The first time I rode a Mercedes Benz was in the Netherlands in 1987. When a car that looked normal at low speeds went over 100 kilometers at high speeds, it became impressively stable and comfortable. A company that respected engineers in developing countries provided an airport pickup and commuting ride to engineers from afar with the company’s taxi system. It might have been the S-Class.

Mercedes seems to have a special meaning to Koreans. It provides a so-called sense of departure, such as a sign of success when riding a Mercedes. Mercedes-Benz set off a large fire with an electric car and revealed its bluff. What is bluffing?

I once drove a Mercedes-Benz diesel for several years. The engine was fine even over 200,000 kilometers. There was a big difference from a domestic diesel car that makes sounds and vibrations from a cultivator even after driving 10,000 kilometers. Driving the electric car made me think how unfair Mercedes would be. Mercedes-Benz and the three German companies and Japanese automakers are technologies, after all, engines and transmissions. Most of the other parts are outsourced anyway.

The engine was replaced by batteries and motors with electric cars, and transmissions were eliminated. Due to the nature of the motor, which produces strong torque from low speeds, it can accelerate much higher without a transmission. Batteries must rely on external companies, motors are not particularly difficult technology, and there are many companies that are better than them.

Automakers have strong unions and employ a large number of adult men. There are many industries and employment before and after. It has enormous political and national influence. It is questionable whether total employment will ever decrease in the era of electric vehicles, but the existing employment structure changes significantly, and countries with developed internal combustion vehicle industries are inevitably hit harder. Japan, Germany, Korea, the United States, and France are in order. China, which has been unable to build its own engines and transmissions and has devoted its money to these countries, naturally has no choice but to hurry to move to electric vehicles. While putting the cause of carbon emission reduction ahead…

Japan is completely against electric vehicles. Toyota uses hybrid vehicles. Whether it is a general hybrid or a plug-in hybrid, it has little carbon reduction effect. So the Japanese automobile industry will collapse first. The Chinese market, which produces and sells millions of units a year, is halved, and even if there are no electric vehicles to sell, Chinese electric vehicles do not compete in terms of price or technology. Car sales in China will soon become zero. So, I’m going to die while keeping at least the Japanese market while locking down. It seems like they are watching the Pacific War, which insisted on 100 million total lockdowns and did not surrender to the end.

Even Germany, which was working hardest to overcome the climate crisis, showed its true colors when its automobile industry was in crisis. It’s not that German automakers didn’t make efforts. They developed electric vehicles diligently. However, they were too expensive and did not sell. The world bought German cars because of their luxurious image based on excellent mechanical technology such as German engines and transmissions. It no longer works when it becomes an electric car. The underlying electric and electronic industry, especially mass production technology, has long disappeared. There was little software technology at all from the beginning. Can’t the electric car made there be pointed out as Mercedes? When the entire German automobile industry was on the verge of collapse due to the offensive of Chinese electric vehicles and Tesla, subsidies for electric vehicles were eliminated in the middle of last year. This may be the first case of removing subsidies in major developed countries. Thanks to that, sales of electric vehicles began to decline. It is pitiful.

However, in Korea, Mercedes-Benz has shown a determined card to slow down the conversion of electric vehicles. The electric car caught fire intentionally.

Numerous electric vehicle fires broke out in present cars before Mercedes. Electric vehicle fires were common in present cars after accidents until last year. Prior to that, fires were common when charging, fires after charging, fires when parking, and fires while driving. If such a fire had occurred in Tesla, for example, it would have been so severe that none of it could be sold now. The conversion to electric vehicles in Korea has been delayed due to the fire of present vehicles. Of course, there were some cases where electric vehicles of present cars did not sell well, but for present cars, which make an overwhelming amount of money from internal combustion engines, that was a benefit.

Once Benz caught fire, it became a hotteok restaurant on fire. It’s as if it were the first electric car to catch fire. Mercedes-Benz electric cars would not have been able to enter Korea at all if they had responded to the fire of the train like the Mercedes fire.

Mercedes did one thing anyway. At the expense of himself, Mercedes provided another opportunity for high-end internal combustion locomotives in Germany and Japan, including BMW. Who would buy an electric car from a luxury car now?

Depending on the battery type (high nickel vs. LFP), form factor (circular vs pouch), battery margin, battery management system performance, and manufacturer (Korea/Japan vs China or major company vs minor), the possibility of fire varies widely, but if it is well configured, it has a lower fire rate than an internal combustion engine and is in principle safer than an internal combustion engine.

A combination of high nickel, pouch, BMS, extremely low battery margin, and batteries with problems in the manufacturing process with Korean batteries made in China caught fire. Benz caught fire while parked, which is the least likely due to high nickel, pouch, minor Chinese battery, and low electric vehicle technology. The best car company with the internal combustion engine made the worst choice for electric cars. That choice is also a legacy of the days when German automakers were busy. During China’s rise, Germany benefited the most from a variety of machinery, of which automobiles were the largest. The so-called “three cars” were the cars that Chinese people, who valued face as much as Korea, would spend a lot of money when they made money. Among them, Mercedes-Benz became the largest shareholder of Chinese automakers and became the largest shareholder, so I did not know whether it was a German company or a Chinese company. That may be the reason why Chinese batteries were adopted. If you didn’t choose Chinese batteries because you saved millions of won for cars with more than 100 million people, would you have liked the capitalist who squeezed even one won too much…

If the fire accident has slowed the era of electric vehicles, it is a mistake. Even after 100 years of development, if there are more fires than sloppy electric cars, it will be safe to develop a safe car in the country and companies that risk their lives on electric vehicles