Frequent electric car fires in South Korea, battery safety issues trigger a trust crisis

Recently, a series of electric vehicle fires have occurred in various parts of South Korea, which has raised widespread concerns about the safety of electric cars. Around 6:08 a.m. on August 1, a Mercedes-Benz EQE 350 vehicle battery caught fire in an underground garage of an apartment in Incheon, South Korea, resulting in more than 140 cars being burned or damaged. Similar incidents occurred in the Jinsan area a few days later, which further intensified public panic.

In response to the incident, Mercedes-Benz said it would cooperate with the government investigation and invest 4.5 billion won for recovery support.They will also offer customers free checks of their electric vehicle conditions.

Local South Korean brands Hyundai and KIA mainly use LG Energy Solution and SK On to ensure supply chain stability. However, to reduce costs or meet the specific needs of certain models, some models also use CATL batteries, such as the Hyundai Kona Electric. And KG Mobility indicates on its website that it uses BYD batteries for its vehicles.

Luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW also extensively use batteries made in China in their electric models. For example, some models in the Mercedes-Benz EQE series use Farasis Energy batteries, while BMW uses CATL in iX1, iX3, Mini Electric and Samsung SDI products in the rest.

Polestar disclosed battery information that the Polestar 2 is equipped with LG Energy Solution and CATL, the Polestar 4 is fully equipped with CATL and the Polestar 5 is equipped with SK On batteries.

Moreover, there are other car manufacturers related to fire incidents. Under the urging of the South Korean government, they have successively disclosed vehicle battery setup information:

VOLVO: The battery used in its vehicle models is LG Energy Solution.

Renault: All-electric models are equipped with LG Energy Solution batteries.

Volkswagen: Electric models of Volkswagen and Audi will use either LG Energy Solution or Samsung SDI batteries.

Stellantis: The pure electric models of Peugeot and DS, and the soon-to-be-on-sale Jeep Avenger will use CATL batteries, while Jeep's plug-in hybrid models choose Samsung SDI batteries.

GM: Chevrolet and Cadillac's electric models sold in South Korea all adopt LG Energy Solution batteries.

Tesla: It is actively communicating with the head office and is expected to announce the battery supplier of its models sold in South Korea soon.