As promised, Proton has issued a statement concerning the X90 which caught fire last month. The incident was widely viewed as someone had taken a video of the vehicle and it circulated on social media.
Definitely not the hybrid battery pack
Naturally, Proton was very concerned since it was a safety issue. However, from initial inspection, it was clear that the battery pack supplying electricity for the hybrid powertrain was not the cause. There are cases of battery packs in electrified vehicles catching fire for various reasons, but the fire in the particular X90 was not due to the battery pack.
Now that investigations have been completed by experts from Proton and Geely, the company explains that it was an issue related to the electrical system grounding connected to the vehicle. Grounding is important for the electrical system to operate efficiently and like the term, the electricity can flow to the ground.
The grounding connection is usually through the metal bodywork and in this particular case, the area where the connection – which has high current passing through – was made overheated excessively. This resulted in a ‘thermal incident’ (Proton’s term for a fire) due to its proximity to soundproofing material
Precautionary vehicle inspection to be done
Having identified this as the cause, Proton is asking owners of the X90 to bring their vehicles to an authorised service centre for inspection and if necessary, remedial action will be taken to eliminate such a condition from occurring.
Additionally, for vendors and the plant in Tg. Malim, Perak, enhanced supplier process control has been implemented with incoming inspections at the production line.
To date, over 3,000 units of the X90 have been delivered, with 719 units added in August. The flagship model leads monthly and cumulative sales for D-segment SUVs.