Mercedes-Benz Korea chief to meet residents after EV fire that damaged 100 cars

Seoul: Mathias Vaitl, CEO and President of Mercedes-Benz Korea, was set to meet residents of an apartment complex in Incheon, where a fire that started from a Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle destroyed over 100 cars, according to sources on Wednesday.

The sources said that Vaitl plans to meet with residents of the apartment in Cheongna in Incheon, 27 kms west of Seoul to discuss the company’s measures regarding the fire that spontaneously erupted from a parked Mercedes-Benz EQE model on August 1, reports Yonhap news agency.

The fire gutted an entire parking garage and damaged over 100 vehicles. According to sources, a notice of the meeting was posted on an online community for residents. It will mark Vaitl’s first public appearance since the incident that stoked a nationwide EV safety scare.

The accident ended up forcing hundreds of residents to move to temporary shelters due to a power and water supply outage at the complex.

Vaitl was on a trip to Germany when the incident occurred and returned to South Korea on Monday. 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 representatives of the residents Friday and offered to donate 4.5 billion won (US$3.3 million) as part of relief support efforts.

Mercedes-Benz Korea 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.

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.

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.

–IANS