Even though there have been multiple cases of Ampere Magnus chassis split cases, company only recommends repairs, instead of replacement and recall
Maithani Mohalla resident Mohit Kumar from Meerut, recently met with an accident while riding an Ampere Magnus electric scooter along with his 5-year-old son Aradhya. On Sunday morning, Mohit Kumar went to Shiv Chowk along with his son to buy some goods. On this instance, said Ampere Magnus electric scooter chassis split in two while on the go.
Father-son duo dealt with minor injuries during this accident on the road. The car behind him hit his brakes on time, negating further injury to both Mohit Kumar and his 5-year-old son Aradhya. He immediately called Shree Shiv Electricals authorized Ampere electric scooter dealership on P L Sharma road and informed them regarding this matter.
Ampere Magnus chassis splits in half
Shree Shiv Electricals owner Ankur Bansal asked Mohit Kumar to bring said Ampere Magnus to the showroom premises. As we can see in the images, this Ampere Magnus has split in half near the front end of the floorboard.
We have seen one Ampere Magnus electric scooter on Youtube which broke down in an identical fashion to Mohit Kumar’s scooter, in April 2023, reported by Kanak News, Uttar Pradesh. Watch the video below. The split electric scooters look like an American custom chopper with a ridiculously extreme trail, but that was not the company’s original intention.
Why did it happen?
Mohit Kumar bought the Ampere Magnus electric scooter in October 2022 for a price of Rs. 88,000. Ampere allegedly promised Mohit Kumar three years of guarantee and he had to face this hazardous accident by chassis deformation within a year of purchase.
Dealer Ankur Bansal revealed that there are more than 400 of said Magnus electric scooters and more than 40 of those have faced similar chassis deformation. He also revealed that there is a new Ampere dealership in Garh Road, Meerut. In this dealership, Ampere is allegedly offering a reinforced Magnus scooter which has an additional iron plate to prevent this deformation.
When a manufacturer sells a vehicle, they have to certify it and get type approval for a certain specification. As per the info here, the company seems to be providing different vehicles for different dealerships, within the same city. It is likely that Mr. Bansal is misinformed of these happenings.
When will an automaker issue a recall?
The Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed a new guideline for the recall process. The new rules are in effect from April 2021, and they dictate 2W manufacturers with annual sales of 3,000 for that model to recall if 20% units report a similar defect. For 2W vehicles with annual sales between 3,000 and 60,000, at least 600 units on top of 10% of said vehicle reports a similar defect.
Sticking with Ampere, Magnus chassis splitting seems to be a known fault and the company only recommends a repair, rather than a replacement. Also, there is still no word on a voluntary recall even though this looks like a pattern exhibited by multiple Magnus vehicles.
