Chapter 209: Director of Advanced Industry Policy
A month later.
Executive Director Oh Seong-hak came to my office.
“CEO, did you see the news?”
“What news?”
His expression was so serious that it seemed like something big had happened.
Oh picked up the remote and turned on the TV right away.
The news anchor on the screen had a stiff expression.
A bold subtitle at the bottom caught my eye.
[Breaking News] Ahsung Motors EV-Beta, residential villa fire caused by battery explosion…… Casualties reported.
“……What?”
My mind was suddenly complicated.
The information in the short sentence was too intense.
The screen changed, and vivid footage from the scene flowed out.
A huge fire that dyed the night sky red.
A three-story luxury villa was engulfed in bright red flames.
Dozens of fire trucks arrived, but
the flames had already swallowed the entire building.
[On-site Reporter]
-The fire is mostly under control now. The fire department reports that the fire started in the battery of an ‘Ahsung Motors EV-Beta’ vehicle parked in the villa’s parking lot and is conducting a detailed investigation.
The wreckage of the crumpled and twisted vehicle from the explosion was close-up on the screen.
The bottom of the vehicle appeared to have flown off entirely, and the aluminum frame was melted and charred black.
[Reporter]
“The fire department reports a short circuit in the vehicle’s high-voltage battery and is investigating the exact cause. So far, five people have been confirmed dead, seven seriously injured, and twelve slightly injured, and the entire building has been burned down.”
As I silently stared at the screen, Oh added an explanation.
“The accident vehicle was the second version of the EV-Beta that Ahsung Motors started piloting last month.”
“……You mean they gave pre-production vehicles to civilians?”
“Yes, 100 units were reportedly distributed under the name of ‘pilot units.’”
I frowned.
“No, what were they thinking, deploying unverified vehicles to civilians first?”
It didn’t make sense.
“I think it was Executive Director Cheon Jun-young…… no, Vice Chairman.”
Executive Director Cheon Jun-young successfully secured management rights at the shareholders’ meeting of Ahsung Motors and Ahsung Bio.
After that, he became vice chairman to confront his younger brother, Cheon Jun-seok.
Anyway.
“They seemed to be trying to counter our EV-Nova.”
A search revealed that the reaction wasn’t actually that bad.
└The EV-Beta that Ahsung is releasing is pretty good?
└Yeah, the design is neat, and the battery performance is a bit weaker than ‘Nova,’ but it doesn’t seem bad.
└The best thing about it compared to Nova is that if you order it now, you can get it by the end of the year.
└The reputation of Ahsung as a manufacturer is well-deserved.
└If it had a turbocharger function, I would have ordered it right away.
└That’s a Dojin patent, so Ahsung can’t use it. If you want that, you’ll have to wait three years for the EV-Nova.
└Ugh, three years is just too long, no matter how you think about it.
“It seems like everyone saw it as an alternative to the late-releasing EV-Nova.”
“That’s true, but the atmosphere completely changed after the fire.”
└My mom…… she was there…… Is it okay for someone to die so vainly because of one car?
└From what I saw of the fire, there was no time to escape or anything.
└At that level, isn’t it a walking murder weapon?
└I heard there were quite a few kids among those injured and killed in the fire.
└What did those who died do to deserve that?
└Because of the trauma, I can’t ride Ahsung cars…… no, I can’t ride electric cars anymore.
└I’d rather drive an internal combustion engine car. It’s too scary to drive an electric car!
└Is the EV-Nova that Dojin Frontier is making really okay?
└Since it’s the same lithium-ion battery, it seems just as vulnerable to fire.
└Should I cancel my reservation?
└They say they’ll refund 100% of the deposit, so I think cancellation is the answer.
“So, that’s why you came to see me so urgently this morning?”
“Yes, since last night, there’s been a flood of reservation cancellation inquiries due to the fire.”
“What percentage of people are actually canceling?”
“Well…… it’s not at a high level yet. Since they can cancel and get a 100% refund until they receive the vehicle, it seems like everyone is just waiting to see what happens.”
Anyway, it was true that the perception of electric vehicles had turned negative.
‘This didn’t happen before the regression. Cheon Jun-young must have been in a hurry.’
“I’ll take care of this, so I’d appreciate it if you could check this first.”
“What is this……?”
He looked at the USB on the table with a questioning expression.
I replied with a smile.
“It’s something that will greatly amplify this issue.”
“What?”
I told the questioning Oh that he would know if he checked it, and sent him away.
And some time later, this time Seong-hwan came to see me.
“How’s your leg?”
I looked at the leg that had been injured in the kidnapping incident.
The cast was off, and there didn’t seem to be any major problems.
Seong-hwan said the same thing.
“The hospital said I don’t need to come anymore.”
“Don’t be so clumsy and get kidnapped again. Really, be careful!”
“Clumsy? I really couldn’t help it back then.”
Seong-hwan looked at me with a truly wronged expression.
“Anyway, is the transition committee work over?”
“It’s been over for a while.”
“Have you thought about it?”
It was about what I told Seong-hwan when he joined the transition committee.
[Feel the political atmosphere through the transition committee. You might have to get involved in the future.]
Seong-hwan exhaled softly and leaned back in his chair.
“I thought about it…… and honestly, it’s a bit scary.”
“What is?”
“It’s a completely different world. The National Assembly, the logic inside, the fights, the lining up, the deals…… I could really feel the ‘dark politics’ I’d only heard about with my whole body.”
I quietly listened to Seong-hwan’s words and spun the paper cup on the desk.
“So…… you’re not going to do it?”
Seong-hwan looked me straight in the eye.
“No, I’m going to try.”
“…….”
“Even if it’s scary, I think I have to try it. And…… being next to you, it doesn’t feel like we’re walking side by side, but like I’m always standing behind you.”
My eyebrows twitched slightly.
“So now you want to stand in front of me? If that’s what you want…….”
“No! That’s not it, I mean I want to stand next to you and be of help.”
I smiled and nodded.
“I think politics suits you better, too.”
“So, I was also offered a position to work with the Prime Minister’s Office.”
“Is that why you came to see me?”
“Yes, Prime Minister Lee Soo-hyuk asked me to take charge of the Office of Advanced Industry Policy.”
Prime Minister Lee Soo-hyuk was a close associate of President Baek Mu-jin and was known as a pragmatic risk-taker who, once his mind was made up, would push through any issue.
The fact that he personally asked Seong-hwan to take charge of the Office of Advanced Industry Policy
meant that he considered this EV-Beta incident to be of great importance.
“You mean Prime Minister Lee Soo-hyuk called you directly?”
“Not a call…… actually, I had an informal meeting with him earlier. He called me after reading the report I wrote during the transition committee.”
“What report?”
“Technical suggestions on the risk of electric vehicle fires. And the need for industrial reorganization related to next-generation batteries. Don’t you remember?”
“How could I forget? It’s the report I wrote to place Go Young-pil in the Office of Advanced Industry Policy Strategy.”
“Right. But it seems like Prime Minister Lee Soo-hyuk took notice of that report. He said that I’m the only one who can handle this situation now.”
It wasn’t a bad situation.
“So, what did you say?”
Seong-hwan hesitated for a moment, then said with a determined look.
“I accepted.”
I nodded at his answer.
It wasn’t just about accident investigations or fact-finding.
It was a position to plan the reorganization of the entire electric vehicle battery industry and even lead a future national-led industrial strategy.
Moreover, being directly under the Prime Minister’s Office, it had considerable influence.
“But that position won’t be easy. There will be a lot of political risk, and many attackers like Ahsung, so be prepared.”
“I know. That’s why I’m even more determined to do it. This time, I want to move properly under my own name.”
The guy must have had a lot of thoughts while working with me.
If he moved with that kind of determination, it wouldn’t be bad for me either.
“Actually, I was going to ask you to do something about the Ahsung Motors battery explosion, so this works out well.”
“You had something for me to do?”
“I was going to have Go Young-pil announce the government’s official stance on the differences between Ahsung’s batteries and ours. But there’s no need for that now, you can do it directly.”
Of course, I didn’t want to openly take sides either.
Just subtly highlighting Ahsung’s mistakes would be enough.
“The atmosphere in the electric vehicle market is bad because of the fire. If I do it the way you said, we can minimize our damage.”
It wasn’t just about minimizing damage, it was a great card to turn the situation around.
Adding what I asked Oh Seong-hak to do,
a very interesting situation was about to unfold.
＊＊＊
A week later.
Seong-hwan, now the head of the Office of Advanced Industry Policy, held an official briefing.
The purpose was to announce the results of the investigation into the EV-Beta battery fire incident.
“This EV-Beta fire accident was not a simple battery defect issue, but a serious technical flaw from the design stage. In particular, due to the inadequate design of the BMS (Battery Management System), cell temperature management was not properly conducted, leading to a short circuit inside the battery.”
Seong-hwan gestured, and data appeared on the screen.
“The more serious problem is that Ahsung Motors’ management rushed to pilot the EV-Beta without sufficient verification to compete with the EV-Nova. They skipped the planned testing and quality verification stages and recklessly distributed pilot units to civilians. This means that the management, focused on short-term results, made an irresponsible decision that seriously threatened public safety.”
There was a stir among the reporters.
Those watching in real-time on TV and the internet couldn’t contain their anger and flooded the bulletin boards with fierce criticism.
└I knew it from the moment Chairman Cheon Ho-tae went to prison.
└Only those who died in the fire are innocent.
└Dying in a fire is said to be the most painful. Those who made such decisions should die the same way.
└What kind of thinking leads to such decisions?
└But is the ‘Prime’ and ‘Nova’ that Dojin is making really okay?
“Based on the investigation by our Office of Advanced Industry Policy, this battery issue is not a problem with the entire electric vehicle market, but an issue stemming from the management risk and lack of technological capabilities of a specific manufacturer.”
A hand went up among the attending reporters.
“If it’s a problem with a specific manufacturer, does that mean the Prime and Nova, which Dojin Frontier plans to release, are fine?”
Jo Seong-hwan answered without hesitation.
“Yes.”
“Do you have evidence?”
Seong-hwan gestured, and
a new slide appeared on the screen.
Data on the structure and core safety technologies of the next-generation battery system that Dojin Frontier plans to use in Prime and Nova.
“For security reasons, I can’t tell you everything, but the Prime and EV-Nova models use a multi-stack integrated BMS, active thermal cutoff cell blocks, and LFP-HyMix™ secondary battery cells.”
The reporters stopped writing and looked up.
They were unfamiliar terms.
“Can you explain it more simply?”
Seong-hwan continued his explanation in response to the reporter’s question.
“Simply put, Dojin’s batteries are designed so that even if one cell has a problem, the other cells are separated into independent structures to prevent thermal runaway, and there’s a dual system of heat-sensitive materials and fuse systems that automatically cut off when overheating is detected.”
Seong-hwan pointed to the screen.
A structure where each cell has an independent cooling channel.
The operation method of the thermal cutoff block.
And a diagram showing the immediate insulation system that cuts off the entire power supply in case of an accident.
“Director Jo Seong-hwan, aren’t you giving a biased opinion because you’re from Dojin?”
Seong-hwan looked at the reporter who threw the direct question.
“Who are you, and where are you from?”
“Jung Soo-chan from Central Media.”
At the mention of Central Media, a wrinkle momentarily appeared and disappeared from Seong-hwan’s forehead.
It was a pro-Ahsung media outlet famous for writing malicious articles about Dojin.
Seong-hwan spoke firmly to him.
“In a moment, you’ll know that what I’m saying is not a lie.”
“What do you mean?”
As Jung Soo-chan tried to latch onto his words,
a voice was heard from one side of the reporters.
“Huh? Something just came up on CEO Kang Tae-joon’s feed?”