After an emergency meeting by officials in South Korea to discuss EVs safety, authorities have released a statement advising carmakers to identify batteries used in their electric vehicles.
“Such battery information has not been available to the public so far and the measure is to reduce EV owners’ fire anxiety,” the office of government policy coordination said.
As reported earlier, a Mercedes Benz EV exploded in an underground parking lot on August 1. Damaging over 140 cars and forcing families to be evacuated.
This incident and others that in the past have caused public Alarm in South Korea over EVs. That’s why the government has decided to advise car makers to voluntarily disclose the information to reduce fears over fires.
Reports state that Hyundai Motor Co. had made available on their website information on batteries used in their EVs. Car companies like BMW Korea, Kia Corp, and Mercedes Benz Korea have also begun to name the manufacturers of batteries used in their vehicles.
The general opinion is that this move only gives customers more choice on the batteries. It doesn’t address the issue of safety, since there is no definitive data on batteries that are susceptible to exploding.
