▲Professor Kim Pil-su, Department of Future Automobile Engineering, Daerim University

“Electric Vehicle Fire Prevention Subsidy Policy Must Change Quickly”

Underground slow chargers, mandatory charging rate of 90% or less
400,000 won subsidy for PLC modem installation, but concerns over waste are growing

Since the latter half of last year, the so-called 'electric vehicle chasm' has emerged, with electric vehicle sales slowing down.

This stagnation amid growth is expected to continue for the time being, and the electric vehicle chasm phenomenon is expected to last for about 3 to 4 years.

The fundamental reason is that the cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles is lower than that of internal combustion engine vehicles.

In addition, vehicle prices remain high, purchase subsidies have declined, and charging infrastructure is lacking.

In addition, the cost of charging electricity has increased, and, most importantly, electric vehicle fire accidents have become a major issue, creating an atmosphere of avoiding electric vehicles.

The media's intensive reporting on electric vehicle fires is greatly contributing to amplifying negative views of electric vehicles.

Of course, electric vehicle fires have the disadvantage of having a high temperature of up to 1,000 degrees, rapid spread, and a long fire duration compared to internal combustion engine fires, which means that the golden time for drivers and passengers to escape to the outside is short.

A while ago, a Chinese Huawei electric car was hit by a front-end collision on the highway. The scene in which a fire broke out due to a collision and all three passengers died due to the rapid spread of the fire even as firefighters tried to rescue them was clearly shown on CCTV, raising fears in the global electric vehicle market.

It is true that the probability of an electric vehicle fire is lower than that of an internal combustion engine vehicle.

Although approximately 30% of all registered internal combustion engine vehicles are older than 10 years, this is the case, while most electric vehicles are less than 5 years old, so the probability of fire is expected to increase further as the number of older electric vehicles increases in the future.

The annual number of fires involving internal combustion engines is around 4,500 to 5,000, or about 13 per day. It is not that they do not occur, but they are not exposed to the media.

When an electric vehicle fire breaks out, the only methods available to firefighters to extinguish it are to use a portable water tank to submerge the vehicle in water, or to cover the burning electric vehicle with a suffocating fire extinguisher to continuously cut off the oxygen supply.

There are also efforts to improve the system, such as developing a method that uses fire extinguishing agents and a method that directly injects water by drilling into the battery pack from below using tanker fire extinguishing technology.

The biggest problem is that electric vehicle fires are battery fires, so they can continue to ignite underwater as long as there is oxygen, combustion agent, and heat present.

There have been cases where fires continued for 6 to 8 hours underwater and about 7 firefighters were deployed.

The electric vehicle chasm can be a meaningful period of time to catch one's breath in a situation where various hard landing factors are occurring.

During this period, we must focus on developing technologies that can effectively extinguish fires such as electric vehicle fires.

The problem is that in South Korea, about 70% of the city center The above is the case of people living in group housing such as apartments.

Including villas and townhouses, it has the highest density of residential areas among global countries, and many parking lots are located underground.

If an electric vehicle fire breaks out in an underground charging station, it is highly likely that it will escalate to a serious scale.

We recognize the seriousness of the situation, but we are still unprepared.

Although there have been no large-scale electric vehicle fires in underground parking lots yet, it is always like walking on thin ice, and some apartment complexes are blocking electric vehicles from entering their underground parking lots or refusing to install underground charging stations.

If a fire breaks out in an electric vehicle at an underground charging station, social fears are certain to grow beyond imagination.

The Ministry of Environment has also formed a related council and has been considering ways to reduce electric vehicle fires since the latter half of last year.

A method has been developed to drastically reduce the risk of electric vehicle fires in underground charging stations by forcibly lowering the electric vehicle charging rate from the current 100% to 90% or less.

This method is the optimal method, where charging stations above ground can charge without restrictions, but all underground charging stations are forced to introduce a charging system that limits the charging rate (SoC) to 90% or less to secure a safety margin.

I would say there are still problems.

Most underground charging stations are located in apartment buildings, so slow chargers are mainly used.

Unlike rapid chargers, these slow chargers do not communicate charging information between the charger and the electric vehicle, making it difficult to forcibly limit the charging rate.

That is, a communication device such as a PLC modem is installed in a slow charger.This means that the charging rate can be forcibly limited by adding a charging and overcharge prevention function.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Environment has raised expectations by announcing a policy this year to provide an additional subsidy of approximately 400,000 won when installing advanced devices such as PLC modems in slow chargers.

The problem is that there are many movements to install chargers that only meet the environmental ministry's subsidy policy without proper overcharge prevention functions.

In other words, an absurd situation is predicted in which additional subsidies will be paid to slow chargers that have only passed the Ministry of Environment's VAS (Value Added Service) test and are not capable of preventing overcharging at all, resulting in a waste of national subsidies.

The Ministry of Environment's subsidy support for installing cutting-edge devices in slow chargers is a good policy, but the detailed guidelines are very weak, so there is a great concern that it will only waste taxpayers' money.

At the very least, we should immediately establish a method to officially submit a test report on the overcharge prevention function using an actual vehicle to prevent actual electric vehicle fires.

This means that proper preemptive measures for electric vehicle fire prevention are possible only when the submission of actual test results through on-site charging tests is enforced.

Preventing electric vehicle fires in closed spaces such as underground charging stations is an issue that must be prioritized and addressed more than any other issue.

In this situation, if a large electric vehicle fire were to occur in the underground parking lot, it would be difficult for the Ministry of Environment, the department in charge, to avoid responsibility.

In particular, if the current subsidy policy for slow chargers ends up being a waste of national funds without any real effect, the aftermath will naturally be even more severe.

Currently, various major accidents continue to occur, and the level of national stress is at an all-time high.I'm getting hurt.

In this situation where public fears are also increasing, we hope that we recognize that electric vehicle fires can be a negative factor that can overturn the current policy of focused distribution.

I hope that the current subsidy payment criteria for slow chargers will proceed based on the submission of overcharge prevention function test results.

If we do it wrong, we could end up wasting subsidies and not actually preventing electric vehicle fires.

This is a critical moment for the Ministry of Environment to make a decision.