After announcing the recall of 25,564 Kona EVs in its home market over fire risks last week, Hyundai could reportedly triple those figures with a further 51,000 vehicles in Europe, North America, China and various other markets.
Today, the carmaker said that it is “in the final stages of filing a voluntary recall notice with the NHTSA for U.S. Kona EVs and will start the process of informing owners of these vehicles,” as reported by Autonews Europe.
According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, Hyundai will recall 37,336 units in Europe and 11,137 in North America, although no other markets were mentioned in the statement, nor final figures or dates.
Related: Hyundai Kona EV Hit With Recall In South Korea Over Fire Risks
The carmaker decided to recall the Kona EV in South Korea after discovering that a possible short circuit due to faulty high-voltage battery cell manufacturing could pose a fire risk.
Of course, this is more than just a hunch, seen as how there have been at least 16 cases of fully-electric Kona models catching fire around the globe, including cases in Canada and Australia last year, as per the Korean news agency. One of these incidents took place in Daegu, South Korea, where a Kona EV caught fire while parked in an underground garage.
At the same time, the Kona EV’s battery supplier, LG Chem, said last week that faulty battery cells weren’t the cause of the fires, following a re-enactment experiment conducted jointly with Hyundai.
In South Korea, recalled Kona EVs will undergo software updates and will receive battery replacements if needed. If this report proves accurate and Europe is next on the list, the same will probably happen to European models.
