KT, one of South Korea’s leading mobile operators, has banned electric vehicles from certain garages. After the recent electric car explosion in Incheon, KT took drastic measures to protect its key resources. The company has banned the use of underground parking lots for its corporate electric vehicles at all major cable infrastructure facilities across the country. The decision comes after a Mercedes EV exploded in the underground garage of an apartment complex in Incheon last week, causing a major fire.
The Incheon explosion
The Incheon explosion caused significant damage. 23 people ended up in the hospital, and 140 cars were destroyed. Electricity and water supply to almost 500 households was interrupted for three days. Such incidents pose a huge risk to companies like KT. Supposedly their whose infrastructure could be compromised in the event of a fire. This would then lead to an interruption in the provision of critical services. Services like telephony, Internet, IPTV, as well as credit card processing might be affected.
KT is not the only company that responded to this incident. LG Display, another industry giant, has announced that it’s not recommending employees with electric vehicles to use the underground garage. This applies to its production facilities in Pai and Guma. This is issued in order to reduce the risk of potential incidents.
Statistics from the National Fire Agency indicate an alarming increase in the number of fires of EV vehicles. With only three cases recorded in 2018, the number of EV fires has risen to 72 in 2023. Of these, 10 were recorded in underground garages, further raising concerns.
As the number of EVs on the road grows, companies and regulatory bodies are increasingly challenged to ensure safety in the face of increasingly frequent incidents.
These measures by KT and LG Display highlight the need for more rigorous security standards and revision of existing procedures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
