By ESS news
Amid growing public concerns about the safety of electric vehicles (EV), the South Korean government has initiated a review of safety measures surrounding EV batteries and infrastructure, including parking facilities and EV chargers. The publicly announced move follows several high-profile fires, including a deadly fire at a battery factory in June and a recent EV fire in Incheon that caused evacuations and injuries.
According to the government, the fire in Incheon caused the evacuation of more than 200 families and destroyed dozens of cars.
In response to the battery problem, the Office for the Coordination of Government Policies today, August 13, convened a vice-ministerial meeting with key ministries including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Environment and the National Fire Brigade Organization. The outcome, published on its websitewas that the government planned to advise all EV manufacturers to voluntarily make public the names of battery suppliers and offer free EV inspections to owners.
The agency said: “Such battery information is not available to the public to date and the measure is intended to reduce EV owners’ fire fears.”
All South Korean units of Mercedes Benz And BMW announced for the first time the names of the companies supplying their EV batteries. Hyundai, Korea’s largest automaker, listed the battery manufacturers for all its EV models on its local website this weekend, while fellow automaker Kia announced the battery manufacturers for its seven EV models on Monday.
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