Exclusive: KT bans EVs in underground parking lots after Mercedes blaze

The country's No. 2 telecom company banned corporate EVs from parking in underground parking garages at major backbone network cabling facilities in the wake of a Mercedes EV explosion last week.

KT headquarters in Gwanghwamun in central Seoul [YONHAP]

KT, a major telecommunications provider, has prohibited its corporate EVs from using the company's underground parking lots at its major backbone network cabling facilities across the country after a Mercedes EV exploded in Incheon last week.

It is a preemptive measure "to avoid any delay in response to EVs catching fire," said an industry source with knowledge on matter on Monday.

CCTV footage shows a Mercedes-Benz EV exploding at an underground parking lot in Incheon Thursday morning. [YONHAP]

KT holds the status as a common carrier in charge of providing telecommunication services for the general public. In the wireless sector, KT is the second-largest player, controlling 24 percent of the local mobile market.

A fire in backbone cable facilities may cause service disruptions, which can ultimately affect users' landline and mobile calls, internet service, credit card processing and internet protocol television (IPTV).

SKT, the country's most dominant telecommunications provider, is also considering taking similar action.

"We are considering safety measures comprehensively considering both safety and ESG," said a spokesperson for SK Telecom, referring to environmental, social and governance management.

Cars left burnt in an underground parking lot in Incheon. A total of 140 cars were damaged in a fire caused by a Mercedes-Benz EV explosion on Thursday, and of them, 40 were completely burned. [YONHAP]

The movement comes in the wake of growing public fear after the EV explosion that broke out in an underground parking garage at an apartment complex in Incheon on Thursday. The blaze sent 23 people to hospitals, damaged 140 cars and cut electricity and water supply for almost 500 households for three days.

Companies in other industries are also setting up rules to avoid any potential incidents.

LG Display on Monday discouraged its employees with EVs from using underground lots at its manufacturing facilities in Paju, Gyeonggi and Gumi, North Gyeongsang.

The Korean display maker plans to install more EV chargers at outdoor parking lots to accommodate a higher number of cars.

It is also a "preemptive measure" as display manufacturing requires a large amount of electricity and water.

An absence of systematic policies and laws is attributed as the primary cause of the incident.

Under the law, new apartment complexes with more than 100 households are required to have a certain ratio of EV chargers to parking spaces — at least five percent. The percentage drops to 2 percent for apartment complexes that received construction approval before Jan. 28, 2022.

The law, however, does not come with any requirements for safety equipment.

The number of EV fires is consistently rising, totaling 160 over six years since 2018, according to the National Fire Agency.

There were only three EV fire cases in 2018, rising to 11 in 2020, 24 in 2021, 43 in 2022, and 72 in 2023. Of them, cases that occurred in underground parking lots amounted to 10 last year from zero in 2018.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]