Four months have passed since the dramatic incident that took place in Incheon, west of Seoul. Then electric a Mercedes-Benz sedan caught fire and exploded, destroying an underground parking lot. The operation to extinguish the fire caused by spontaneous combustion of a Mercedes, which left over 200 families homeless for several weeks, lasted over eight hours.
Influence on public opinion
The burning Mercedes incident had a major impact on the South Korean public’s perception of electric cars as safe vehicles. After Following the incident, most news reports and social media posts focused on the risk of electric vehicle fires and lack of safety regulations in Korea.
Therefore, the Korean government has taken action to introduce battery safety regulations. For this purpose, they were held consultations between car manufacturers and legislatorswhich led to the government announcing a review of its electric vehicle policy in early September.
Registrations of imported electric vehicles rose again in October in South Korea / Bloomberg
What are in Korean recipes?
The new set of regulations included obliging car manufacturers to disclose the brands of their batteries, extending the scope of safety inspections of existing electric vehicles and preventing vehicles from being fully charged.
The government also stepped in to ensure the safety of batteries project of a state certification system. Under the new system, state agencies such as the Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute will inspect batteries before installation in cars to ensure they meet government safety certification standards.
Previously, electric vehicles were sold in South Korea without any third-party safety testing.
The government also mandates car and cell manufacturers revealing more details about their batteries. Previously, companies only shared the capacity and maximum power of the battery. Now they have to define battery type and raw materials used to build it. Full implementation of the certification program is expected from February.
Fire protection
Incident of spontaneous combustion of a Mercedes in the underground garage of the building they will also affect regulations regarding fire protection in buildings. New buildings must now have uimproved fire monitoring systems and use more fire-resistant materials. In addition, starting next year, they will be deployed throughout the country smaller fire trucks so they can enter underground parking lots. These measures are particularly important because most Koreans live in high-density apartments where a large number of charging stations are located in underground garages.
The Mercedes-Benz fire was undoubtedly an unfortunate event, but it shed much-needed light on this safety issue of batteries, which are often blamed for electric car fires. Ultimately, it could be a wake-up call not just for South Korea to create a safer, more enabling environment for battery-powered cars.
