This undated file photo provided by Mercedes-Benz Korea Ltd. shows company CEO and President Mathias Vaitl. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Mercedes-Benz Korea Ltd. is faced with criticism from industry watchers and consumers over its belated disclosure of battery suppliers for the company’s electric vehicles amid an EV safety scare.
Concerns surrounding EV safety flared up in the country after a spontaneous fire that started in a parked Mercedes-Benz EV on Aug. 1 in Incheon, west of Seoul, which ended up destroying an entire underground parking garage inside an apartment complex while damaging over 100 cars.
As an investigation took place, it was learned that the Mercedes-Benz EQE model was equipped with battery cells supplied by China’s Farasis Energy, which ranks 10th globally among EV battery suppliers.
A Mercedes-Benz dealership in Seoul (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The revelation surprised many here, especially as Christoph Starzynski, Mercedes-Benz’s vice president of car engineering, was quoted as saying in an interview with South Korean news outlets in April 2022 that battery cells in EQE vehicles will be supplied by China’s CATL, the leader in global EV batteries in terms of market share.
Farasis Energy carried out a massive battery recall in China in 2021 due to a fire risk. Farasis did not respond to a request for comment.
The German luxury automaker initially resisted repeated calls for the release of information on its battery cell suppliers. The company ultimately relented Tuesday,making public the battery brands of its EV lines on the Mercedes-Benz Korea website 12 days after the accident.
Critics point out that the information was long overdue, especially as rivals such as Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp. and BMW Korea had preempted Mercedes-Benz in making available the names of their own EV battery suppliers.
This image captured from the website of Mercedes-Benz Korea Ltd. shows the battery brand information of various electric vehicle models manufactured by the company. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
According to the company, a total of five trims — the EQE 350+, AMG 53 4MATIC+, 350 4MATIC, EQS 350 and EQE SUV 500 4MATIC — had car units equipped with Farasis battery cells.
Other more affordable EV lines, such as the EQC, EQA and EQB lines, were shown to have products either supplied by CATL or South Korea’s LG Energy Solution Ltd. and SK On Co.
Some consumers and industry watchers claimed Mercedes-Benz’s delayed disclosure seems to have been made begrudgingly due to fears of a backlash over the use of Farasis products.
“Now I understand why Mercedes-Benz revealed the information so belatedly,” one person wrote on an online car community.
The person added, “They were trying to save face by not revealing the fact that Farasis cells were use widely across the company’s EV models.”
“It’s surprising that Farasis batteries are so widely used in EQE models, especially considering that even CATL, despite being a major player in the battery industry, might not fully align with the premium brand image of Mercedes-Benz,” Autogear, a South Korean automotive YouTube channel, assessed in a video.
Mathias Vaitl, CEO and president of Mercedes-Benz Korea who had been on a trip to Germany in the wake of the debacle, meanwhile, returned to Seoul on Monday, according to a company representative.
According to sources, he plans to meet with representatives of the affected apartment residents in person in Incheon later in the day.
Throughout the ordeal, the company’s crisis response capacity has faced scrutiny, as the CEO had not returned to the South Korea for more than 10 days since the accident.
Noteworthy was the digital footprint of Vaitl on mobile health app Strava showing a 10-kilometer run session logged in Birenbach, near Stuttgart, Germany, where Mercedes-Benz is headquartered, on Aug. 4, three days after the accident.
The company said in a message sent to Yonhap News Agency last week that Vaitl remained “in constant and direct contact with all relevant parties to support the investigation of the incident” while staying overseas.
When the CEO was in Germany, several senior company officials held a meeting with apartment resident representatives on Friday and offered to donate 4.5 billion won (US$3.3 million) as part of relief support efforts.
Police move an electric Mercedes-Benz sedan from the underground parking lot of an apartment building after completing their probe in Incheon, west of Seoul, in this file photo taken Aug. 5, 2024. A fire broke out in the car after it exploded on Aug. 1, resulting in 22 residents and a firefighter being hospitalized. Around 40 cars were burnt, and an additional 100 cars in the parking lot were damaged. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The meeting was arranged in consultation with the office of Rep. Lee Yong-woo of the main opposition Democratic Party, a National Assembly representative for the district of Cheongna in Incheon, where the accident occurred.
Mercedes-Benz Korea said the donation was made via a local charity foundation to provide “support for residents to help them return to their normal lives as soon as possible.”
It added company officials will “continue to support the authorities’ investigation and determine the root cause so that the appropriate next steps can be taken.”
(Yonhap)
