BMW opens brand's 1st charging hub lounge in Korea

BMW Group opened its newest charging station named BMW Charging Hub Lounge in central Seoul on Thursday, continuing to build upon the German automaker’s commitment to Korea’s electric vehicle transformation.

According to BMW Group Korea, Seoul’s new charging facility has six 200 kilowatt-hour chargers and an indoor lounge including a cafe. The chargers will be open for other brands’ EVs as BMW aims to offer all EV drivers comfort and an opportunity to check out its newest and limited edition models on display in the lounge.

“This place was a gas station for a long time,” said Kim Nam-kyun, charging experience manager at BMW Group Korea, during the opening ceremony. “It has now been transformed into an electric area that opens the new era of energy and the BMW Charging Hub Lounge is at the center of it. The BMW Charging Hub Lounge, opening near Seoul Station, a major traffic point, is BMW Group’s first integrated brand facility in the world."

Amid heightened vigilance against EV fires in the wake of a recent series of incidents, the German automaker pointed out that the new charging station has been equipped with four levels of fire safety measures to prevent any damage or loss in contingency.

The charging facility has three layers of sprinklers from the ceiling and a real-time monitoring system of thermal closed-circuit television or CCTV to respond promptly to a fire. The site also includes fire extinguishers specifically developed to put out fires from lithium-ion batteries used in EVs.

“By the end of this year, we plan to install an underbody cooling fire extinguisher here, a first for any charging stations in the country,” said Kim.

“As the battery is equipped on the bottom of an EV, we expect the underbody cooling fire extinguisher to better respond to (contingencies).”

The BMW Charging Hub Lounge operates in cooperation with two Korean conglomerates -- GS Group and LG Group. GS ChargEV will handle overall charging services while Parnas Hotel, which decided to spin off from GS Retail in June this year, will take care of the lounge services. The six chargers installed at BMW’s new charging site, developed by LG Electronics, will provide Plug & Charge, or PnC, service. This will automatically recognize an EV’s information once it is connected to the charging cable allowing for a one-step certification and payment process.

The BMW Charging Hub Lounge is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays while the chargers will be accessible at all times.

BMW Group Korea has been expanding its domestic EV charging infrastructure. The German auto brand has set up 1,600 chargers as of September and plans to install 500 more chargers by the end of this year.