Australian Kona EV owners + battery replacement

Could it be Konas made at the Czech Republic plant?

 

Czech Konas supposedly have SK batteries.
Some non Czech Konas also received them before march last year. And some received also non problematic LG cells before that date.

 

When I owned a couple of Honda's in the 1990's, paper mats and covers were a normal part of servicing.
But in 1998, across-the-board parallel importing changed the landscape, franchise holders had to start justifying all their charges, and owners started rejecting anything unnecessary, such as $90 climate air filters, when they could source alternatives at lower prices. Aussie consumers, in contrast, have had years of parallel imports being slowly dripfed into their market with strong resistance from business interests arguing for protection of local manufacturing.

Kiwis, who are also big DIY'ers, will pay for quality maintenance, but know that every extra including service, is a cost passed on to the customer..

 

Two years back I understood that RHD vehicles were only made in S.Korea, but it's certainly plausible that SKI cells could have been a part of that.

 

I'd like to think that Karens and deliberate avoidance of objective truth at such scale is a uniquely
American phenomenon. But that doesn't let off Hyundai's behavior in this whole situation.

_H*

 

Same factory. The March 2020 date that everyone refers to is simply a date that Hyunday/LG recognized an issue with the anodes and added more insulation.
Recalls are designed for "safety reasons". Hyundai seems to have declared they "solved" the issue in March. Hence no more recalls after this date.
In april of 2020 Hyunday also added extra checks in the BMS system. Basically to disable the vehicle when an issue is discovered rather than start a fire. This disabled vehicle is not a recall issue, just a severe inconvience to the owner who has to wait for a battery. Problem solved!

 

Good news. Would you mind taking posting a photo of your "old battery" and "new battery" labels so that I can see the P/Ns and BMS ROM ID's build dates? Also your model year and trim level?

Thanks in advance

 

I've just received a letter from Hyundai NZ regarding the recall 11D043. I'm assuming this is the formal notice since the two previous notices regarding this issue were by email.
It was unusually detailed, saying there are 531 affected vehicles in the country (including mine) and that 86 have already had "new batteries fitted." It indicates that supply is limited to a monthly allocation and that I'll be contacted when they are ready, for an "inspection and replacement if necessary." They reiterated the "recommended" 90% charge limit until the fix is applied, and of course what to do if a warning light appears.

The 90% really doesn't affect me much, rather just the slight worry of a fire. The defect is certainly not the fault of the importer, nor even Hyundai SK. I'm amazed though that 86 were replaced already without anyone saying a word on our NZ FB group.

 

That's good to hear KiwiME. Quite likely some of the 86 already replaced have been bricked ones like mine was. Anyway soon you'll have a car with a new lease of (long) life.

 

Re @KiwiME's Hyundai NZ communication, the associated FAQs clarify that replacement will occur only if cell cathode tabs did NOT receive an isolation coating, determined from code matching with an international battery manufacture database.
Otherwise the remedy will be a BMS update only...

 

nervous. took my 2020 electric kona for the battery replacement assessment and they will not be replacing my batteries. I moaned about it to them and asked them if there is any way to appeal the assessment and they said no. I then called corporate and they said they are not accepting appeals either. I guess I'm not that concerned about a fire, but after all the inconvenience of the previous year of multiple software updates, being forced to park outside of the garage for a year, and charge only to 90%... I guess I am underwhelmed. the battery replacement was sort of my idea of a fresh start.

 

I hope I didn't miss this in a previous post but, what is HMC doing for the warranty on the new batteries for you folks?

 

It hasn't been specifically addressed by the importer but I'd expect them to only carry on with the battery warranty already in place, 10 years and unlimited distance on the early units such as my own.

I just noticed they have a general FAQ at this link.

 

From that FAQ:

"The battery self-diagnosis starts when the vehicle is on AC or DC charging. The Battery Management System will momentarily stop charging the battery and carry out battery self-diagnosis – if no early electrical definancey is detected charging will automatically resume.

- When the State of Charge (SoC) is less than 75%, the battery will stop charging and carry out a battery self-diagnosis at the point of 80% (SoC). If no issues are detected, charging will automatically resume. (battery self-diagnosis time approx. 15-20mins)
- When the State of Charge (SoC) is less than 85%, the battery will stop charging and carry out a battery self-diagnosis at the point of 90% (SoC). If no issues are detected, charging will automatically resume. (battery self-diagnosis time approx. 15-20mins)"
​

so... that's going to add 15-20 minutes to every charging session?

While overnight that may not be a big deal, there may be times when that gets.... inconvenient.

 

I'm being told the same here for the warranty, it just carries on. I thought I read somewhere that the warranty was being renewed but I can't find where that was.
The FAQ pretty much mirrors ours, thanks for the link.

 

Certainly if you're charging to over 80% on a fast charger. Most here have a time-based charge that will not care that charging has paused. That will add $3.75 to $5.00 for receiving nothing.

My only concern is that they are still checking for defects are supposed to have been corrected.

I recall that as well but I'm not too worried.