Mercedes EV Turns Korean Underground Car Park into a BBQ pit

Picture this: you’ve just finished a long day at work, battled through Seoul’s traffic, and finally, finally parked your shiny new Mercedes EQ in the underground car park. You’re feeling smug. You’ve done your bit for the planet: no emissions, no guilt, and a badge on the bonnet that still screams, I’ve made it.

And then… it catches fire. Turning your peaceful residential parking lot into something resembling a Korean BBQ pit.

Yes, the car that was supposed to save the Earth just tried to burn it down. Oh, the irony.

This fiery fiasco unfolded recently in South Korea, where a Mercedes electric vehicle decided it had had enough of being a car and fancied a new career as a barbecue accessory. The result? Not a single piece of bulgogi in sight just an entire apartment block evacuated, residents in pyjamas fleeing for their lives, and one very sheepish Mercedes owner watching their luxury ride melt into a cautionary tale.

Electric vehicle fires, of course, are nothing new. Once they start, they’re like a bad marriage: impossible to put out and full of smoke. Firefighters often need enough water to fill an Olympic pool just to stop the thing from reigniting like a demonic birthday candle.

Mercedes, naturally, will say it’s “investigating the cause.” Translation: they’ve hired a man in a lab coat to frown at a molten battery pack and eventually blame something else.

But let’s be honest, EVs are starting to feel less like the future of motoring and more like a high-voltage lottery. You plug it in, go to bed, and hope you don’t wake up to find your building starring on the morning news.

Just look at the net-zero zealots in the UK, electricity prices there are currently (pun intended) among the highest in the developed world. Even here in Malaysia, EV subsidies are quietly being rolled back, and starting next year, owners will begin paying tax like everyone else.

Still, at least it was a Mercedes. If it had been a Tesla, Elon Musk would’ve tweeted something like, “This is actually a feature a self-heating parking experience.”

The irony is glorious. For decades, petrol cars were accused of polluting the air. Now, EVs are doing their part by heating it.

So yes, the electric future is here. It’s fast, it’s quiet, and occasionally, it explodes in your basement. But don’t worry. You’re still saving the planet, one inferno at a time.