Mercedes-Benz EQB Catches Fire While Charging, Incident Under Investigation

As we kick off the first working day of the year, we have yet to receive any official word from Mercedes-Benz Malaysia with  regards to the incident that occurred on Sunday, 31 Dec 2023 where a Mercedes-Benz EQB caught fire while charging at a dealership in Skudai, Johor.

According to Fire and Rescue Operations Commander, Senior Officer II Azmi Johar, the department received an emergency call via its MERS999 hotline at 2:45 PM. He further added that, one Fire Rescue Tender (FRT) and two Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIM) from the Larkin Fire and Rescue Station with 10 firefighters were dispatched.

According to Azmi, the team arrived at the incident location to find a Mercedes-Benz EQB that was already 90% burnt while it was charging using a DCFC primed at the Mercedes-Benz Skudai showroom.

In addition to the vehicle damage, roughly 5% of the showroom exterior facade and 20% of the DCFC’s electric vehicle charging bay was also damaged. Both the cause of fire and estimated cost of damages are still under investigation. 

The fire-fighting operation concluded at 3.10PM, meaning the Fire and Rescue team only took 25 minutes from the time of call to extinguishing said EV’s flames.

This also clearly indicates that the fire did not compromise the Mercedes-Benz EQB’s battery cell as what we saw in the fire incident involving a Tesla Model Y fire back in Oct 2023. We have yet to receive the report for that latter Tesla incident until now.

This latest incident should serve as a call for charging point operators (CPOs) to have their electric vehicle charging bays (EVCB) comply with fire safety regulations set by Fire and Rescue Department according to Director-General Datuk Seri Abdul Wahab Mat Yasin. He further calls for property owners to create defensible space and remove or minimise flammable materials or sources from the property in order to lower the risk of fires.