In July 2026, an electric scooter battery caught fire while charging on the ground floor of a paying-guest building in Noida’s Mamura area. Smoke rose through the four-storey structure. Fifty families were trapped. Two residents died of smoke inhalation before seven fire tenders could clear the building. The building’s owner and leaseholder were taken into custody.
A few months earlier, in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, an e-scooter exploded at roughly 2:30 a.m. while charging inside a home. An 11-year-old girl who was sleeping in the room died of suffocation. Two others sustained critical burn injuries.
These are not freak accidents. India’s electric two-wheeler market is growing fast, and nowhere faster than in the gig economy where Swiggy, Zomato and quick-commerce platforms are pushing riders onto EVs. But the charging infrastructure has not kept pace. What fills the gap is extension cords dragged through windows, overloaded domestic sockets, and unlicensed roadside charging points wired together with whatever cable is at hand. For the delivery rider earning ₹800 a day and living in a shared room, safe charging is not a choice on offer.
The gig delivery boom and its charging gap
India’s food and quick-commerce platforms are moving their last-mile fleets to electric. Zomato launched EV bike rentals for delivery partners. Swiggy partnered with Hero MotoCorp to put electric scooters in its riders’ hands. In September 2026, Bijliride an EV rental and battery-swapping startup announced partnerships with both Swiggy and Zomato, deploying over 5,500 electric two-wheelers across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.
The business case is clear. Electric scooters cost less per kilometre than petrol. For a rider doing 80–100 km a day, the fuel savings can add up to several thousand rupees a month. Platforms benefit from lower fleet costs and sustainability branding.
But the charging infrastructure that these riders land on was never designed for them. Most delivery riders rent rooms in PG accommodations, shared flats or urban-fringe housing where wiring is decades old and a single 15-amp socket serves the entire room. There are no dedicated EV charging points. Public charging stations, where available, are built for cars, and their connectors are often incompatible with two-wheeler adapters
The result: riders improvise. And when improvisation involves lithium-ion batteries and high-current draw, people can get hurt.
For delivery platforms transitioning to electric fleets, access to reliable EV charging solutions can help reduce dependence on informal charging arrangements. Dedicated charging infrastructure at delivery hubs and parking locations provides a safer alternative to improvised electrical connections.
What informal EV charging actually looks like
An investigation by Rest of World, a publication covering global tech stories, in late 2024 documented what charging looks like on the ground in Delhi. At one south Delhi station, at least 15 e-rickshaws were parked close together. Loose wires ran from an outlet along a damp wall to a power strip, which connected through a thick cord to a vehicle parked over a water-filled pothole. The operator charged ₹100 for a full 6–7 hour charge, nearly double the regulated rate.
A Newslaundry investigation in September 2024 found similar conditions across east and northeast Delhi. In the CA Block slum of Shalimar Bagh, reporters counted 20–25 e-rickshaws charging from domestic connections. One driver, Sukhwandar, had run a wire from his home to his roadside parking spot as a makeshift charging point. Residents said vehicles were being charged through poor-quality wires and overloaded connections. No one checked whether the wiring was safe or whether the metre could handle the load.
The patterns
Extension cords and domestic sockets. The most common setup: a rider plugs their scooter’s charger into a household extension cord, dragged to a balcony, corridor or parking spot. Standard household extension cords cannot carry high continuous current. Their thin wires overheat. High power draw can melt low-quality switches.
Unlicensed roadside stations. Garages and small businesses offer charging at ₹120–150 per day without commercial metres, safety compliance or fire equipment. Drivers in Harsh Vihar and Mandoli told Newslaundry they did not know of a single legal charging station in their area.
Power theft. A government official told PTI that over 60% of Delhi’s e-rickshaws are involved in power theft through illegal charging. Discom officials claim this causes an annual loss of ₹120 crore (nearly $14 million). Many garages draw power from domestic connections to avoid commercial tariffs.
Overnight, unattended charging. Riders charge overnight in the rooms where they sleep. Thermal runaway an uncontrollable self-heating state in lithium-ion cells can produce thick smoke or intense fire with little warning. The Ratlam explosion happened at 2:30 a.m. The Noida PG fire started while residents slept.
The human cost
The incidents are not abstractions. They have names.
In August 2024, a seven-year-old boy named Suraj touched a charging e-rickshaw near a public toilet in CA Block, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi. He was electrocuted and declared dead at a hospital. The area has an estimated 150–200 e-rickshaws. Residents reported an earlier shock incident involving the same vehicle. Children were seen playing in and near charging e-rickshaws on the street.
A few weeks later, on 5 September 2024, a driver named Deepu was electrocuted at roughly 1:30 p.m. while charging his e-rickshaw at a garage. He was declared dead on arrival at GTB Hospital. Deepu had been struggling with EMIs of about ₹12,000 a month. He had taken a ₹20,000 loan at 12% interest just two months earlier to clear his payments. His family alleges the garage was unlicensed. Police registered a case under Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita for death due to negligence.
In Noida, the Mamura PG fire in July 2026 killed two residents by smoke inhalation and displaced roughly 50 families. The building had no fire safety compliance. E-rickshaws and scooters were parked and charged on the ground floor, with no separation from the residential floors above.
In Ratlam, the January 2025 explosion killed 11-year-old Antara Chaudhary, who was visiting her grandparents. She was sleeping in the room where the scooter was charging.
Former Delhi transport deputy commissioner Anil Chhikara told Rest of World that incidents like these including fires and electrocutions occur frequently during monsoon season, when waterlogged streets and exposed wiring create lethal combinations.
There is no comprehensive national registry of EV fires. The Ministry of Heavy Industries confirmed in March 2025 that fire-specific data is not centrally compiled. What exists are MoRTH’s general EV accident figures: 7,575 EV-related accidents in 2024, up from 4,363 in 2022 a 74% rise in two years.
Why gig workers are stuck with unsafe charging
The problem is not ignorance. It is economics.
An e-rickshaw driver in Delhi earns roughly ₹800 a day, according to Newslaundry’s reporting. Out of that, a garage charges ₹120–150 per day for parking and charging roughly 15–19% of daily income, before EMIs, fuel for the return trip, food and rent. A driver with a financed vehicle may owe ₹12,000 a month in EMIs alone.
A proper commercial charging setup with a dedicated circuit, MCB, RCCB and earthing can cost several thousand rupees to install money a renter does not have and a landlord will not spend. The cheaper alternative is a domestic socket and an extension cord.
Housing
Most gig delivery riders live in rented rooms, PG accommodations or shared flats in dense urban-fringe neighbourhoods. These buildings were not built for EV charging. Wiring is often decades old. Earthing is absent or poorly maintained. There is no dedicated parking with electrical access. Riders charge where they can: inside their room, in a corridor, on a balcony, or at a roadside spot with a wire pulled from the nearest socket.
Infrastructure
Public charging stations are built for cars. Delhi claimed an EV-to-public-charger ratio of 25:1, but the real ratio is much higher when unregistered e-rickshaws are counted. The public stations that exist often have connectors incompatible with two-wheeler adapters. Trade union leader Vighnesh Jha told Rest of World that adding compatible sockets is inexpensive and logistically simple, but it has not been done.
Battery swapping is the most promising alternative for gig riders it eliminates the need for home charging entirely. Bijliride reports over 35,000 battery swaps and 9,000 doorstep battery deliveries. But swapping networks are concentrated in a handful of cities, and standardisation across vehicle brands remains incomplete.
Time
Charging time is lost earning time. A full charge can take 2–7 hours depending on the vehicle and battery. As the EVolution Auto India analysis put it: “Any charging solution that forces long, unpaid charging stops is effectively a pay cut.” A rider who charges during the day loses peak delivery hours. A rider who charges overnight in their room takes the fire risk home.
For fleet operators managing multiple charging locations, EV charging management software can help monitor charger availability, charging sessions, energy consumption and equipment faults. Better visibility helps operators maintain charging infrastructure used by delivery riders.
What safe EV charging actually requires
The gap between how gig riders charge and how they should charge is wide. Here is what a safe home or depot charging setup needs.
A dedicated electrical circuit. The charger should run on its own circuit from the distribution board, not share a line with lights, fans and appliances. This prevents overloading and isolates a fault to one circuit.
A 15-amp socket with proper earthing. A dedicated 15-amp point is recommended for long charging cycles. Earthing diverts fault current to ground and is the single most important protection against electrocution. In many PG buildings and informal housing, earthing is absent or connected to nothing.
MCB and RCCB protection. A Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB) trips on overload or short circuit. A Residual Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB) trips on earth leakage the kind of fault that electrocutes. Both should sit on the dedicated charging circuit.
The OEM charger, always. Third-party chargers may not regulate voltage correctly for a specific battery’s chemistry. The manufacturer’s charger is tuned to the battery management system (BMS). Using a mismatched charger bypasses the safety the BMS provides.
No extension cords. Standard household extension cords cannot carry the sustained current that EV charging draws. Their thin wires overheat. This is the single most common unsafe practice and the easiest to eliminate. Plug the charger directly into a wall socket.
Ventilation. Charging generates heat. Confined spaces with poor airflow accelerate battery temperature rise. Charging should happen in a ventilated area, away from flammable materials.
Never charge unattended overnight. The BMS cuts power when the battery is full, but a BMS can fail. A fire at 2 a.m. in a room where people are sleeping turns survivable into fatal.
Battery swapping as an alternative
For gig riders who cannot meet these requirements, especially those living in shared rental housing, battery swapping removes the need for home charging entirely.The rider drops a depleted battery at a swap station and picks up a charged one in minutes. Bijliride, Bounce Infinity and Battery Smart operate two-wheeler swap networks in Indian cities. The model eliminates charging time, transfers battery maintenance to the operator, and keeps lithium-ion cells out of bedrooms. Operating a battery-swapping network also requires monitoring battery availability, charging cycles and battery health. A battery swapping management system can help operators coordinate these activities across multiple swapping locations.
Safe charging is an equity issue, not just a technical one
The platforms pushing riders onto EVs are large, well-funded companies. They can negotiate fleet deals, build charging hubs at dark stores and warehouses, and subsidise battery swaps. Individual riders cannot.
A delivery rider living in a ₹5,000-a-month shared room does not have the leverage to ask a landlord for a dedicated 15-amp circuit, MCB/RCCB protection and proper earthing. The rider does not own the building. The rider may not even have a formal lease.
This is where the equity argument sharpens. India’s EV transition is being built on the shoulders of its lowest-paid workers. The platforms capture the operational savings and the sustainability branding. The riders absorb the safety risk.
What needs to change
Platforms must own the charging problem. If a platform requires or incentivises riders to use EVs, it has a responsibility to ensure those riders have access to safe charging. This means installing charging infrastructure at delivery hubs, partnering with battery-swap networks, and covering or subsidising the cost. Bijliride’s model bundling the vehicle, battery swaps, doorstep battery delivery and 24/7 on-road assistance into a rental is a template.
Municipal authorities must regulate informal charging. The current approach of periodic crackdowns on unregistered e-rickshaws does not solve the charging problem. It pushes it further underground. What is needed: safety standards for commercial EV charging points (wiring, earthing, fire equipment), a licensing framework that small operators can afford, and regular inspections.
Public charging must include two-wheelers. Adding compatible sockets to existing public charging stations is, as trade unions have pointed out, inexpensive and straightforward. Delhi’s replacement policy aims for 13,200 charging stations. If those stations cannot serve the two-wheelers that make up more than half the city’s EVs, the investment misses its largest user base.
Housing policy must catch up. New PG accommodations and rental buildings in EV-dense cities should be required to provide EV-ready electrical infrastructure: dedicated circuits with earthing and circuit protection in designated parking areas. Retrofitting older buildings is harder, but subsidy programmes could target the highest-risk housing multi-storey PGs in gig-economy corridors.
Manufacturers must ensure safe charging at point of sale. Every electric two-wheeler should ship with a certified charger, a clear installation guide, and a warning label about extension cords. Buyers should receive an installation check as part of the purchase, not as an afterthought.
Frequently asked questions
No. Standard household extension cords are not rated for the sustained current draw of EV chargers. Their thin wires can overheat and melt, creating a fire hazard. Always plug the OEM charger directly into a dedicated wall socket with proper earthing.
Most charging-related fires trace back to one or more of these factors: a faulty or third-party charger, overloaded wiring, poor earthing, physical damage to the battery, or leaving a damaged battery to charge unattended. In extreme cases, a failing cell can enter thermal runaway an uncontrollable self-heating state that produces intense fire and toxic smoke.
At minimum: a dedicated 15-amp circuit from the distribution board, proper earthing, a Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB) and a Residual Current Circuit Breaker (RCCB) on that circuit, and the manufacturer-supplied charger. Have a qualified electrician inspect the setup before first use.
Yes. Gig riders often live in shared rental accommodation where electrical infrastructure is old and not designed for EV charging. They charge in rooms where they sleep, use extension cords and domestic sockets, and rely on unlicensed roadside charging points. The combination of poor wiring, high-current draw and confined spaces increases the risk of fire and electrocution.
Battery swapping lets a rider exchange a depleted battery for a fully charged one at a swap station, typically in under five minutes. It eliminates the need for home charging, removes lithium-ion cells from bedrooms and corridors, and shifts battery maintenance to the operator. Companies like Bijliride, Bounce Infinity and Battery Smart run two-wheeler swap networks in Indian cities.
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