South Korea’s government and ruling party have agreed to move up a certification program for electric vehicle batteries, the party said Sunday, as authorities seek to ease public safety after a series of fires involving electric cars.

The government will start the battery certification system in October, earlier than planned, to ensure the safety of electric car batteries, People Power Party spokesman Han Zeea told reporters. The government also agreed to require automakers operating in the country to identify batteries used in their electric vehicles.

The agreement on tougher electric car safety rules follows the government’s move to urge carmakers to voluntarily disclose the information after an electric car fire on August 1 that damaged hundreds of vehicles and sparked public panic.

The fire, which appeared to start spontaneously in a Mercedes-Benz EV with Farasis Energy batteries, took eight hours to extinguish, destroying or damaging about 140 cars and forcing some residents of the apartments above to move to shelters.

In recent days, some car companies have voluntarily begun to name the manufacturers of batteries they use.

South Korean battery makers had no reason to object to specifying where their power sources were used, although the public should not assume batteries were always to blame for electric car fires, industry sources told Reuters earlier.

Experts say making car companies identify batteries would give consumers more choice, but some question how it would improve safety given the lack of definitive data on which battery brands are more likely to catch fire.

As part of enhanced safety measures, the government will revise fire equipment regulations to install wet pipe sprinkler systems in underground parking lots with electric car charging stations and expand chargers that prevent overcharging, said Han, the party spokesman.

Electric vehicles don’t seem to be catching fire as much as the latest headlines suggest. Electric cars are less of a fire hazard than conventional cars, some data showed.

But auto experts say EV fires burn differently than those in internal combustion engine cars, often lasting longer and harder to put out because they tend to re-ignite.