I'm not the original author of this but wanted to help spread it. It appears that as of now Norway, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and possibly the UK have pre-conditioning updates available for 2022 models, many of them free. Hyundai Canada is saying we won't get it because of 'technical limitations' when we have the same cars as those countries and we all have battery heaters included. In the US the battery heater is only in the AWD which makes it the only country where it would make any sense whatsoever to not issue the update and I think they should still do it there based on VIN or as a paid request etc.
Wanted to put a call out for all Canadian owners of the 2022 Ioniq that care about the lack of the battery pre-conditioning update coming to Canada to start making noise by emailing Hyundai and their dealerships or even EV news/youtube places in the attempt to highlight to Hyundai how much of an issue this is.
In an attempt to explain why this is a problem I created the below FAQ. If you read this and feel inclined I ask that you get involved with escalating the complaints so they hopefully we will eventually be heard.
I believe all of the below is generally correct, at least in a general basis - please don't spend energy pointing out small typo's or incorrection's when that energy can go towards complaining to Hyundai instead
View attachment 18371
What is battery pre-conditioning?
Battery pre-conditioning is a feature that almost all modern EV's have to warm the battery so that its ready to fast-charge. Without warming, in colder months (think below 20 degrees celsius) the car will take much longer to charge - typically at least twice to three times longer.
Typically conditioning is enabled through the Nav system, such that when you navigate to a EV fast charger the car will automatically start warming the battery before you get there so thats its prepped and ready to charge as fast as possible
Why do I care?
Without it the time to fast charge in winter will take 2-3 times as long, and cost 2-3 times as much! (in Canada we get charged per minute not per kwh).
We dont have many fast chargers in Canada, the slower we charge the longer the queues and the worse it is for everyone. The 18 minute 10-90% charging times of our cars was a highly publicized and is a highly sort after feature. Being not able to use it for 4-5 months (or more!) of the year frankly sucks
Don't we already have this?
You have the hardware but not the software. All Canadian car's come with a battery heater but no mechanism to turn it on in advance of getting to a charger. It will turn on when you start to fast charge but it's basically too late by then to make any difference in charging times.
You also have something called "winter mode" but this has been proven to do basically nothing to help DC fast charging
Sure, but why would Hyundai develop this for us?
Actually they already have. The hard work is done, the feature is already developed. 2023 models are getting it as default and in Europe (Norway etc) the software update is already being offered to upgrade 2022 cars.
So why is Hyundai Canada not rolling it out then?
Good question, in the US this seems to be a cost decision as it may take an hour to update the software and dealers apparently do not want to support their customers! The response from Hyundai Canada that i received is:
"due to technical limitations, the 2022 IONIQ 5 models will not be able to receive the update to enable battery preconditioning"
With zero details on what the technical limitation is - I have asked and will update this if I ever hear back but it seems pretty clear that their are no hardware limitations to allow this feature to be rolled out given their is no difference between European cars and Canadian ones. Therefore it must be similar to the US in that dealers or Hyundai themselves simply are unwilling to do so.
How can I help?
Make a fuss! start complaining, sending emails etc. Even if you all spend 15-20 minutes of your time crafting a email it will be our best shot of showing Hyundai that this is unfair to its customer base.
Hyundai launched the Ioniq 5 as one of the first cars behind their "Ioniq" EV brand - they need to support their customers and show that they are willing to add features of importance to its EV's across all countries they sell them in.
Suggestions of places to complain to
- Hyundai Canada directly - here Help Centre | Hyundai Canada
- Your local dealership and/or dealership contact, where you paid for the car.
- Relevant EV news outlets.
- Anything else you can think of!
New here. How and where do I sign?
