Huge Fire Sparked by a Mercedes-Benz EV Adds to Safety Concerns Dogging Industry.

Blaze in South Korea prompts debate over whether electric vehicles should be allowed in the country’s ubiquitous underground parking lots.

SEOUL—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 hadn’t been charging.
The blaze incinerated dozens of cars nearby, scorched another 100 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.
The blaze dominated national news in South Korea. Some organizations are pushing for EVs to be parked outdoors, residents are protesting and lawmakers are proposing new safety measures.
The perceived risk of EVs is particularly acute in tightly packed South Korea, a country roughly the size of Indiana with roughly 52 million people. Seoul, the capital city, has a significantly higher population density than New York or Tokyo. Roughly half of South Koreans live in the greater Seoul metropolitan area.
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, following a blaze at a lithium-battery factory in late June that killed nearly two dozen people. The Mercedes EV blaze, in the port city of Incheon, occurred last week. Then, on Tuesday, a Kia EV6 caught fire in an apartment in a central South Korean town.

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