Hyundai’s EV Recall Is One Of The Most Expensive Ever

Recalls are never any fun. For the owners of affected vehicles, they cause an inconvenience, and for the manufacturers of said vehicles, it causes a whole lot of financial strain. That strain is compounded by a loss of trust from the buying public, especially when the recall is for a safety issue, but recalls are relatively common and can affect even the likes of Bugatti. Today’s story, however, concerns Hyundai, and recalls have been expensive for the brand in the past. The most recent recall affects 82,000 electric vehicles, and it could go down as the most expensive in history.

The issue pertains to batteries that need to be replaced following 15 reports of fires involving the affected vehicle, which is known domestically as the Hyundai Kona. Fortunately for us, no US vehicles are affected but 27,000 vehicles in South Korea and 55,000 elsewhere in the world are. These fires stemmed from LG-manufactured battery cells that could short circuit, and Hyundai’s investigation has led to the Korean Transport ministry getting involved too. The agency’s investigation is ongoing but points fingers at LG for producing battery packs with a misaligned cell that ultimately leads to fire. However, LG thinks the blame lies with Hyundai.

The tech giant released a statement on the issue, saying, “The fire was not recreated in the lab test, and the issue was an early mass production problem in Hyundai Motor’s dedicated line.” Whoever is at fault, the recall is costing Hyundai a whopping $11,000 per vehicle, which works out to a ludicrous $900 million. So who is paying, LG or Hyundai? Hyundai says it is still in talks with LG over who will foot the bill, and the results of the Transport Ministry’s investigation will probably be the decider here, but we expect that both parties will end up contributing to fixing this very expensive problem.