Korean EV owners angered by Seoul gov’t plans to ban fully-charged EVs from basement parking after fire

The much-publicised August 1 electric vehicle fire in Incheon, South Korea – in which a Mercedes-Benz EQE spontaneously combusted and torched around 140 nearby cars – has resulted in an immediate reaction from the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The neighbouring capital city has announced plans to ban cars charged to over 90% from entering basement parking and restrict public chargers from charging EVs beyond 80%.

According to The Korea Herald, the city government is set to amend its Guideline for Apartment Management Rules by the end of September, including a new clause to recommend a maximum EV charging limit of 90% or less in underground parking lots. While the said clause won’t be mandatory, apartments that don’t comply may be “excluded from incentives or support programs funded by the city in the future,” said head of Seoul’s Climate and Environment Headquarters Yeo Jang-kwon.

The government proposed that owners manually set their cars’ charging limit to 90%. Ensuring public compliance will of course be difficult, so authorities are also planning to mandate carmakers to increase the current safety margin of their EVs – the margin between gross and usable battery capacity, typically around 3 to 5% currently – to 10%. This will grant cars a so-called “charge limit certificate,” giving them access to basement parking.

Starting next month, the government will also impose a charging limit on its fast chargers, which will only let them charge EV batteries up to 80%. This cap will be extended to privately-operated chargers installed across Seoul later.

Understandably, the move has not gone down well amongst Korean EV owners and experts, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. Countering the city government’s claims that excessive charging is one of the key reasons for battery fires, an energy science professor at Sungkyunkwan University has comprehensively ruled that out, saying that batteries are designed to never be “fully charged.”

“Excessive charging isn’t the governing factor with a fire,” said Professor Yoon Won-sub, who also heads a battery-dedicated research center jointly run by the university and battery maker Samsung SDI. “EVs, from the start, are designed to never reach a full charge, even if the dashboard says they are 100%. It’s an unproven argument that batteries carry a higher fire risk when fully charged.”

Another automotive industry source stated that while the cathode material of nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries – like the one installed in the burnt EQE – possesses a maximum theoretical capacity of 275 mAh, only 210 mAh is generally used in EVs. This defines the aforementioned safety margin and means that even though a car says it is 100% charged, there’s still around 5% of unused capacity.

“We call this difference in the charging rate the “margin” in setting up the car’s durability,” said the source. “It is similar to a smartphone offering a “battery protection mode” that allows it to be charged up to 80% but shows that it is fully charged.”

The report points out that out of a total of 139 EV fires that have occurred in Korea over the past three years, only 26 cases happened during charging, according to National Fire Agency data. Of the rest, a total of 68 cases occurred while driving while 36 were started by parked cars.

“It seems a bit like a “witch hunt” blocking EV owners with cars charged 90% from entering underground parking lots,” Yoon said. “It’s essential to come up with suitable countermeasures after a thorough discussion among experts.”

Owners are also outraged by the government’s proposals, arguing that such measures infringe on their property rights. Imposing charging limits obviously restricts a car’s maximum range – an important factor in buying and using an EV. Netizens also noted the discrimination in which EV and internal combustion engined car fires are handled by the government.

“If petrol-powered cars catch fire, will the government limit fuelling to 90 percent?” an Incheon Tesla Model Y owner wrote in an online community, said to represent over one million EV owners in Korea. “I can’t understand how the government came up with such numbers like 80 and 90 percent; based on what proven data? If it’s that dangerous, why has the government encouraged people to buy EVs in the first place?”

The community was further incensed when it emerged the burnt EQE was not being charged when the fire started. The exact cause of the blaze has yet to be determined.

Seoul’s government’s plans are in lockstep with its national counterpart which, led by the environment ministry, also aims to announce strengthened EV guidelines early next month. Proposals include charging limits, graded subsidies and forcing EV makers to disclose where they source their batteries.

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