Home » Business » Hyundai Motor Company and Kona elect to replace all electric vehicle batteries… “Defect investigation is in progress” (general)

Hyundai Motor Company and Kona elect to replace all electric vehicle batteries… “Defect investigation is in progress” (general)

Input 2021.02.24 13:25 | Revision 2021.02.24 13:43

Checking the possibility of fire due to defective battery and cell manufacturing

Hyundai Motor (005380)Has decided to replace all the batteries of the Kona electric vehicle (EV), which has been controversial due to the recent fire. LG Energy Solutions, which supplied batteries with Hyundai Motor Company, and Korea Transportation Safety Authority’s Automobile Safety Research Institute (KATRI) have not completed a defect investigation, but decided to replace the existing high voltage battery system (BSA) with improved products to protect consumers .

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 24th that it will voluntarily take corrective action (recall) after a manufacturing defect was found in 26,699 vehicles of three car models, including the Kona electric car manufactured and sold by Hyundai Motor Company. The recall targets include Kona Electric Vehicles (OS EV) 25,083 units, Ioniq Electric Vehicles (AE PE EVs) 1314 units, and Elexity (electric buses, LK EV) 302 units.

On the 23rd of last month, a fire of unknown cause occurred in the electric car Kona EV, which was being charged at a public electric vehicle charger in Dalseo-gu, Daegu. The vehicle was recalled./Yonhap News

These models were equipped with high-voltage batteries produced from September 2017 to July 2019 at LG Energy Solutions’ Nanjing Plant in China. Explained that this was confirmed. The recall begins on March 29, and can be repaired free of charge at Hyundai Motor’s service center and Blue Hands.

Earlier, in October of last year, Hyundai Motor recalled a Kona electric vehicle that had a series of fires and updated the electric vehicle battery management system (BMS). However, when a fire broke out again in the vehicle that was recalled in Daegu last month, he decided to replace all the batteries at all.

KATRI conducted a detailed investigation on the high-voltage batteries collected as recalls from October last year to the latest. Although the defect investigation has not been completed, Hyundai Motor Company, LG Energy Solutions, and KATRI agreed that it is difficult to completely extract some batteries with fire risk only by updating the BMS.

According to the results of a joint survey of KATRI and related experts so far, the fire image generated in the thermal runaway test inside the battery cell through the artificial fire reproduction test was similar to the actual Kona EV fire image. In addition, as a result of an interim investigation of a fire vehicle that occurred last month, it was found that the fire occurred in the battery cell to the left of Pack 3, and a part of the internal positive (+) tab was destroyed by fire.

Kona electric car./provided by Hyundai

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs also confirmed the possibility of a fire due to poor alignment inside the cell (folding of the negative electrode tab) as a result of a detailed investigation of the disassembly of the defective high-voltage battery collected as a recall. In addition, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained that although damage to the battery cell separator, which was suggested as the cause of the voluntary recall last year, was confirmed, a fire reproduction test is underway with battery cells with damage to the separator, but no fire has occurred so far.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that BMS is blocking the possibility of battery fire due to overcharging.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs announced that it will continue to carry out a defect investigation by KATRI in progress, investigate the adequacy of this recall, and take supplemental measures if necessary, and plan to devise measures to improve the system more fundamentally to secure fire safety for electric vehicles by next month.

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