Recently, the National Police Agency announced that the cause of the large electric vehicle fire in an apartment complex in Cheongna, Incheon was unknown.


The National Forensic Service has already announced that it has failed to secure data on the electric vehicle battery management system (BMS), and has raised concerns by stating that it cannot rule out the possibility that the battery fire was caused by external impact on the battery as a clue.

That is because it is a part that mentions the management aspect of electric vehicle stocks. Despite making full use of the National Forensic Service's conclusions and various information, including maintenance and inspection of the vehicle in question as well as insurance history, the National Police Agency's conclusion is that the cause is unknown.

The problem is that this conclusion has accumulated even more concerns.

It is already known that the damage to the apartment complex due to the large electric vehicle fire exceeds 100 billion won, and the aftereffects are still significant, with some households still having problems with hot water and heating, and some households not even being able to move in.

In this situation, there was no department responsible for compensating for damages of unknown cause, and an absurd situation unfolded in which there were only victims and no perpetrators.

In the end, the civil lawsuit will go on for several years, and the people involved, including the manufacturer, the battery company, the manager who blocked the sprinkler, and even the electric car owner mentioned above, will not be free.

Of course, since it is difficult to clearly assign responsibility in a civil lawsuit, it can be said that the victims are ultimately the apartment residents. Who is responsible for this situation?

Is it possible to popularize electric vehicles and raise positive awareness in this situation? The fear of underground parking and charging, known as 'electric vehicle phobia', is ongoing, and although the government has announced comprehensive measures, the policies that directly affect the skin are very insufficient, so anxiety continues to grow.

Rather than alleviating the anxiety of apartment residents across the country, this announcement will likely increase it.

This is because no one is taking responsibility and there is no clear cause or solution to resolve the current situation, which increases anxiety.

Can we be certain that such large-scale electric vehicle fires will be 100% eliminated in the future? Some apartment complexes are still reluctant to park electric vehicles in underground parking lots or to park next to electric vehicles, and are unable to find a practical alternative.

The government is hoping that such a large-scale accident will not occur, and with each electric vehicle fire that continues to occur, it feels like it is walking on thin ice, hoping that it is not a major accident and that there are no casualties.

As one of the countermeasures, apartment complexes across the country are trying to move all slow chargers that cannot be controlled underground to above-ground, but there is no space above ground, and even if they were moved, the meaning would be diluted as the charged electric vehicles would have to be moved to the underground parking lot.

This is because about 20% of electric vehicle fires occur while the vehicle is parked after charging, which is always a cause for concern.

Dissatisfaction is also growing among electric vehicle owners. This is because, despite being praised for driving eco-friendly vehicles, they are treated like playthings and even potential criminals.

Charging with slow chargers moved above ground is slow, but as the weather gets colder, charging becomes even slower, and eventually, you have to go through the trouble of moving the charger to an underground parking lot after charging. Everyone is dissatisfied and nothing has been resolved.

In this situation, no one is taking responsibility, and the government's comprehensive measures are much more advanced than nothing, but there are also sarcasm saying that it is a 'steamed bun without red bean paste' that has no practical effect.

Charging and parking in underground spaces are inevitable elements that we face. Given the limitations of Korea, which is a country with no above-ground space due to the characteristics of group housing, it is important to take preventive measures, although post-fire measures are also important.

As an advisor on comprehensive measures, I believe that various measures such as a battery certification system, preventive app use using BMS information, and future distribution of smart control slow chargers are meaningful, but these methods can only be given mid- to long-term significance, and as measures to immediately relieve anxiety on the front lines, they have great limitations.

What I have always emphasized and advised various government departments on is that the solution is missing.

In other words, it can be said that this is a method to quickly replace the existing slow chargers in apartment underground parking lots as not a single one of the approximately 340,000 slow chargers, including approximately 250,000 slow chargers in apartment underground parking lots nationwide, is unable to control charging.

The Ministry of Environment is asking that instead of just emphasizing the spread of smart control slow chargers, they actually certify and evaluate them and provide them with replacement as a priority.

In other words, the idea is to stop emphasizing the subsidy of about 80 billion won for smart control slow chargers that was set this year and start implementing it, even though not a single penny has been paid out.

In particular, as mentioned during the last state audit, it is a priority to secure about 300 billion won for the cost of replacing the existing slow chargers in underground spaces with slow chargers capable of charging control and implement it as soon as possible.

The cost of replacing this charger would be around 1 million won per unit.Since the apartment complex management committee and the relevant local governments have also mentioned bearing some of the costs, it is possible to replace the apartment complex quickly and at a low cost if the central government steps in.

If apartment complexes lower the charging costs in underground parking lots by 80-90%, electric vehicle fires will certainly decrease. The formula for the frequency of electric vehicle fires through charging rate control can be considered an immutable law.

The second is to encourage early scrapping of aging electric vehicles. In the case of electric vehicles that are over 10 years old, many of them are pouch-type, which accounts for about 70% of all electric vehicle fires, and the BMS has weak control functions at the current level, and some models cannot be upgraded, so early replacement is a method.

As electric vehicles have changed significantly in technology over the past two to three years, approximately 60,000 to 70,000 of the approximately 700,000 electric vehicles distributed in the country are considered very vulnerable.

If the Ministry of Environment were to provide similar subsidies for scrapping old electric vehicles, as it does for scrapping old diesel vehicles, the frequency of electric vehicle fires could be greatly reduced.

The third is a full battery cell CT inspection. If a 3D CT full inspection is conducted at the battery cell manufacturing stage, it can fundamentally be confirmed in advance at the manufacturing stage, and a significant portion of fires caused by defective battery cells can be eliminated.

Fires due to defective battery cells are believed to have two main causes: one is when the battery cells are manufactured by the manufacturer with defects that cannot be detected during the manufacturing process, and the other is when the electric vehicle owner drives roughly and shocks the battery pack on the ground, causing the battery cells to become defective and leading to a fire. This case is the possibility of an external shock to the National Institute of Scientific Investigation mentioned above.

If we conduct a full 3D inspection like this in advance, we can definitely eliminate one of the two causes.

Domestic related technology is at the world's top level in battery manufacturing and inspection technology, and while among the three domestic battery companies, there are battery companies that inspect all of their products, there are also battery manufacturers that only do partial inspections or only do sampling inspections, which is problematic.

The battery certification system announced by the government is significant as it involves 12 tests, but it is only a method to confirm the completed battery pack and is very different from the verification at the battery cell stage, which is the most important stage in the manufacturing process.

Therefore, since the detailed rules for the battery certification system are still being worked out, I am confident that including this battery cell comprehensive inspection at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport level will be a key measure.

I am confident that even if we only consider the above methods, the anxiety felt on the front lines will be somewhat alleviated. These methods have already been announced to the high-ranking officials of the relevant ministries and to the members of the National Assembly during the inspection, but there is still no progress on any of them.

In the meantime, there is a constant sense of anxiety in the front lines, to the point where we have been contacted by many places, including apartment complexes, to discuss ways to deal with this. In this situation, will the expansion of electric vehicles to approximately 160,000 units next year be carried out properly?

And who is responsible for the aforementioned fires? The government is also playing a part.

Who should promote the distribution of electric vehicles and why should electric vehicle owners who purchase them at their own expense be held responsible? No one can give a clear answer.

In the future, the government should feel a sense of responsibility and consider compensating apartment residents for their damages, as well as establishing fundamental measures to prevent electric vehicle owners from being held liable for driving them. That is the only way to restore positive perceptions of electric vehicles.

The current reality is that we are walking on thin ice, hoping that no major electric vehicle fires will occur.

The cause of three out of four electric vehicles is unknown. The fire temperature is high and the thermal runaway is serious enough to melt the cause. It is unfortunate that there are victims but no perpetrators. We urge the government to quickly take additional measures.