How Hyundai And Kia Are Dealing With EV Fire Concerns In Korea

• A hearth with a Mercedes-Benz EQE after which a Kia EV6 has despatched South Korea right into a panic over EVs.
• EV fires are statically few and much between, but when they do occur, lithium-ion battery fires are notably nasty and exhausting to extinguish.
• The concerned automotive firms are making quite a few adjustments in an try to revive buyer belief. 

It is a scenario no electrical car proprietor needs to consider: A automotive catches hearth for inexplicable causes and causes important collateral injury earlier than it is lastly extinguished. It is also a headline no automotive firm that makes EVs needs to cope with. Fortunately, these fires are statistically rare. However after one conflagration involving an electric Kia in a parking garage in Korea, the Hyundai Motor Group stated it is taking proactive steps to alleviate the general public’s hearth fears and alert homeowners to potential issues earlier than they occur. 

The world’s third-largest automaker and burgeoning EV titan has introduced a number of coverage adjustments, new practices and forthcoming software program updates since a Kia EV6 caught fire earlier this month. Thankfully for all concerned, that blaze was extinguished shortly. However it got here on the heels of a much more devastating hearth involving a Mercedes-Benz EQE in an Incheon storage that despatched two dozen individuals to the hospital. 

Each blazes have sparked a national panic in South Korea, a nation whose automakers are crafting an enormous play to be aggressive within the EV world. On-line used EV sale listings are actually up almost 200% as homeowners shortly search to dump their automobiles amid hearth considerations, according to local news reports. 

That is a scenario the Hyundai Motor Group clearly needs to get forward of. So final week, it launched a free inspection program for homeowners of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EVs within the dwelling market. 

“The inspection targets all passenger and small industrial electrical autos from Hyundai Motor Firm, Kia Motors, and Genesis, and a complete of 9 objects associated to the protection of electrical autos are inspected, together with insulation resistance, voltage deviation, cooling system, injury to connecting cables and connectors, underbody influence/injury [and] prevalence of fault codes,” the automaker said in a news release. “Prospects who want to use the service could make a reservation by deciding on the specified date and site on a weekday or Saturday via every firm’s buyer heart, after which go to the service heart.”

The automaker additionally stated that its Hyundai and Kia manufacturers are offering dwelling chargers (together with set up, in Hyundai’s case), by some means guaranteeing the residual worth of used automobiles and supporting homeowners if a complete loss occurs resulting from an accident inside one yr. Once more, these perks appear to be restricted to Korean EV homeowners, not ones in different markets. 

Moreover, together with Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai is voluntarily disclosing the names of its battery suppliers to homeowners, in response to Bloomberg. This has been—and continues to be—some extent of competition amongst homeowners who wish to know if their specific batteries are tied to any particular hearth incidents. Throughout the business, it is typically very exhausting to inform what batteries are in what EVs and the place they arrive from. 

The batteries from the Mercedes hearth in Korea are believed to be sourced from China’s Farasis Power, that are unlikely for use in any U.S.-model EVs. (We’ll replace this story as we get extra on the supply of the batteries for U.S.-market EQE sedans; Mercedes’ EQ SUVs use locally made batteries close to the identical Alabama manufacturing facility that builds the automobiles.) 

Yoon Joonwon, a fund supervisor at DS Asset Administration Co. in Seoul, informed Bloomberg that sourcing high quality might make a distinction right here: “It’s tough to inform at this level whether or not Farasis batteries are the issue, however there’s a normal sentiment that the chance is greater with smaller battery makers than main producers like CATL or Korean makers,” he stated. In different phrases, it appears unlikely that U.S. EV batteries are implicated right here; most of the e-bike fires which have brought on chaos in New York Metropolis, for instance, have been tied to batteries from cheaper, lower-cost Chinese sources somewhat than higher-grade automotive ones. 

Based on Hyundai and Kia’s websites, batteries are sourced from Korean giants LG and SK On, in addition to CATL. 

Lastly, Hyundai Motor has introduced updates to its Battery Administration System (BMS) that ought to assist monitor irregularities and alert homeowners if any are occurring. “When the BMS detects any malfunctions, it instantly assesses the chance degree and initiates car security management measures,” the Korea Times reported. The irregular information is transmitted to distant help facilities of the carmakers, which then mechanically ship a textual content message to the client.” Updates might be utilized to new autos and ones presently on the highway by the tip of this yr. 

The automaker added to native information retailers that it doesn’t consider “overcharging” was a supply of any battery fires, saying the BMS already screens that scenario and that “the probability of points brought on by overcharging is near zero %.” 

“Hyundai Motor Group’s EVs incorporate a complete vary of security applied sciences developed primarily based on the experience and expertise accrued up to now,” an organization official stated. “We’re dedicated to making sure that prospects worldwide can really feel protected driving our EVs.”

The automaker had higher hope so. EV gross sales in its dwelling market have been down recently regardless of important development globally, and the most recent spate of fires—although solely restricted to 2 identified incidents up to now—have despatched gross sales and costs plummeting. It is actually not a scenario Hyundai Motor needs because it escalates an EV push designed to tackle Tesla, China and the remaining worldwide. 

We’re reaching out to Hyundai and Kia within the U.S. to see if any of those insurance policies or updates are coming to American-market automobiles. No fires from both model, or Mercedes-Benz, are identified to have occurred not too long ago; just a few thousand 2022 Kia Niro EVs have been recalled recently over fire concerns, however Hyundai Motor’s largest fire-related recall was for gasoline-powered automobiles. 

Extra on this as we get it.

Contact the creator: patrick.george@insideevs.com