The cause of "Incheon Electric Vehicle Fire" is unknown...Who are you responsible for?

Incheon Electric Vehicle Fire in August...Damage to more than 800 vehicles
Outside expert analysis failed to determine cause
Blocking who will be held liable for compensation for failure to determine cause
More than 50 owners of Mercedes-Benz EVs file suit against Mercedes

[Anchor]
The police, who have been investigating the Incheon electric car fire, which even caused "electric car phobia" nationwide, have not been able to reveal the cause of the fire.

It is said that all the equipment was burned down and could not be analyzed, but it is difficult to determine who should be held responsible for the damage as Mercedes-Benz, the manufacturer, failed to find out.

Reporter Yang Dong-hoon reports.

[Reporter]
In August, more than 800 vehicles were burned or charred by a fire in an electric car parked in Cheongna-dong, Incheon, and some residents even fled.

Police say they have conducted a large-scale investigation for four months, including three joint on-site inspections by setting up a dedicated team, but have not been able to determine the cause of the fire.

Based on the findings of the National Forensic Service, which raised the possibility of damage due to an external impact on the battery pack, the analysis was left to an external expert, but failed to determine the cause of the fire because all of the "battery management devices" were damaged.

It also said there was no special negligence in the manufacturer Mercedes-Benz's delivery and delivery process, and that it did not find any driver's negligence as the vehicle was parked for more than two days at the time of the fire.

As a result, the police decided to send only four people, including employees of the management office who turned off the sprinklers after the fire, to the prosecution.

The police's failure to determine the cause of the fire caused enormous damage, and they are just about to hold who is responsible for compensation.

There are ways to claim damages from employees responsible for the spread of the fire, but in reality, it is difficult for individuals to pay tens of billions of won in damages.

[Han Se-young / Insurance Lawyer: You can now file a civil suit against the four employees, but wouldn't it be very difficult to get compensation?.]

More than 50 owners of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle models that caught fire earlier filed a class action against Mercedes for failing to provide proper design to prevent battery heat runaway risks.

They said they would continue the lawsuit, saying that the problem is that the battery management system did not work when they detected abnormalities such as smoke before the fire broke out, but the police failed to determine the cause due to a poor investigation.

[Ha Jong-seon / Litigation Agent: Although criminal responsibility may have exonerated him due to poor investigation, civil lawsuits have presumptive laws of defects..]

Mercedes-Benz Korea said it recognizes the suffering of residents after the announcement of the police investigation results and will take possible and reasonable responsibility as soon as its own damage analysis is completed.

I'm YTN Yang Donghoon.

Edit
video: Ahn Hong-hyun