US agency launches probe into electric vehicle batteries

The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration says the probe covers greater than 138,000 autos with batteries made by LG Power Answer of South Korea.

A corporate logo of LG Electronics is seen at its shop in Goyang, South Korea
The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration says it can write to LG and different firms that may have purchased related batteries to ensure recollects are being achieved when wanted [File: Lee Jin-man/AP Photo]

United States security regulators have opened an investigation into electrical and hybrid automobile batteries after 5 automakers issued recollects because of doable defects that would trigger fires or stalling.

The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration has stated the probe covers greater than 138,000 autos with batteries made by LG Power Answer of South Korea.

Basic Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Stellantis and Volkswagen have issued recollects since February of 2020, most because of inner battery failures that may improve the chance of fires.

The company stated it could write to LG and different firms that may have purchased related batteries to ensure recollects are being achieved when wanted.

Messages had been left Tuesday searching for remark from LG Power Answer.

The investigation is one other bug in a rising international rollout of electrical autos by all carmakers to switch inner combustion autos to chop emissions and battle local weather change. Ford and BMW even have recalled batteries lately. Additionally, the US Nationwide Transportation Security Board investigated a sequence of fires in Tesla autos and stated the high-voltage lithium-ion batteries pose security dangers to first responders after crashes.

Many governments are relying on counting EVs to switch petrol-burning autos that emit greenhouse gases that trigger international warming.

Knowledge on electrical automobile fires is restricted, however a small pattern in April of 2021 by the insurance coverage business’s Freeway Loss Knowledge Institute discovered that EVs and their standard gasoline counterparts had about the identical variety of non-crash hearth claims per 1,000 insured automobile years.

The institute tracked claims for 10 EVs and their petrol equivalents and located that EVs had 0.19 hearth claims per 1,000 insured automobile years in contrast with 0.2 for petrol counterparts.

In a doc posted Tuesday on its web site, NHTSA stated the recollects started on February 24, 2020, when Mercedes recalled a 2019 Good Fortwo electrical automobile. The corporate stated the high-voltage battery made by LG had a defect that would ignite contained in the battery cells, elevating the chance of a fireplace.

Eight months later, Hyundai recalled some 2019 and 2020 Kona EVs with an analogous downside.

In November of 2020, Basic Motors started a string of recollects that concerned greater than 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs from the 2017 by 2022 mannequin years because of the “simultaneous presence of two uncommon manufacturing defects in the identical battery cell”. The defect brought about at the least 10 fires, inflicting GM to warn house owners to park the Bolts outside. LG Power Answer agreed to reimburse GM $2bn for the recall prices, and the corporate stays in a three way partnership with LG to construct batteries for its subsequent technology of electrical autos. This month, GM is scheduled to restart manufacturing and gross sales of Bolts with alternative battery cells.

Hyundai issued a second battery recall in March of 2021 overlaying 2019 and 2020 Konas and 2020 Ioniq EVs and stated an electrical quick contained in the batteries may improve the chance of fires whereas parked, charging or driving.

Final February, Stellantis’ Chrysler model recalled some 2017 and 2018 Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivans with LG batteries after getting a dozen experiences of fires. A month later, VW recalled some 2021 ID4 electrical autos with unreliable connections contained in the batteries that would trigger stalling. Stellantis additionally has a three way partnership with LG Power Answer to make batteries for future electrical autos.

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