South Korean lawmakers have continued a push to prioritise security and reassure residents following two high-profile electrical automobile (EV) fires.
Information company Reuters experiences the South Korean authorities has moved ahead plans to introduce an EV battery certification program, from February 2025 to October 2024.
The brand new program will reportedly require carmakers to indicate their EV batteries meet native security requirements from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport earlier than occurring sale – changing the voluntary system presently in place.
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It’ll additionally end in producers figuring out the place their batteries have been sourced, which has additionally been voluntary and was put into motion by most manufacturers earlier this month.
The choice to quick monitor this system comes after a Mercedes-Benz EV caught hearth in an underground house carpark, damaging roughly 140 automobiles and taking eight hours to extinguish based on Reuters.
A Kia EV6 caught hearth at one other carpark within the following days, though the automobile was related to an EV charger on this second incident.
Reuters reported the extra security measures being launched to stop or cut back the chance of EV fires embrace revised underground parking hearth suppression necessities and the adoption of chargers which may’t overheat.
The modifications observe the Seoul Metropolitan Authorities final week advising EV drivers to not use underground automobile parks if their batteries are holding greater than 90 per cent cost.
It introduced a pilot trial limiting speedy chargers to 80 per cent in the event that they’re in a public area, and there are reportedly plans to broaden this to non-public operators.
This was criticised by Professor Yoon Gained-sub, an power science professional at Sungkyunkwan College and the pinnacle of a battery analysis centre. He advised Korea JoongAng Each day there’s no confirmed hyperlink between an EV’s state of cost and the depth of its hearth.
“Extreme charging isn’t the governing issue with a hearth,” Mr Yoon mentioned.
“EVs, from the beginning, are designed to by no means attain a full cost, even when the dashboard says they’re 100 per cent. It’s an unproven argument that batteries carry a better hearth danger when totally charged.
“It appears a bit like a ‘witch hunt’ blocking EV homeowners with vehicles charged 90 per cent from getting into underground parking heaps. It’s important to provide you with appropriate countermeasures after an intensive dialogue amongst specialists.”
EV FireSafe, an Australian firm which collates world automobile hearth information, has discovered there have been 511 reported incidents of thermal runaway in EV and plug-in hybrid automobile (PHEV) batteries worldwide between 2010 and the top of June 2024 – not together with the newest South Korean fires.
MORE: Main metropolis gained’t allow you to park your EV undergroundMORE: South Korea asks carmakers to call and disgrace battery suppliers after EV fires MORE: Mercedes-Benz EV hearth leaves path of automobile park destruction
