Mercedes Benz is in trouble at the moment. The company is facing regulatory action in South Korea. Authorities in South Korea have found that the company has misled consumers regarding the batteries installed in its electric cars. Because of this, fine has been imposed on the company.
The country’s antitrust regulator has imposed a fine of 12.23 billion won (about 76 lakh dollars or Rs 63 crore). This fine has been announced by the Fair Trade Commission. Let us know what is the whole matter due to which fine has been imposed on the company.
Wrong information was given regarding the battery
According to the FTC’s investigation, Mercedes Benz Korea had reported that some of its models were equipped with CATL batteries. CATL is the world’s largest EV battery manufacturing company. However, investigation found that Farasis Energy’s battery cells were installed in many of the company’s vehicles. This company is not as popular as CATL.
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This game has also been done in many premium vehicles, which include the company’s electric sedans – Mercedes Benz EQE and Mercedes Benz EQS. The investigation found that the benefits of CATL batteries were explained in the internal sales manual given to dealers by Mercedes Benz Korea.
However, no information was given about Farasis batteries in the document. Whereas these batteries were used in many vehicles. Due to this, the dealers had no information about the original battery supplier and they kept claiming that the EVs had CATL batteries.
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Investigation was started due to fire
This entire matter came under the purview of the agencies when a parked Mercedes Benz EQE electric sedan caught fire. This incident took place in Incheon, South Korea in 2024. Farasis Energy batteries were used in that car.
The car was parked in an underground parking facility, due to which many other vehicles also caught fire. Reports claimed that 100 vehicles parked near the car also caught fire. The building had to be evacuated after the fire. After this incident, regulatory agencies started investigating the matter.
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