It took just seconds for an underground South Korean residential parking lot to be engulfed in flames. The culprit: a Mercedes-Benz EQE electric vehicle that had not been charging.
The blaze incinerated dozens of cars nearby, scorched a further 140 vehicles and forced hundreds of residents to emergency shelters as the buildings above the parking lot lost power and electricity. Nobody died, but the fire took eight hours to extinguish. Cars with internal combustion engines are more likely to catch fire than EVs. But when EVs do burst into flames, the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries get hotter and the fire takes longer to stamp out, writes The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 8, 2024).
In recent years, General Motors recalled tens of thousands of its Chevrolet Bolts in the U.S. over risk of battery fires. Hyundai pulled roughly 80,000 electric sport-utility vehicles after roughly a dozen caught fire. Last September, a Nissan Leaf ignited while charging in Tennessee, and the fire required more than 45 times the water needed for a gas-powered-car fire to be extinguished.
Automakers have grown more cautious about EV launches amid modest demand. Sales of fully electric models in the U.S. rose 6.8% through the first half of the year, a sharp deceleration from near 50% growth in 2023.
The perceived risk of EVs is particularly acute in tightly packed South Korea, a country about the size of Indiana with 52 million people. Outdoor residential parking lots are relatively uncommon. The nation’s ubiquitous high-rise apartments often feature underground parking, where firefighters must contend with restricted access. The country had already been on edge about battery-related fires, after a blaze at a lithium-battery factory in June that killed nearly two dozen people.
In recent days, LG Display recommended that employees at its main factory complex park their EVs outside. The country’s main international trade association, whose offices are located in central Seoul, said it would accelerate plans to relocate EV charging ports to its aboveground lot. One of the country’s largest telecommunications firms, KT, has held discussions about barring EVs from parking underground.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Which of the 10 OM decisions in your Heizer/Render/Munson text deal with this issue?
- What are the OM implications of the South Korean fire?