South Korea to advance EV battery certification scheme after recent blaze that burned for eight hours, damaged over 140 cars, and displaced some residents to shelters.
South Korea’s government and ruling party have agreed to move up an electric vehicle battery certification programme, as authorities seek to alleviate public safety concerns after a series of fires involving EVs.
Experts say getting car companies to identify batteries would give consumers more choice, but some question how it would improve safety given the lack of definitive data on which battery brands are more prone to fires.
As part of beefed-up safety measures, the government will revise fire equipment rules to install wet pipe sprinkler systems in underground parking spaces with EV charging stations and expand chargers that prevent overcharging, said Han, the party spokesperson.
Electric vehicles do not appear to catch fire nearly as much as recent headlines might suggest. EVs are less of a fire risk than conventional cars, some data showed.
But auto experts say EV fires burn differently than those in cars with internal combustion engines, often lasting longer and being harder to extinguish as they have a tendency to reignite.
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