South Korea’s leading electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution Ltd (LGES) has announced it plans to enter the battery safety diagnostics software business, amid heightened focus on EV battery safety in South Korea and elsewhere.

The announcement followed a major fire in the car park of an apartment complex in the city of Incheon earlier this month, which started in a parked Mercedes-Benz EQE understood to have been fitted with a battery pack supplied by Chinese manufacturer Farasis Energy. The blaze destroyed over 100 vehicles in the complex and injured 23 people. Separate reports suggest more than 70 EV fires were reported in the country last year.

LGES confirmed it has decided to “explore new business opportunities to provide the best customer value not only in battery manufacturing but also in BMS (battery management system) solutions, promoting the safe use of batteries.”

The company said it already offers battery diagnosis software in EVs produced by nine automakers, including Hyundai and Kia, with a safety diagnosis detection accuracy rate of over 90%. It claims the software can detect and alert in advance of abnormal signs that point to potential future issues, such as thermal incidents. It is currently “being evaluated for compatibility with EVs equipped with batteries from other manufacturers”.

LGES said in a statement: “Until now, most battery diagnostics software solutions are based on technologies developed by predicting virtual conditions, leading to low accuracy when applied in real environments. Growing interest in the safe use of EVs highlights the importance of developing a sophisticated battery condition management, prompting automakers to pay more attention to the BMS’ ability to effectively measure and analyse battery information and detect various problems in advance.”

LGES said it will work closely with automakers and chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm Technologies and Analog Devices to develop new safety diagnostics software for BMS systems that can pre-emptively diagnose more EV battery abnormalities.

LGES claims to have already developed a technology that precisely diagnoses and predicts battery degradation. The company also said it is using cloud technology to analyse vast amounts of battery data in real time, with data from around 12,000 vehicles already analysed as of last year.

Hyuksung Chung, vice president of LGES’ Business Development Group, said: “’Although automakers are starting to shift their attention to safety diagnosis technology, it takes time and resources to develop and apply reliable software. LG Energy Solution has already developed diagnostics software with capabilities that overwhelm the competition. Backed by various battery patents and vast amounts of empirical data, our leading vehicle software can be applied to an automotive BMS today. This move aligns with our commitment to actively collaborate with our clients to ensure EV batteries are safe to use.”