Explainer: Why and how EVs catch fire

A fatal electric vehicle fire in Bharatpur has triggered anxiety across Nepal, prompting urgent questions about whether the tragedy stems from battery fault or external factors. TKP breaks down EV fires in 11 questions.

Early Friday morning in Bharatpur, a moving electric car caught fire on the East-West Highway, leaving behind a trail of billows of smoke as it burned. Behind the wheel was 55-year-old Amar Parajuli, a former school director driving home to Bharatpur from Hetauda via Tandi. Parajuli died in the vehicle before police and firefighters could put out the blaze with a fire engine. His body has been kept at Bharatpur Hospital as investigators try to determine how a year-old GAC Aion Y , a model imported by CG Motors Pvt. Ltd. , caught fire on the road. Footage of the incident has circulated widely on social media, prompting wider questions across Nepal about why electric vehicles catch fire and how seriously such risks should be taken. Here is an explainer.