Battery Recall for Canadian Kona Owners

Have you taken it in for the stress test? That step (and my battery failure) is what got mine ordered, and then later scheduled.

 

Oh ya. It's all been done. Ages ago. Hyundai's own self-imposed March '22 deadline is looming. And I believe we are literally at the one year anniversary of the recall too.

 

Did your invoice for that step say specifically?
Inspected BSA: Failed
Require: BSA
After this my battery was ordered.

 

Yes. Everything is done.

 

Well, I would ensure and get confirmed that the dealer did indeed order the battery. This is not initiated from Corporate. It has to be done by the dealer.

 

I appreciate what you are saying but it has all been done. Count yourself lucky to have gotten a battery because that's all it was ...luck.

 

Would be interested to hear how many others are still waiting. Haven't talked to my dealer about this for a while. But late last fall, he said they were replacing a lot of batteries.

 

Mine was kind of the opposite of your experience. It was the dealer that kept prompting me to come in for the recall services. I delayed many of them for as long as I could, as I was actually not in a rush to get my battery replaced. And then when it was scheduled and arrived, I briefly thought of delaying that. But I decided I didn't want to piss off my dealer, who seemed to be doing everything to look after me, and so went through with it.

 

Car been sitting at dealer since mid September, latest news is MAYBE march!! Generally very poor communication with this sorry affair.

 

I think the west coast definitely benefitted by being closest to Korea and the seaports. I also think that those proximate to Hyundai headquarters in Ontario have done better.

 

At least I've been able to continue to drive mine.

 

There were two that had arrived at my dealer just as I was leaving a couple weeks ago. They said they still had a bunch to go.

 

Many in the west still need to get it done. I think it depends on the dealer and the amount of room they have to store these big batteries. My dealer said they barely had room for the 2 they got.

 

My garage says that they have done none since before I visited in November. They've stalled completely. That March deadline is looking less likely all the time.
And I haven't recieved my $850 yet either despite weeks/months having passed.

 

Maybe with shipping constraints this was the first shipment of batteries, which will trickle to Ontario shortly? I'd like to see us get more as anyone who is having to wait longer should be compensated accordingly, not the same as someone who got a new battery 3 months ago.

 

Well, for those that don't have it yet, and are driving, the longer it takes to get the new battery, means that your car will effectively be a newer car when it finally gets done. Remember, the battery is the most expensive single component of the car, and other parts of an EV (brakes, etc) get much less wear than an ICE vehicle. So with a new battery, your odometer is effectively set back to zero. That's why I was hoping and trying to delay mine as long as possible.

So there is a glass half full way of looking at it, too.

 

We definitely see that way, don't get us wrong. Sometimes our good friend gets thirsty and needs to drink from the cup, until someone refills it of course .

However when safety is concerned, and the fact that Wildeyed got one of the first Kona EVs, you'd think that he's entitled to some arguements.

 

Note for when the battery is replaced, make sure the dealership submits the documentation related to the bulletin (#21-25) about the $850 (mentioned by Wildeyed here) . I just checked with Hyundai Canada today and they didn't get anything about it from my dealership. You'd think they'd tie the recall replacement of the battery along with the $850 and not have the extra step. I'm sure I'll eventually get it just like how the $250 took a while.

My dealership mentioned they were only allowed to have one new battery at a time. Once they swapped it, then a new one would come for the next car and they'd take the old one at the same time. They also said they had no notification of it coming. It just arrived one morning and I got a call just after about getting it replaced the same day.

My timeline was the following:
May 2021 - Recall lowering charging to 80%
Mid-Oct 2021 - Battery check failed (11D043)
Early Dec 2021 - Battery Replaced

 

I'm honestly not that upset that the car has this problem and was taken away from us, thereby reducing my effective warranty, Bluelink, XM radio, resale etc.... it's the lack of empathy and knowledge by the dealership. I work with mechanical things and understand they sometimes fail, it is how we deal with said failures that makes things tolerable for those affected.
I discussed the situation with a lawyer friend and they said that in all likelihood the pandemic defence will prevail due to the disruption in supply lines.

 

But unlike GM, Hyundai is still producing EVs while we wait for batteries. Our batteries (or the production capacity)
is/are being used elsewhere. Every EV6 and Ionic 5 and 2022 Kona EV is using batteries that could have been redirected to the recall. Those vehicles are being delivered despite the supply chain. I also suspect that GM has strong-armed LG to the detriment of Hyundai and those batteries are also going elsewhere. Let's not forget, this battery issue is more than 18 months old and the recall is celebrating its 1 year anniversary. That's a lot of time for supply to be allocated and shipped.