By Heekyong Yang and Ju-min Park
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea will urge automakers operating in the country to identify batteries used in their electric vehicles, the government said on Tuesday, as authorities seek to calm public safety concerns after a series of fires involving EVs.
The government said it would advise car makers to voluntarily disclose the information to reduce fears after an EV fire ripped through an underground parking lot in the city of Incheon, west of the capital Seoul, on Aug. 1, and caused extensive damage.
"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 in a statement.
The blaze, which appeared to start spontaneously in a Mercedes-Benz EV with Farasis Energy batteries, took eight hours to extinguish, destroying or damaging about 140 cars and forcing some residents in the apartments above to move to shelters.
In recent days, some car companies have started naming the manufacturers of batteries they use.
Hyundai Motor and Genesis EVs use batteries made by South Korea's LG Energy Solution (LGES) and SK On, as well as China's CATL, its website showed.
Kia Corp said batteries installed in its EVs are mostly from LGES and SK On, with two models powered by CATL.
Mercedes Benz Korea mostly uses batteries from CATL and China's Farasis Energy and some from LGES and SK On, it said, adding it was cooperating to determine the cause of the Aug. 1 fire and planned to offer free inspections for EV owners.
BMW Korea mostly uses batteries supplied by Samsung SDI and a few models are powered by CATL, its website showed.
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LGES, SK On and Samsung SDI declined to comment on EVs using their batteries, while CATL and Farasis did not respond to a request for comment.
South Korean battery makers had no reason to oppose specifying where their power sources were used, though the public should not assume batteries were always to blame for EV fires, three industry sources said.
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.
Kim Jonghoon, a professor at Chungnam National University who studies electric vehicle management systems, said battery disclosure was a small step towards resolving the situation.
"We need to also advance battery management systems to have them equipped with more sophisticated and early warnings ... EV phobia is going to last for a while," said Kim.
South Korea's government said it plans to conduct emergency inspection of fire-fighting equipment in multi-unit residential buildings of certain sizes to relieve fears among residents.
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.
The Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters said in a report published in February that 1,399 fires occurred in underground parking lots in South Korea between 2013 and 2022, with 43.7% attributed to vehicles. It said electrical sources accounted for 53% of car fires in underground garages.
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Ju-min Park; Editing by Ed Davies and David Holmes)
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