◀ Anchor ▶
Hyundai Motor’s Kona, an electric car, has been on fire 15 times so far, and the results of an investigation show that there was a problem with the battery made by LG Energy Solutions.
LG is opposing it, but Hyundai has decided to replace all 82,000 electric vehicles with this battery.
Reporter Lee Yoo-kyung.
◀ Report ▶
Flames from the back of the vehicle.
It is a fire accident of Hyundai Kona at the electric vehicle charging station.
Kona has been on fire 11 times in Korea and 4 times abroad.
The battery management system was updated in October of last year, but the fire occurred after that.
The government says it has confirmed the battery manufacturing defect.
A separator is installed inside the cell of an electric vehicle to prevent the negative and positive electrodes from meeting.
However, when I investigated the battery in question, I noticed that the negative part was folded and that lithium ions were leaking and by-products were accumulating.
This causes a kind of short circuit where the cathode and anode meet, creating a possible fire.
[전준호/자동차안전연구원 사고조사팀장]
“We confirmed the possibility of meeting the lithium by-product itself as a bridge role.”
Eventually, the manufacturer Hyundai Motor decided to replace Kona’s battery.
The grand prize is a vehicle with a battery made at LG Energy Solutions’ Nanjing factory in China from September 2017 to July 2019.
This is Kona, Ioniq, and Electric Bus Electic.
Domestic 27,000 units, overseas 55,000 units, total 82,000 units.
The cost of battery replacement is about KRW 1 trillion.
How Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solutions will share this cost has yet to be decided.
This is Yookyung Lee of MBC News.
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