Hyundai Motor, Kona EV, etc. 80,000 battery replacement’recall’

LG energy solution production battery installed
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport “Possibility that cell failure is the cause of fire”
The exact cause of the ignition is still being investigated.
Hyundai Motor Company plans to recall the replacement of 80,000 electric vehicles (EVs) batteries sold at home and abroad.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 24th that it will carry out voluntary corrective actions (recalls) for three electric vehicles, including 25,083 Kona EVs, 1314 Ionik EVs, and 302 Eleccity buses. When the overseas sales volume is added to this, a total of 8,170 units will be recalled. All are vehicles equipped with batteries produced from September 2017 to July 2019 at LG Energy Solutions’ Nanjing Plant in China.

The cost of this recall alone reached 1 trillion won, and the Financial Times (FT) said it was “the most expensive recall in the history of electric vehicles.” Hyundai Motor Company said, “We put our top priority on eliminating potential risks related to customer safety.” Vehicles subject to recall can gradually change the battery starting on the 29th of next month.

The reason why Hyundai Motor Company initiated a large-scale recall is that consumer concerns have increased as there have been 15 Kona EV fires since 2018. On this day, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport pointed out defective cell manufacturing (folding of the negative electrode tab) as a possible cause of fire. However, in the fire reproduction experiment, no ignition due to the folding of the negative electrode tab was confirmed, so the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, “We are conducting additional investigations on the battery and battery management system (BMS).” BMS is a software that manages battery charge and output efficiency. Although the direction of the recall has been decided, a clear cause is not known, so it is expected that a battle between the two companies will continue over cost sharing. LG Energy Solution said, “It is difficult to see the folding of the negative electrode tab as a direct cause of the fire. Hyundai Motor Company will further confirm the relationship between the faulty BMS update and the fire with related agencies.” On the other hand, at the conference call (information session) that day, Hyundai Motor Company suggested that “a short circuit (short circuit) defect was found inside the battery cell due to manufacturing defects,” and that it was actually due to a battery defect. Seo Hyeong-seok [email protected]Go to reporter page>Reporter Jeong Soon-gu