Photo: Stig Kolstad/Avisa Oslo
Hyundai announced it would replace the battery packs of 81,701 vehicles in February 2021: 75,680 Kona Electrics, 5,716 Ioniq EVs, and 305 Elec City Buses. All of them would have a folded anode tab due to a manufacturing mistake made by LG Energy Solution. Two new Kona Electric fire cases have emerged: one in Norway and one in South Korea. It is not clear yet if they are among the 75,680 vehicles that will have their battery packs replaced.
The Norwegian fire happened in Oslo and was reported by Avisa Oslo. Stig Kolstad was in the local and covered everything. He was kind enough to allow Autoevolution to publish one of the pictures he has taken. Make sure you visit the Norwegian site to check more images and a video of the fire.
Kolstad reported that the vehicle caught fire at about 10:30 AM local time on June 23. After trying to extinguish the blaze with only water, the Oslo fire department completely covered the Kona Electric with a fire blanket until they could drown it in a water tank. The Norwegian journalist could get the contacts of the Hyundai owner, and he is planning to get in touch with him soon. Kolstad promised to let us know about the conversation.
The South Korean fire took place precisely on the same day, but at 9:39 AM, near a beach in Boryeong, 181 km south of Seoul. Thanks to a picture of the Boryeong Fire Department and to Segye.com, we can see the damages to the EV were much more severe than those inflicted on the Kona Electric that burned in Norway. InsideEVs first wrote an article mentioning these two situations.
In March 2021, Kona Electric owners in South Korea complained that Hyundai was not transparent enough about the recall. If the cars that caught fire are among the ones produced from November 2017 up to March 2020, they may also accuse the company of not being fast enough to address the situation.
With the two new blazes, the number of know cases raised to 17: 12 in South Korea and 5 in other countries. If you know any of the owners and could help Autoevolution talk to them, please send us a message so that we can clarify what happened and if these EVs are included in the recall or not.
Kolstad reported that the vehicle caught fire at about 10:30 AM local time on June 23. After trying to extinguish the blaze with only water, the Oslo fire department completely covered the Kona Electric with a fire blanket until they could drown it in a water tank. The Norwegian journalist could get the contacts of the Hyundai owner, and he is planning to get in touch with him soon. Kolstad promised to let us know about the conversation.
The South Korean fire took place precisely on the same day, but at 9:39 AM, near a beach in Boryeong, 181 km south of Seoul. Thanks to a picture of the Boryeong Fire Department and to Segye.com, we can see the damages to the EV were much more severe than those inflicted on the Kona Electric that burned in Norway. InsideEVs first wrote an article mentioning these two situations.
In March 2021, Kona Electric owners in South Korea complained that Hyundai was not transparent enough about the recall. If the cars that caught fire are among the ones produced from November 2017 up to March 2020, they may also accuse the company of not being fast enough to address the situation.
With the two new blazes, the number of know cases raised to 17: 12 in South Korea and 5 in other countries. If you know any of the owners and could help Autoevolution talk to them, please send us a message so that we can clarify what happened and if these EVs are included in the recall or not.
Google News