Hybrid vehicles report fewest fire incidents: data

Diesel cars pose highest fire risks, followed by electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles

A vehicle is caught on fire. (123rf)

Statistics from the National Fire Agency showed Sunday that hybrid vehicles reported the fewest fire incidents over the last five years, as fears related to battery-electric vehicles spread across Korea following the recent EV fires that occurred earlier this month.

According to the fire authority’s fire incident status by vehicle type, there were 131 fire cases among hybrid vehicles, which are powered by both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. As the accumulated number of registered hybrid cars stood at 1.54 million by the end of last year, the likeliness of a hybrid vehicle fire was estimated at 0.002 percent.

Though the number of hybrid vehicles has more than tripled since the 2019 figure of 506,000 units, reports of fire incidents did not see a dramatic increase, with only 23 hybrid vehicle fires in 2019, 21 cases in 2021 and 31 cases in 2023.

EVs logged a fire incident likeliness of 0.013 percent during the same period. The number of EV fires grew in accordance with the increasing volume of EV registration. In 2019, there were 90,000 registered EVs and seven fire reports. These figures increased to 544,000 registered EVs and 72 fire incidents in 2023.

Diesel cars reported a higher number of fire incidents as they continued to deteriorate, while the number of registrations decreased as customers turned to more cost-efficient and eco-friendly options. Of the 9.96 million diesel cars registered in 2019, 1,348 fires were reported; this increased to 1,414 in 2023, among the 9.5 million registered diesel cars. The likelihood of a diesel car fire was 0.015 percent based on data from the past five years.

For gasoline-powered vehicles, which account for the biggest portion of cars on the road here, the number of fire incidents has maintained a steady level. There were 12.31 million registered gasoline cars as of last year, with 10,950 fire incidents reported between 2019 and 2023, showing a 0.006 percent likeliness of fire incidents.

By Kan Hyeong-woo(hwkan@heraldcorp.com)