Government Recommends Voluntary Disclosure of Battery Information Installed in Domestic Electric Vehicles

On the morning of the 8th, police, fire department, the National Forensic Service, and representatives from Benz conducted a second joint inspection of the electric vehicle that caught fire on the 1st in the underground parking lot of an apartment complex in Cheongna, at an industrial site in Seo-gu, Incheon.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The government recently decided to recommend that all manufacturers voluntarily disclose battery information installed in domestically distributed electric vehicles in order to reduce public anxiety caused by electric vehicle fire incidents.

On the 13th, the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced through a vice-ministerial meeting of related ministries held at the Government Seoul Office that this decision was made to alleviate public concerns about electric vehicle safety and to establish effective countermeasures.

First, to ease the fire-related anxiety of electric vehicle owners, the government plans to recommend that all manufacturers voluntarily disclose battery information installed in domestically distributed electric vehicles, which had not been previously disclosed, along with special free inspections for electric vehicles.

Additionally, to relieve the concerns of residents in apartment complexes, the government will push for urgent inspections of fire-fighting facilities such as sprinklers targeting fire vulnerability factors in underground parking lots of apartment complexes above a certain scale.

Initially, following the fire at a battery factory in Hwaseong on June 24, the government formed a 'Pan-Ministerial Large-Scale Disaster Risk Improvement Task Force (TF)' led by the Ministry of Environment to inspect fire and safety conditions of underground electric chargers and related facilities.

However, after a fire in an apartment in the Incheon area on the 1st raised public interest in electric vehicle safety, the Office for Government Policy Coordination took the role of control tower to devise countermeasures.

Bang Gi-seon, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, requested related ministries, saying, "Since this measure is directly related to the safety of the public's daily life, please promptly implement any improvements that can be made even before the announcement of the measures, and thoroughly review improvement plans from the public's perspective."

The government plans to announce a comprehensive plan next month after collecting opinions from the industry and experts and coordinating views among related ministries.