Battery Recall for Canadian Kona Owners

Don't know which dealer you go to but I went to mine this morning (West Island Gabriel) for my yearly inspection. I'm not affected by the battery recall since I have a 2021.

But I saw 2 battery packs right at the entrance of the garage (wrapped/in a huge box)

I can see why not only the battery cost itself, just the size of the transport! makes this recall astronomical $$$

 

This is actually good news - keep us posted.

 

Mine is a 2021 model also, bough it in August, 2020. The car stopped charging at 50%. I had my battery replaced in January. I learnend that the process is quite an undertaking. On top of the battery, it requires a special hydraulic jack, some special tools and the replacement of a bunch of 'one time use' bolts holding the battery in place. The components needed was shipped/arrived individually. Waited weeks for the darn bolts!

 

That's where I go... I have the 2020 for just over a year now. I doubt one of those batteries are mine as I only called them last Friday to make my appointment for the inspection.

 

I was never asked to come in for that. I even called them 2 times over the past 6 months and asked about the battery but they never said to come in.

I only found out I had to go in when I got my letter last week.

 

Weird. You should have received a BMS recall notice last fall and then the battery recall notice (the 80% reduction) in early March. Did you buy used? Do they not have your contact information?

 

I went in last fall for the initial 80 or 90% letter... I was told it was ok and that I could resume charging to 100% if I wanted to... I didn't need to though and kept it at 80%.

Then I recieved the letter in winter/spring saying to go to 80% and that I would be contacted again when a solution is found. I only got that letter a week ago which asked me to make an appointment for an inspection. The link printed on the letter brought me to the notice about $250 for doing the inspection and making sure I'm at 80%.

The car was the "demo" 2020 on the lot and it had about 500km on it when I bought it last July.

 

Thanks. So this "inspection" is just for the dealer to document the 80% reduction then.
I think that some people who took a "do it yourself" approach to the 80% reduction procedure have been getting secondary letters (apparently based on a lack of documentation from the dealers). I also think Hyundai's been doing a bit of data cross checking using Bluelink information.

 

I think it's to check for the 80% as well as to either physically see something on the battery or do something with the software.

 

I am here to report that my battery was changed today by my dealer (Chomedey Hyundai in Laval, QC). I brought in the car as scheduled this morning and got it back at 5 pm. It's really happening, guys. The battery is brand new. Not only does it look new, but I also took a picture of the battery label before and after: the date on it changed from 2019/07/17 to 2021/04/07.

My max charge % went back to 100% on its own (I assume a tech changed it, I suppose it's part of the procedure). My only gripe is that it took all day instead of the announced 4 hours... but I guess that's just grasping at straws by now. I'm charging it up to 100%, we'll see what the 100% range is now.

I also got a screenshot of some parameters before and after with Car Scanner. The cumulative energy charged and discharged have been reset. The overall voltages are slightly higher, but that's likely due to the SoC being 10% higher than the old battery. The Auxiliary Battery SoC now says 255% instead of 86% and the Auxiliary battery voltage dropped from 14.6V to 13.3V. Should I be worried?

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Congrats! My first thought was, isn't it a holiday in Quebec today? But seriously, I'd still love to know what sort of system Hyundai is using to choose who gets a battery and when. I think it's a vain wish.

 

Nope, no holiday for us today. My "Canada holidays" calendar is seriously filled with various holidays for all the other provinces. We got shafted on that one...

 

Alright, 453 km range at 100% charge. Feels good to see such a high value after many months!

Other remarks after the battery swap (feels like most of these can be explained by a software upgrade) :
- There is the 255% aux battery SoC I mentioned before, and the reset cumulative values.
- The max charge % was set to 100%, but my charging schedule is intact. Annoyingly, I still got the 80% alert in the blue link app a few times, but mercifully, the max charge % remains set to 100%.
- Every time I turn on the car, the Regen level is set to 2. I manually set it to 1, but it always comes back to 2 on every subsequent start. I then found the setting for that in the infotainment system, in the drive mode configuration. Maybe I had changed the default value for eco mode when I got the car, but I didn't remember doing that.
- My climate control was set to 22 degrees celcius (I had it set to 23). This feels like a random unrelated change, maybe a tech changed it?
- I can't for the life of me find the "Aux battery saver +" option in the dash.

 

The Aux battery option was eliminated in the Fall 2020 BMS update. It appears that BMS software remains active going forward.
*Its more frequent battery checks really do seem to be working to prevent frequent dead battery complaints.

 

I got the recall letter last week about the battery inspection to determine "if" a new battery is required. I called the dealer and they said that I didn't need to come in and that my car had already been identified as requiring replacement and my battery is on order. They estimated 6-8 months wait as my dealer has 88 cars in the queue and they are prioritizing by build date (Sept 2019). So my battery is on order and I am happy that replacement is in the works. Not so happy about the wait, but I don't think my dealer really knows when batteries will show up. We are still waiting for the $250 and the time has now passed for when we were told to expect that - we did do the dealer visit for the 80% charge limit in March.

 

Checked with Transport Canada today and sadly not much to update. Hyundai is promising a letter "soon" and an update on their recall webpage at R0183info.ca. They maintain that they are constrained by supply and that owners will be notified when parts are available. So zero change really.

 

My kona is a 12/27/2018 and I still have no news from dealer or hyundai canada. They don't reply to my emails, so sick of this company. Never got the $250. Love the car, but the company is a big zero. Once the recall done, I'm selling it and never going back with hyundai even if I love the kona.

 

Man, do I hear ya.