Hyundai Australia awaiting guidance on Kona Electric fire recall

Hyundai Australia is in a holding pattern surrounding a recall that is affecting tens of thousands of electric versions of the Kona SUV in various overseas market.

Despite the recall expanding from South Korea to China, Europe and North America, there is still no word on whether the 846 Kona Electrics sold here since early 2019 will be affected.

Hyundai Australia says it is awaiting guidance from its parent company.

“We’re waiting for confirmation from [Hyundai Motor Company] Korea about whether our vehicles will be affected,” said Hyundai Australia corporate communications manager Bill Thomas.

He cited potential differences in production runs as a reason Australian vehicle may not be included in the recall set to impact some 51,000 Kona Electrics globally.

“If it’s an issue that’s related to a particular production run then it might be that our vehicles aren’t affected,” said Thomas, reiterating that any decisions would be reliant on information from Hyundai in Korea.

The overseas recall is being conducted to address the risk of a fire following 13 incidents overseas that have reportedly resulted in Kona Electrics being extensively burnt.

Reports of a Kona Electric fire surfaced as early as 2019.

Hyundai told some overseas media outlets that the recall was to “is a proactive response to a suspected defective production of high voltage batteries used in vehicles, which may have contributed to the reported fires”.

The Kona’s batteries are supplied by the world’s largest EV battery supplier, LG Chem, which also supplies Tesla, General Motors, Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, among others.

There appears to be a conflict as to the source of the fires or fault.

Reuters reported that LG Chem had denied the fires were not caused by faults with the battery cells and that the cause was yet to be determined.

Fires in electric vehicles have commanded many headlines, especially when they involve Teslas.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has on numerous occasions defended the fire protection of the company’s electric vehicles. In 2013 he even wrote of the dangers of gasoline cars in crashes or fires.

More recently, deliveries of the Ford Escape plug-in hybrid – which arrives in Australia late in 2020 – were temporarily halted in the UK due to fire concerns.

Crash protection and safety generally surrounding electric vehicles is a major focus for car makers as they ramp up development and production of EVs.