The aftermath of a massive electric car fire in an apartment complex's underground parking lot last summer continues to linger.


As the cause becomes unclear, civil lawsuits are expected to continue for years, ultimately resulting in a strange structure in which only the public suffers.

Although the government announced a comprehensive plan, it was difficult for the public to perceive it, and instead, anxiety grew.

There is a move to remove flower beds and secure space in apartment complex underground parking lots to move chargers above ground, but this is further deepening conflicts among residents.

The original sight of charging an electric car in an underground parking lot after work and then naturally unplugging the charger in the morning before heading to work has disappeared. Instead, there is the inconvenience of having to find an above-ground charger, charge, and then move back to the underground parking lot.

However, there is still a conflict as there are not enough charging spaces on the ground and electric vehicle owners are protesting that they are being deprived of their freedom to park.

Especially in winter, the cold slows down charging speeds, further adding to the inconvenience for electric vehicle owners.

As I have mentioned before, South Korea has a high proportion of collective residences, such as apartments in downtown areas, at over 70%. Therefore, the issues of underground parking and underground charging can be said to be unavoidable tasks.

Ultimately, it became a Korean-style 'electric car phobia' that had to be resolved underground.

The electric car fire problem will eventually be solved.

The fire resistance of batteries is becoming increasingly stronger, and technologies that enable electric vehicles to proactively detect fire sources and extinguish them in advance are also being developed and are awaiting mass production.

Among the technologies developed by domestic startups is a method that uses electric vehicle coolant to self-extinguish a fire within a few minutes of its occurrence, and this has been certified by a domestic accredited agency.

Hyundai Mobis also recently announced a method to extinguish fires on its own using fire extinguishing agent containers inside electric vehicles.

As more advanced technologies are applied in the future, the problem of electric vehicle fires will certainly be solved.

However, current electric vehicles are transitional models and will have to deal with these issues for the time being.

Among the various causes of electric vehicle fires, fires caused by overcharging account for approximately 30% of all fires.

The main cause of electric vehicle fires during charging or while parked is overcharging.

One way to solve this is to replace the charger with one that has charge control.

Of the approximately 400,000 chargers currently installed nationwide, approximately 87% are slow chargers, and most of them do not have charging control functions.

In other words, slow chargers installed in underground parking lots of apartments across the country do not have a charging control function, so if the electric vehicle itself does not set a certain charging amount, it will be overcharged by 100%.

At the entrance of each apartment, there is a sign that says 'No electric vehicle parking' or '80-90% charging control is recommended.&rAlthough warning signs such as “squo;” are posted, it is practically impossible to follow them, and the structure itself makes charging control impossible.

Ultimately, the conflict between apartment residents and electric car owners continues.

The Ministry of Environment recognized this problem and began to distribute slow chargers with charging control (smart control chargers) in earnest in the latter half of last year.

Although the budget is also being allocated high to support, efforts are being made to correct this as smart control chargers with insufficient charging control functions are becoming widespread.

But the biggest problem is that it focuses only on newly installed chargers.

In other words, the budget for replacing slow chargers without existing charging control functions has been set at only 30 billion won, resulting in a lack of a practical replacement policy.

There is virtually no policy to replace chargers already installed in underground parking lots across the country.

I have stressed the need for this to be replaced hundreds of times, but it still hasn't improved.

The Ministry of Environment appears to be focusing only on increasing the number of new chargers installed, and is not actively pursuing the replacement of existing chargers because subsidies do not accumulate.

However, replacing existing chargers is essential to overcome electric vehicle phobia, which will help ease residents’ anxiety.

By introducing smart chargers with charge control functions, the problem of overcharging can be solved by setting 80-90% charging control at the apartment resident representative meeting.

This will contribute to significantly reducing the overall number of electric vehicle fires.

Additionally, replacing the charging control charger will play a big role in spreading positive perceptions about electric vehicles.

The Ministry of Environment has shown little interest in replacing existing chargers, and there appears to be little budget for replacement this year.

Ultimately, we just hope that no large electric vehicle fires occur.

But if a fire breaks out again, the people will have to bear all the losses.

The Ministry of Environment should further expand its replacement cost subsidies, as local governments and apartment residents are willing to shoulder some of the costs.

Slow chargers are cheaper than fast chargers and can be replaced for about 1 million won.

However, since the Ministry of Environment does not set replacement costs, some local governments, including Seoul City, are operating their own programs to support replacement costs.

As this movement expands to other local governments, the Ministry of Environment must also implement proactive policies.

The current government's comprehensive plan emphasizes thermal imaging cameras, but these are not very effective in preventing electric vehicle fires.

Most electric vehicle fires start with smoke that lasts from a few minutes to several tens of minutes, followed by thermal runaway and growing flames.

Therefore, smoke and flame detection cameras are more effective and need to be modified.

The Ministry of Environment and local governments should pursue proactive policies to replace existing slow chargers with chargers that can control charging.

If the cost burden is large, if a policy is announced to support even a certain portion, local governments will respond actively and bring about positive effects.

I hope that local governments' proactive efforts and proper policies will play a big role in protecting the safety of the people.