There's a
poll open for bricked Konas. So far only two out of five were charged to 100%.
That said, the question isn't whether Konas are able to charge to 100% without bricking, because most are. The question is, what distinguishes the small number of Konas that are being bricked?
You are on the right track with your poll.
I would like to throw something "against the wall" here and see if it sticks.
It appears that the 2021 bricking issue is not something that is caused by a single event. All indications regarding LG pouch issues in general seem to revolve around the fact that the pouches are kind pliable, may or may not have issues with anodes/insulation and seperators. These are linked to QA issues in manufacturing that were missed due to some assembly line errors that weren't caused. I wish there was a battery expert in the room, but it seems as though charging cycles (from low to high) create heat, expansion in the packs at the cell level (in a confined space). If there happens to be a cell in the mix that already has manufacturing issues...this leads to some sort of rubbing or cutting that could result in low resistance between the anode and cathode? If the resistance is low enough we call this a short.
So..rather than looking for a single incidence that precipitates the bricking event, perhaps it is cumulative degradation. Ie...it happens over time. I know that in my case, I charged several times to 100% prior to the wife's road trips to maximize range (all at level 2). The final bricking did happen when she returned and the car was charged to 100% (I forgot to set it back to 80%).
This is supported by guidance from Hyundai to charge to 80%. Not necessarily because the issue happens at 100%, but perhaps because repeated cycles increases the degradation IF you have a cell with a defect. Add on top of this the unknown about level3 charging. This is likely has something that increases the cumulative effect because it happens (most likely) when an owner is low on charge and needs to come up to a relatively high charge to continue on their journey. It happens within the timeframe of minutes. Alot of energy is dumped into the pack in a short period of time, the pack reacts by heating up, expanding in a very short period of time, then the owner hits the road and knocks it back down to a low charge. Nothing that should be unexpected by a manufacturer, but if you have a defective cell, this will likely have a cumulative effect on the battery very quickly.
The other confusing part here (once again, I wish there was a battery expert in the room) is that over time as HL GreenPower assembled these batteries, changes were made, insulation was added, BMS (the actual module) was changed, BMS software was changed, were the cells changed from E63 to E66A. Lots of variables were changed meaning that all of our batteries aren't "exactly" the same.
Some owners with early Konas (perhaps an older BMS that can't detect issues?) are told to reduce charge and wait for a new battery.
Some owners with early konas (but with a new BMS that can detect issues?) are told to upgrade the software that enhances detecting issues before they start.
Some owners with 2021s (like me) likely have the new BMS that can detect an issue and came preloaded with the software to brick the vehicle if it detects a problem.
Bottom line is that fires only happened in a few Konas that had the unfortunate cell defects (not all cells have the defects). It is reasonable to assume that the updated batterys with improved BMS and software would still only affect a small number of vehicles that may have cell defects.
Remember, a battery pack is made of 3 cells in parallel and 98 of these in series to develop the voltage. You need one bad cell to ruin this for the owner and that one bad cell might be rare in the production process but still happens enough to have more than a handful of 2021 owners with bricked vehicles waiting for new packs.
