South Korea to mandate disclosure of EV battery brands following recent fires

South Korea’s environment ministry revealed on Thursday it will summon an urgent session next week concerning the recent EV fires which led to a massive fire incident. The next meeting, to be held on Monday, shall involve land and industry ministries, the National Fire Agency, and other states’ departments relevant to the problem. These plans include: The government’s primary goal is to come up with measures to avoid the incidence of future occurrence of the mishap and precautions that should be observe.

This decision comes at a time where efficiency and safety issues concerning EVs are on the rise but sales within this industry are declining. Observers stress that it is now important for both regulators and the EV industry to start investing efforts to make people regain confidence. The Korean government has been committed to designing new measures against:fluttering and, as Yonhap news agency reported, the new measures will be launched in early next month.

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In a related development, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper wrote that the South Korean government intends to implement new rules stating that EV makers must reveal battery brands of cars to be sold in the country. Today, South Korean government regulations require specific information about automobiles like fuel efficiency but refrains from demanding battery brands or its manufacturers. We are still waiting for words from the transport ministry regarding this finding.

These include calls for higher visibility after a fire that occurred last week in a new Mercedes-Benz electric sedan with batteries purchased from the Chinese company Farasis Energy. It all started in an underground car park in Incheon South Korea and took several hours of eight to be put off. It led to burning of property worth about 140 vehicles and 23 people were housed due to complications related to respiratory issues caused by the smoke. Mercedes-Benz Korea has stood ready saying that it is ready to assist the authorities in determining the cause of the fire. It is worth to note that Farasis Energy has not publicly released an opinion about the event by the time of writing this article.

A report from the Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters noted that from 2013 to 2022, 1,399 fires occurred in underground parking lots in South Korea, with 43.7% attributed to vehicles. Electrical sources were responsible for 53% of these fires.

Esther Yim, an analyst at Samsung Securities, highlighted the growing consumer distrust of EVs due to these incidents, which could exacerbate the current downturn in EV sales. In response, Hyundai Motor has announced plans to expand its hybrid lineup, while LG Energy Solution has reduced its annual sales target due to a global slowdown in EV demand.