[2020 National Audit] Seobo Shin, Hyundai Motor President, "Kona EV Fire, Acknowledges Manufacturing Responsibility... Will Recall"

On the 8th, at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee audit, it was revealed, "Some solutions have been found and a recall is planned."

Yoon Sook Lee (from the right), President of Naver Shopping, Kwangil Lee, Vice President and Head of Overseas Business at GS Construction Plant Division, and Bosin Seo, President of Hyundai Motor Company, appeared at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee on the 8th for the National Audit of the Fair Trade Commission and others, taking the oath as witnesses. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] Seo Bo-shin, President of Hyundai Motor Company, recently acknowledged production responsibility for the Kona electric vehicle, which has been embroiled in controversy due to a series of fires, and expressed his intention to issue a recall.

On the 8th, Seo appeared as a witness at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee audit. When Park Yong-jin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, asked, "You sent apology text messages to customers regarding the recent Kona electric vehicle fires and said you would send a notice within this month. Do you acknowledge technical production responsibility?" Seo replied, "I acknowledge it." He added, "Although it is not perfect, we have found some solutions and plan to conduct a recall."

Prior to the questioning that day, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that Hyundai Motor Company had voluntarily decided to recall the Kona electric vehicles to address the cause of the fires. The recall targets 25,564 Kona electric vehicles produced between September 29, 2017, and March 13, 2020. According to the defect investigation by the Automobile Safety Research Institute, due to poor manufacturing process quality, the separator between the positive (+) and negative (-) plates was damaged, which could cause internal short circuits.

During the session, Assemblyman Park continued with sharp questions such as, "When did the first Kona electric vehicle fire occur?" and "Is there an investigation report related to the Kona electric vehicle fires?" Park pointed out that a total of 12 Kona electric vehicle fires had occurred, starting with the Ulsan plant in 2018. Seo responded, "I was not in charge of quality at that time," and said, "Regarding the Ulsan plant fire, I recall it was due to coolant leakage."

In response, Park criticized, "If the fire incident had not been concealed at the time and the production defect had been corrected, would there have been 10 more fires afterward? More than 1 trillion won has been spent on subsidies for four Hyundai electric vehicle models. We asked for safe vehicles, but is there no interest?"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.