Amid growing safety concerns over electric vehicle fires, hotels have also emerged in China, the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles, to ban electric vehicles from underground parking lots due to fire risks.
According to China’s Fengpai Shimbun on the 8th, a five-star hotel in the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou has decided to control the entry of electric vehicles into underground parking lots from September.
In fact, the hotel announced through an information sign installed at the entrance of the underground parking lot, “Since the underground parking lot space is relatively closed, we have installed a dedicated parking space in the hotel in consideration of electric vehicle parking safety and property safety, so please park in the designated space.”
Ryu, who visited the hotel, said he was stopped by a security guard at the entrance when he tried to drive an electric car into an underground parking lot. Electric cars were not allowed in the parking lot, but only internal combustion cars were allowed in.
He complained, “I visited this hotel last week, and there was no such regulation at the time.”
The hotel prevented electric cars from entering the underground parking lot, but set up a wide parking lot that could park 300 electric cars about five minutes away from the hotel. The security guard guided Ryu to pull over in a private parking lot behind the hotel.
“For fire safety reasons, only internal combustion vehicles can be parked in underground parking lots for the time being,” a hotel official said. “We announced the regulations to protect other customers’ property as the rate of natural ignition of electric vehicles is relatively high and news about electric vehicle fires has been released several times.”
Last month, a fire broke out in an electric car parked in an underground parking lot of an apartment building in Incheon, causing more than 140 vehicles to burn and the electricity and water supply to be cut off due to melting facilities and pipes.
Accidents of electric car fires seem to occur frequently in China. According to an industry source, nearly 300 electric car fires have occurred between August last year and June this year. In other words, one electric car fire broke out every day.
At the 2024 World Battery Conference held on the 1st, Zeng Yu-chun, chairman of CATL in China, the world’s largest battery producer, warned, “If we fail to solve the (electric vehicle) safety problem, the outcome will be catastrophic.”
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
