KONA EV) 18th Fire Again - at my town !!!

I'm starting to wonder why most fires seem to be in Korea.

I understand that probably most Konas have been sold there. Are there numbers available to see if sales numbers coincide with amount of fires per country? Or are there other reasons?

 

I'm going from memory here but I believe something like 20-30 thousand sold in South Korea as compared to 4-5 thousand in Canada, the U.S. and various European countries. So the "odds" there are higher. My other guess is that South Korea is more urban and has a more built out charging infrastructure which suggests maybe a more frequent use of fast charging as compared to more suburban or rural areas. But, really, who knows?

 

Well, as I understand, they said there is 80,000 recalls? If there is 30,000 in Korea and 10,000 in other parts of the world plus let's say 10k of busses and other vehicles that leaves 30k open. Maybe it's 50k in Korea. Maybe it's more in other countries but that'll make a difference in these numbers.

Also, at least the west coast Konas tend to be in a warm-hot climate as well. But there was only 2 (???) fires in the US?

I don't know, I'm just trying to make sense of this in my head.

 

Here's the current weather in that location. Daytime high was 32°C. It really doesn't seem that extreme compared to Florida (or the PNW at the moment!)

Assuming that was a battery fire it was certainly was well contained as it didn't appear to badly damage adjacent cars. Other Kona fires we've seen leave very little intact.
From Google: Global sales was 100,000 by mid July 2020.

Sales of Kona in S.Korea totalled perhaps 26,000 total during the period to March 2020. I've recall hearing 27,000 from another source.

Total Europe sales about 30,500 for the affected period. But we'd have to subtract cars with SKI batteries which are LHD only.

We have about 450 affected in NZ, not sure about our neighbor.

 

And it was in a parking garage so not in direct sunlight or anything. Maybe they were just quick with that suffocation blanket but it's just weird to me.

 

Maybe Hyundai should issue every Kona EV owner their own containment blanket?

 

I'd be curious if mileage and age of the cars are a big factor. Since more cars are in Korea and for longer, perhaps more damage to the cells over time too. Too bad Hyundai can't release any info on all these fires.

 

"Can't"?

 

I'm guessing they can't because of liability issues.

 

My uneducated guess is that Koreans live in higher density cities and are much more likely to regularly use DC fast charging stations than Americans and Europeans, who live in lower density housing and have a greater proportion of single family homes with garages to slow charge in overnight. My intuition is that DC fast charging especially over 80% is what's causing the damage to the battery packs (excess dendrite formation causing shorts due to the folded anode tabs) and why LG initially asserted that the problem was caused by Hyundai poorly implementing their BMS recommendations.

 

Uneducated it may be, but I, equally uneducated, agree. A very plausible hypothesis, IMO.

 

Most of Kona EVs were sold outside Korea, while most of the fires are in Korea.

The rate of fires is extremely high in Korea vs rest of the world, so it must be some local stuff happening there.

And most likely is the result of multiple issues compounding.
Like bad battery with folded anode being compounded with bad BMS and OBC software, lots of rapid charging and bad practice to charge up to 100% SOC constantly. Most of the early production Konas were probably sold in Korea. So all the issues including with early software/firmware revisions compunded over time.

We also do not know it the latest few burnt Konas had their battery recalls (or any of the earlier recalls for firmware fixes) done.

We do know, that very few Kia eNiros are affected and they are built on the same architecture but different battery vendor from start.

 

I thought the European Kona had battery packs from SK, which didn't have the issue with fires.

 

But only LHD European-made Konas could have SK cells. Mine is an EU RHD (Ireland) model made in S.Korea and appears in the VIN list of affected cars in GB leaked a few months back.

 

Well I believe with some 18 Konas on the burn list we have significantly beat Tesla, yeah were #1, lol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicle_fire_incidents

 

Noting that there was one in Austria that caught fire while driving.