2019 Hyundai Kona EV Explodes When Parked, Sends Garage Door Flying Across Street
The Kona wasn’t charging at the time of the explosion and the cause of the incident is still being investigated.
A Hyundai Kona Electric caught fire and exploded while parked inside a residential garage last Friday, dangerously (and cartoonishly) sending a large garage door flying across the street and blowing a hole in the structure's roof.
According to the CBC, it happened in Île-Bizard, an island near Montreal, Quebec. The car's owner Piero Cosentino said he saw dark smoke clouds coming from his garage before the Hyundai inside went up in flames and eventually destroyed a significant part of his house. "As soon as I saw [the clouds], I immediately turned off the breaker," Cosentino said. The Quebec man apparently purchased the Kona EV in March of this year and insists that it was not plugged in or charging at the time of the incident.
Firefighters were able to put the fire out and are currently investigating the cause of the fire. Luckily no injuries or fatalities were reported as a result of the explosion. However, Cosentino recognizes that things could have been very different if somebody had been near his garage at the time of the explosion. "If we were in front of the garage door, we could have been in the hospital," he told the CBC.
Earlier this week, Hyundai Canada senior product PR specialist Jean François Taylor told Automotive News regarding the incident, "We have indeed been in contact with the customer. We are working with authorities and fire investigators in Montreal to understand the root cause of the incident, as this is not yet known. As is always the case, the safety of our customers is our first priority and we will push to fully understand the issue as quickly as possible."
"There are no further updates to share at this time," Taylor told The Drive Wednesday morning via email. "We are currently working with the insurance company and Transport Canada on the matter."
Hyundai Konas are hardly the only electric vehicles to have inexplicably caught fire while parked. As of June, we counted eight different Teslas that have gone up in flames while stationary. More recently, Texas Motor Speedway banned any and all EVs from its drag strip apparently because it does not have the resources to safely deal with a battery fire.