Asia Tech Wire (Sep 3) -- The Korea Transportation Safety Authority (TS), a quasi-governmental agency, has announced that it will safeguard the safe operation of electric vehicles (EVs) by enhancing the safety testing of EV batteries and improving EV inspection infrastructure.

Specific measures include:

First, the standards for battery safety tests will be raised to a level stricter than international standards, and the tests will be increased to 12 items covering the electrical, chemical, physical and thermal safety of batteries;

The second is a plan to add an assessment of the active safety protection function of the battery management system (BMS) to the annual Korean New Car Assessment Programme (KNCAP), including real-time detection of battery anomalies, issuance of warnings, and reporting of abnormalities, in order to reduce the risk of fire.

TS also plans to introduce a heat transfer test for short-circuit triggered inside an EV battery in the future and promote the development of international standards for BMS.