The South Korean government and ruling party have decided to speed up the certification process for electric vehicle batteries, the party said on Sunday, in an effort to ease public safety concerns raised by a recent spate of EV fires.

In order to help assure the safety of EV batteries, the government would start the battery certification procedure in October, one month ahead of schedule, according to Han Zeea, a People Power Party official. Furthermore, the government made the decision to require domestic automakers to reveal the batteries that are utilized in their electric vehicles.

The government's action to force automakers to voluntarily publish the information in the wake of an EV fire on August 1 that destroyed hundreds of vehicles and caused public concern was followed by an agreement on stricter regulations for EV safety.

About 140 cars were destroyed or damaged in the eight hours it took to put out the fire, which appeared to start spontaneously in a Mercedes-Benz EV with Farasis Energy batteries. Some occupants of the apartments above were forced to relocate to shelters.

In recent years, a few automakers have voluntarily started sharing the names of the battery suppliers they partner with.

Industry insiders previously told reporters that South Korean battery manufacturers had no reason to object to disclosing the whereabouts of their power sources, but the public should not assume that batteries are always to blame for electric vehicle fires.

Experts claim that making automakers identify batteries would give consumers more options, but some question how this would improve safety given the lack of concrete data on which battery brands are most likely to catch fire.

According to Han, the party spokesperson, the government will amend fire equipment regulations to include wet pipe sprinkler systems in subterranean parking lots with EV charging stations and to increase the number of chargers that prevent overcharging as part of strengthened safety precautions.

It seems that electric cars do not catch fire nearly as frequently as recent headlines would have you believe. According to certain studies, EVs pose less of a fire risk than traditional cars.

However, auto experts claim that because EV flames tend to rekindle, they burn differently than fires in internal combustion engine automobiles, often lasting longer.