At the end of December last year, WM Motor's EX5 model had a fire accident every day for three days in a row.
As we enter 2022, it appears that the bad luck for Chinese electric vehicle startup WM Motor has not left.
A car caught fire on the side of the road in Xiamen, Fujian province in eastern China causing severe damage to the vehicle, according to a report by local automotive outlet Yiche today, adding that the vehicle appears to be WM Motor's EX5.
As of now, WM Motor has not responded, the report noted.
(Image credit: WM Motor)
If the vehicle does indeed come from WM Motor, it would be the latest in a series of fires that have occurred at the automaker in the last month.
At the end of December last year, WM Motor's EX5 model had a fire accident every day for three days in a row, sending the company into an image crisis.
In October 2020, the EX5 model had four fires in a month. WM Motor subsequently recalled 1,282 units of the model, saying that the vehicles had abnormal lithium precipitation in the power cell due to impurities mixed in the production process by the cell supplier.
In extreme cases, this could lead to a short circuit in the cells, triggering thermal runaway of the power cell and creating a risk of fire, a safety hazard, the company said at the time.
WM Motor then replaced the power packs with cells from other suppliers for the vehicles covered by the recall, free of charge.
The company has not responded since a new round of fires emerged last month.
WM Motor delivered 5,062 vehicles in Dec, up 95.6% year-on-year
