Ioniq5 Blues

Hey guys, I am making this post to tell the story of my experience with my 2023 ionic five all-wheel-drive that I purchased in October 2022.

I was very excited to get this award winning car. I paid full price without any rebates and initially anyway I was not disappointed

My Ioniq was purchased as a primary family car and mostly with my wife’s ride

We installed a level two charger in our garage I was looking forward two our electric car future.

Things started off just fine as we were getting to learn how to operate the car and enjoying our gas free experience

Unfortunately, however, 370 miles in, we experienced our first dead 12 V battery.

I jump started the car and took it to the dealer and was told that it was working perfectly and our dead battery was probably a one off experience

I took the car home, hoping that the dealer was right but I have to admit I was a bit Perplexed

Things went fine for the next almost 3000 miles when I want to start the car in the morning and the 12 volt was dead again. Made an appointment with the dealer for the next day and had to jump start The car so I could drive it down there

I was told that the battery was good, and that no further action would be taken at this time. At this point, I purchased a portable battery and started keeping it in the car. And yes I have needed it.

Less than a month later, the 12 V was was dead again and off to the dealer I want where are my car was out of service for two weeks and I told that there was a draw on the battery and the fuse was changed and also I was advised to change my blue link password as allegedly third parties were hacking into the blue link system causing battery drain

I signed out of blue link and remain signed out.

At this point when I put my car on the level two charger, The car would stop the charge after proximately 45 minutes due to a heat buildup. Once I let the system, cool down, I could continue the charge basically for an hour at the time

I researched the problem myself and found that there was a technical service bulletin about this problem and Hyundai had a software update to deal with it. I printed out the TSB #3 and took it to the dealer who told me my car was not eligible for this update I said fine so fix it a couple days later I received a phone call thing well lo and behold my car was eligible for this update and would receive it. there seems to be a disconnect between corporate Hyundai and their dealers.

What this update accomplishes is to slow the rate of charge by my calculations 40% or so. Formerly a level two charge took seven hours now takes longer than 12 hours to charge . Not a big problem for me, but if someone came home late at night and wanted to use the car in the morning, it could be a problem, but I was willing to live with it and I really have very little choice in the matter

Subsequently my car went in for routine maintenance at 6000 miles and was reported to be in good shape

My next 12 V failure occurred at 6700 miles and I was told that there was a software update number 997 which was going to fix the problem. Great I thought ,finally, the dealer completed this software update on August 5, 2023 The same day I took it in.

I have to say this point at the Hyundai dealer was generous with me in terms of loaner cars. They typically gave me a car to use and at one point when they didn’t have one and they reimbursed me for Rental. while all this was going on, I did open two different complaint cases with corporate Hyundai.

They decided both times that my car was not eligible for a buyback. They never told me why.

OK the 17th, of August 11 days after the 997 software update my car was once again dead

Back to Hyundai I go where the dealer is unable to replicate the problem, but I was informed to keep the key fob 25 feet away from the car when not in use as having the key fob near the car prevented the car from going to sleep thus draining the battery.

I was a little skeptical at this point, but having no other choice, I tried it and a week later guess what, the 12 V died even though the key was no where near the car.

So my car is back at the dealer, and I am awaiting the results of the latest service effort.

The Ioniq five, the ionic six and the EV6 all have apart called the ICCu

Which controls among other things the charging of the 12 V battery

It is liquid cooled, and there have been reports of coolant leaks in the unit causing problems with the charging after 12 volt battery

This could turn out to be a very big problem for Hyundai, as they will need to replace thousands of these units which to my knowledge need to be re-designed to prevent leakage.

It makes me wonder if Hyundai is stalling because they don’t have the iccu units available insufficient quantity to replace them on a large scale. I believe there is a government investigation also looking into this issue.

I’m not sure what is going to happen with my situation, my car is not dependable and I am forced to have some alternate transportation available so my wife has a car that starts

I’m putting this out there and hope that potential buyers will be warned

The ionic five has the potential to be a great car, but there seems to be a fatal flaw, and I hope that other owners and potential owners have more luck than I did

I will update this video if and when I have more information to add, thank you.

Gerald Anthony