A recent highly-publicised electric vehicle (EV) fire has led the South Korean government to ask carmakers to disclose their battery suppliers, as it attempts to quell fears about future incidents.
Earlier this month a Mercedes-Benz EV caught fire in an apartment building’s underground car park, damaging at least 70 other cars and sending more than a dozen people to hospital.
The cause of the inferno has yet to be determined, though Reuters reports South Korean lawmakers are keen to find out which car companies are using whose batteries.
“Such battery information has not been available to the public so far and the measure is to reduce EV owners’ fire anxiety,” a statement to Reuters from South Korea’s office of government policy coordination said.
Hyundai was among the first carmakers to do so, publishing a list of its EVs and their battery suppliers, largely consisting of South Korean firms SK On and LG Energy Solution, as well as Chinese giant CATL.
Sibling brand Kia and luxury offshoot Genesis share the same suppliers as Hyundai, while BMW named Samsung SDI as its main South Korean source.
The Mercedes-Benz EV which burnt earlier this month was reportedly supplied by Chinese specialist Farasis Energy, though it also uses SK On, LG Energy Solution and CATL.
According to Reuters, LGES, SK On and Samsung SDI declined the publication’s request for comment on EVs using their batteries, with CATL and Farasis not responding to its request.
EV FireSafe, an Australian company which collates global vehicle fire data, has found there have been 511 reported incidents of thermal runaway in EV and plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) batteries worldwide between 2010 and the end of June 2024 – not including the most recent South Korean fire.
