hankyoreh

Police relocate what remains of the chassis of the electric vehicle that erupted into flames in the underground parking garage of an apartment in Incheon’s Seo District following their joint forensic analysis on Aug. 5, 2024. (Yonhap)

The string of fires caused by electric vehicles has led to an increase in “EV phobia,” with people selling their EVs to avoid the side-eye. Signs that the popularity of EVs is waning can also be currently seen in the used car market.

“My apartment’s management office informed me in late May that electric vehicles were being banned from parking on the premises. I had to sell my Tesla Model 3, which I bought three months ago, at a loss last week and bought a domestically produced gas car,” said Won, a 42-year-old who lives in Seoul’s Gangnam District, in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh. 

The ban on EVs in parking structures at Won’s apartment was issued before a large fire caused by an EV broke out in an underground parking lot of an apartment in Incheon, but the management cited risks of fire as a reason for the ban.

Management initially claimed that the car was too heavy for the apartment’s automated parking garage, but when Won showed them the car’s specifications, which stated that the car was within the weight restrictions, they caved in and gave the real reason behind the ban: “It could cause a fire.”

Won said that it’s not that the building is placing all the responsibility on him while it lacks appropriate firefighting equipment. The ban was put in place since the automated parking garage does not have sprinklers, which are required by fire safety laws, meaning that if a fire occurs, the facility is not eligible for insurance. 

When Won decided to move out of the apartment and asked for permission to park his car in the garage temporarily, he was warned that “in the event of a fire, he would be held liable.”

“Despite the fact that the government promotes the use of EVs and issues subsidies to EV owners, there’s an ongoing witch hunt against EV owners,” Won commented. “EV owners pay tens of millions of won to buy those vehicles, only to have people give them the evil eye when they drive.”

Posts expressing similar worries continue to go up on one online forum for EV owners with over 1 million members, with some saying that they feel like electric vehicles have become the cars everyone loves to hate and still others on edge that the value of EVs on the resale market will plummet due to “EV phobia.”

Many have also started putting together legal cases to fight apartment complexes’ unilateral ban on EVs in parking garages. 

“We’re getting an influx of people selling their electric cars, while buyers are most definitely avoiding purchasing an EV,” the CEO of a used car business in Seoul’s Gangnam District told the Hankyoreh.  

By Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter; Cho Seung-woo, intern reporter

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