Hi I am looking to buy a Kona as a first EV and one thing that is talked about a lot online is battery health. There seems to be concerns about the longevity of batteries and that following the recommended maintenance scheduling will make the battery last longer. What I am struggling to find out is wether a consistent and frequent maintenance scheme will offset battery degradation OR prevent the battery from having other issues that will make it need repairs more often and/or needing to be replaced because they stop working completely. Or are both these things affected by the maintenance schedule? I was looking at one 2020 Kona with 120k kms that had been serviced infrequently (every 30k kms) which meant that the warranty was no longer valid. However, the battery seemed to be doing reasonably well range wise as it had about 400 km range, almost like new Konas. Is there any other side effects of infrequent service other than battery range degradation that needs to be worried about?
Hi Olle, tough question to answer really. Battery health I think is more connected to, charging habits, driving style and environment temps. Apart from making sure the battery cooling system in working well, there isnt much maintenance to be done on a battery. My advice, if the car owner didnt service it regularly and has already done 120K, its maybe not the secondhand Kona I would go for. My 5 year old Kona still shows a range of 500+ for around town driving. Just as a reference.
Hi and thanks for your input. The maintenance had been done regularly just not with the interval specified by Hyundai. Instead of 15000 km it had been done with 30000 km apart. I don’t know if this matters, but as you suggest I do take it as a warning sign. I guess I’ll have to ponder this some more…
There's nothing I know of maintenance-wise that can affect battery health. I just wanted to make sure you were coming back before posting! Forums get a lot of runners ...
I am inclined to contest your reply about this. I talked to a Hyundai warranty specialist today who told me that the high voltage battery is a service part, meaning that the drivetrain battery of an Kona EV that hasn’t been serviced according to plan won’t be under the battery warranty.
Yes I understand that, but it would be strange if battery health and service/maintenance had no correlation if Hyundai is demanding continuous maintenance in order for the battery warranty to be valid.
I am not aware of any "recommended maintenance scheduling" that is required for the battery. The speed at which the battery has been charged and the level of charge when stored has some effect but that isn't maintenance, it's the way the vehicle has been operated. Nevertheless it does seem there is a non-technical (i.e. administrative or bureaucratic) risk that the vehicle's maintenance history may influence any battery warranty claim.
I was not informed about in what way the maintenance affect the battery. In my mind, the only legitimate reason for a carmaker to deny a warranty claim would be if the car wasn’t taken care of properly (I.e. regular maintenance) which increases the risk of a malfunction.
For all motor vehicles, and especially for EVs, a substantial portion of scheduled servicing consists only of component inspection, e g. brake discs and pads, fluids etc. For my 2019 Kona EV servicing and warranty requirements I would expect the exposed underside of the HV battery to be specifically eyeballed for any damage, but otherwise, the complete 5 years of my service reports contain only "inspect battery condition" and "inspect vehicle on-board systems for stored trouble codes". The HV battery is otherwise not mentioned in these reports. Warranty documentation referring to the HV battery as a "service part" is only to ensure it is regularly inspected.
Ok, yes that sounds about what I would’ve expected and now that you mention it, it probably aligns with what the warranty person told me, tho I didn’t fully comprehend it there and then.
