South Korea’s National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee summoned the heads of Tesla Korea and BYD Korea’s South Korean operations as witnesses at a parliamentary audit of the Korea Expressway Corporation and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority on October 8. Lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties plan to intensively question the lack of domestic safety verification for Tesla’s FSD (Full Self-Driving) driver assistance system and the shortage of maintenance infrastructure for imported electric vehicles.
The witnesses appearing are Seo Young-deuk, CEO of Tesla Korea, and Cho In-chul, head of BYD Korea’s passenger vehicle division. The two companies are major imported EV players in South Korea, holding a combined 39.1% share of the domestic imported car market from January through September this year—Tesla at 31.9% and BYD at 7.2%.
The first issue lawmakers from both parties are raising is the absence of a domestic verification framework for FSD. According to data obtained by People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jung-jae from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 5,898 vehicles in South Korea currently use FSD, but the ministry has conducted no separate safety testing. Two cases of vehicles being brought to service centers following accidents while FSD was engaged have been recorded.
“A minimum verification framework must be established to confirm safety in South Korean road conditions,” Kim said.
The adequacy of prior notice regarding FSD feature restrictions is also expected to emerge as a point of contention. Based on analysis by the Kaizuyu Data Research Institute, of the 229,311 Tesla vehicles operating in South Korea as of August, only 47,458 units (20.7%) were FSD-capable. For the Model Y, Tesla’s flagship model, the FSD-capable ratio drops to 9.6%. Whether to enable the feature on FSD-unsupported vehicles may also be raised during questioning.
Maintenance infrastructure and after-sales service systems are also key subjects of scrutiny. According to data submitted to the ministry and obtained by Democratic Party lawmaker Chung Il-young, Tesla operates 18 direct service centers nationwide, with average full-time staffing of approximately 17 people per center. That is roughly one-seventh of Hyundai Motor’s average of 114.9 staff per center.
“There is a risk that consumers will be pushed into becoming so-called ‘repair refugees,’ waiting indefinitely for repairs,” Chung said.
BYD’s service network also came under fire. BYD operates 21 service centers nationwide, including a Yongin center that opened this month, primarily through partner service centers. Of these, only five locations are reportedly capable of collision repair work such as body panel and paint work.
BYD vehicles’ insurance loss ratios and repair durations also significantly exceeded the imported EV average. According to data obtained by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sang-hyuk from the Korea Insurance Development Institute, the average property damage loss ratio for four BYD passenger vehicle models in the first half of this year was 168%, exceeding the imported EV average of 103%. Average repair duration was also 9.8 days, longer than the 5.3 days for South Korean-made EVs.
BYD Korea stated: “We will cooperate faithfully with the National Assembly’s requests, comply with domestic regulations and standards, and take a responsible approach to meet customer expectations.”
On the previous day, October 7, a controversy over Tesla Korea’s alleged avoidance of temporary license plate issuance was also raised at the committee’s audit. Democratic Party lawmaker Mo Kyung-jong pointed out that Tesla has been telling consumers that “temporary license plates are not possible due to system limitations.”
Temporary license plates are a consumer protection mechanism that allows buyers to inspect vehicles for defects before ownership transfer and refuse acceptance if defects are found. According to Mo, excluding South Korean-made vehicles—which are all required to have temporary plates—approximately 330,000 imported vehicles were registered last year without temporary license plates.
Tesla Korea was identified as the biggest problem. While general imported car brands have dealer networks that allow accountability to be assigned when defects occur, Tesla operates a direct-sales structure through “advisors” without dealers, making the responsible party for sales unclear. As a result, proper consumer response is reportedly not occurring even when defects arise.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as the competent authority, also faced criticism over its oversight. The ministry stated that due to limitations in its registration system, it cannot separately extract statistics on temporary license plates by manufacturer and vehicle model. In response, Mo requested the committee chair to order the submission of data on temporary operation permits by manufacturer over the past five years to clearly identify the extent of consumer harm.
This parliamentary audit is expected to serve as a comprehensive review of the consumer protection frameworks of Tesla and BYD, the two companies leading South Korea’s imported EV market. Lawmakers from both parties are likely to speak with one voice in demanding institutional improvements across three key issues: FSD verification gaps, insufficient maintenance infrastructure, and temporary license plate issuance avoidance.