.
Vehicle History and Issues:
The car had been experiencing problems for a long time, including issues with:
-
Steering
-
Brakes
-
Pickup performance
Customer Response:
Customers had previously returned these cars to the dealer due to these issues. MAW Vriddhi, the authorized dealer for Nepal, had claimed to take back cars from customers. However, this claim was found to be false.
Company Background MAW Vriddhi is owned by Bishnu Agrawal, former chairman of the Federation of Nepalese Industries. Technical experts from Seres company had visited Nepal from China to inspect the vehicles, after which the cars were taken back from customers due to detected problems. However, MAW Vriddhi did not return all cars to the company, and the fire occurred in one of these stored vehicles.
Launch Details In Bhadau 2080 (2023), MAW Vriddhi had introduced three variants of Seres Mini EV in Nepal:
-
Short range: NPR 1,399,000
-
Full option: NPR 1,649,000
-
Long range: NPR 1,799,000
The car's battery pack was claimed to provide a range of 180-220 kilometers on a full charge. However, customers were frustrated as the vehicles failed to deliver the promised range.
