Exploding Kona Electric

Notice that past a certain miles (22,500, 36,000 km) they assume your battery is OK. Less than that and it must pass a insulation test. Fail that and you get a new traction battery.
I'd guess that many owners have less miles than that, I'm still at 14,000 km.

 

I'm in California and just checked the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's auto recall site and my 2020 Kona's VIN came back as negative for a recall.

 

Are there reports of Bolt, or other EV battery fires? Just curious if the occasional failure is endemic to the EV industry.

 

Not sure of Bolts.....but Teslas, definitely. I watched a few videos that showed Teslas spontaneously combust while sitting in a parking garage....taking nearby cars with it.

There are 6-7 reported cases so far of Kona EVs exploding, worldwide. But considering the thousands of Kona EVs that are sold worldwide....it is a very, very low probability that your Kona EV will explode. In fact, you are more likely to get a clunking noise problem as opposed to explosion.

 

Yes, most EV and PHEV's manufactures have had fires including Tesla, Hyundai, BMW, Chevrolet, Dodge, Nissan, VW, Porsche and the list goes on. Here is a link to Wikipedia on the topic of EV fires.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicle_fire_incidents.

In each case it is a very small number of the total number of vehicles built so it does not to appear to be any more of a problem than fires in ICE powered vehicles. A concern yes but probably not a cause for alarm.

 

Your car is not exempt. Per the Korean TSB, all Konas manufactured between September 29, 2017 and February 13, 2020 qualify for this BMS update. May need to wait for your dealer to get the memo.

 

Looking at the Canadian and Korean fires, it seems that the cars just burned, not exploded. Sure, the HV pack has a string of mini explosions as each cell ignites, but after the initial pop, they just burn. The enormity of the explosion in the case of the Canadian event is perplexing.

 

So it was you all along...??

 

Damn. One of the reasons I picked the Kona was that they were using stuff that was similar to the Bolt. "They've been making those for several years and they seem fine" I said.
The Bolt pack is a totally different shape than the Kona pack... but that may be arrangement of submodules rather than cells.

 

Interestingly (according to the EV media) the Renault Zoe 41kWh EV uses the same E63 cell that is in affected Konas but I've personally never heard of an issue.
This is a very common EV in many countries outside N.A. Maybe there's some truth to Hyundai's BMS fast charging regime that LGES claim is partly the problem? The Zoe 41kWh is limited to 43kW AC-only, because of the lack of a DC port.
From the Wiki page:

• Second generation battery:
  • Thermals: air cooled
  • Total weight: 305 kg
  • Total capacity: 45.61 kWh (estimation by knowing the usable capacity)
  • Available capacity: 41 kWh
  • Cells: 192 cells, each with 63.35 Ah nominal capacity (estimation) and 3.75 V nominal voltage
  • Total cell weight: 180.12 kg (estimation by knowing the total battery weight)
  • Charging: type 2 (22 kW AC with 3-phase), and 43 kW 3-phase for Q90 variant