Hyundai’s $900 Million Recall Is a Cautionary Tale for All EV Makers
There’s too great a rush to get electric cars to market. Development must be tempered by care for consumer safety and thought for the consequences to a company’s bottom line.
Batteries included.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergEveryone’s talking fast development, short timelines and tons of electric car models coming to market. But the price of ambition is high, as Hyundai Motor Co. is learning. Electric carmakers and the investors who love them should take note.
This week, the South Korean company announced one of the most expensive recalls in auto history. Hyundai said the repair and replacement involved three of its electric vehicles and would cost approximately KRW1 trillion ($900 million). Vehicle fires were apparently associated with the battery systems and defective manufacturing of some of the LG Energy Solution Co.-made cells in them. All told, the company is recalling almost 82,000 cars and buses.