Range in winter

What misbehavior? It works fine in the cold.

 

Well, it does have a "winter" mode in Canada. But have never been in really cold weather with mine. It doesn't get very cold here in Vancouver.

Maybe the guys out east can give you a better idea. APU is in Manitoba, and I know he has been in VERY cold weather with his.

 

From what I've read the Kona outperforms the Bolt in winter in both range and charging speed. I guess that could be considered "enhanced". And as to those couple of comments mentioning troubles, they are definitely outliers.

 

Kamloops Kona and APU have both experienced their Kona turtling in cold weather. The speculation is that the BMS programming causes this to happen. In that case it should be a widespread problem since they are all programmed the same(?)

Has the Kona community experienced this often when the battery is below -10C? Or are Kamloops Kona and APU just outliers as Wildeyed suggests? What evidence do we have?

 

I'm pretty sure that these forums would be swamped with news about such issues if they were widespread. There are thousands of Konas in Northern countries worldwide.

 

No problems like that here in Maine, with many days around 0F. We only occasionally see -10F, so I can't rule out that there are problems at extreme temps, but we've had none. Range is decreased, but not that much, probably 25% less in winter? 200-220 miles instead of 280-300 miles in summer.

 

I've never experienced any premature turtle mode and drove in -20 c Temps.

 

Yeah, but 2019 US Kona didn't have a battery warmer. Canadian versions did. I wonder if this is where it comes from.

 

Its not a problem driving in -20C or -30C ambient temperature but rather having the battery pack cold soaked to the point where its internal temperature is -15C or colder, such as when parked overnight outside in -20C and then immediately hitting the highway in the morning with resistance cabin heater going full blast when your SOC is is less than 40%.

 

Do you even see Bolts on the road in those temps? The Bolt seems to be a bit more aggressive at pack temp management from what I've read on the relevant forums. Apparently it will heat the pack if it's plugged in.

 

-15˚C is +5˚F. Not that cold for northern climates. We've definitely never experienced problems here in Maine with our 2019, through two winters and 20,000 miles (32,000km), and plenty of nights parked outside, at -15˚C or -20˚C.

 

Owner of the much maligned Leaf chiming in here. Currently 2018 40kwh Leaf S. Kingston Ontario Canada winter temps as low as minus 20celsius this winter. Sure there is the range loss everyone is experiencing but I just get in and go. No pampering. Car is parked outside and sometimes I've deliberately left unplugged overnight in cold temps with no problems. Sometimes the GOM will actually rise or at least stop falling for awhile as the battery warms up from driving.

While the Leafs are not the best choice for long trips in hot climates when asked to confront those cold winter temps the Leaf just says: "Hold my beer"

 

This seems to happen in very specific and atypical conditions. Specifically, I have noticed a correlation to the wide variation in individual cell voltages triggering turtle mode. This is likely because of increased internal resistance secondary to the extreme cold and the fact that the individual cell packs functionally heat and cool at different rates. Typically the slight differences in pack temperature are not a big deal when its warmer but under certain circumstances with low pack temperature and high electrical load(highway speeds with resistance cabin heater on full blast) I have observed the cell voltages act like when you are at the bottom of your battery's capacity and I suspect the BMS engages turtle mode more in response to cell voltage variation than actual low voltage or perhaps a combination of both variables.

The best thing you can do in extreme cold weather is keep winter mode on(assuming you have a battery heater) and either keep your car sheltered in a garage or if has to be outside keep it plugged into a level 2 EVSE, Level 1 EVSE don't seem to be helpful in this regard.

 

So it happened again.
Yesterday it was -20C (-4F) with a 70% SOC and was again driving my Kona up a 5 km hwy incline stretch when I had ANOTHER power loss where the car went from 115km/hr to under 90.
This time however there was NOTHING indicating an issue on the dash; no turtle; green arrow stating everything was normal.
But it wasn't.
Losing power (electrons) to the motor and the battery mgmt system showing all is ok is very disturbing and worrisome.
I have the bad battery thats taking forever to be replaced.
Car was parked outside and time from being turned on to having the power failure was approx 5 to 7 mins

Has anyone else heard of this happening to the Kona EV or other LG battery plants?
I can't find anything using search engines to date.

 

What sort of incline it was?
EV battery power capacity drops significantly with low temperatures like those of yours.

I would say BMS and other systems did not report an error, because everything was working as designed.

Some cars are preheating a battery even for driving when temperatures drop below 5 deg C, while Kona does it only for charging during much lower temperatures.

 

It was maybe a 4 to 6% ascent..
This is not a safe nor normal to have a system unable to power the engine safely & instead without warning, shut down power to the drive train.
Last year the turtle mode did go down & I was suddenly unable to do close to the posted speed on a busy morning rush hour. We were almost rear ended that time.
My local dealer hasn't heard of this before either & the dealer EV tech Is going to hopefully get back to me next week.

 

What is the year and month of manufacture of your Kona?

 

Kamloops_KoNa there is something definitely wrong with your car. This is the scary thing about modern high tech. It brings us devices that do wonderful things until ...........they don't. Diagnosing the source of malfunctions can be endlessly frustrating. Buggy software? Bad ground somewhere? A capacitor that's gone off value? It doesn't matter whether it's a car, home stereo, modern player piano or your frigging toaster. When the control electronics goes wonky you can be just S.O.L.

I do find that battery temp is a bit over hyped as a source of range loss. Yes it is there to be sure but the other two aside from heating are that it takes more energy to push through heavier cold air and the higher rolling resistance of winter tires. Hopefully the tire manufacturers may come up with a better composition for EVs. I have tried deliberately heating up the battery in my 2018 Leaf using fast chargers and the range gain per state of charge was fairly modest.

Some members have also commented on regen contributing the loss of control on slippery surfaces. On mine the regen is cut off instantly when front wheel slip is detected. The Leaf does severely cut power to the traction motor when slippage in deep snow is detected. Enough to the point where you can bog down as a result. Alas there is no traction turn off button on the dash. You have to dial through a couple of menus to get to that function which isn't going to happen when you're manhandling through deep snow.

Good luck with your buggy Kona Kamloops. Maybe you should park it on the street New Years eve. ha ha

 

June 2019 was its Manu date

 

i haven’t had similar issues but I just picked up an OBD2 (iCar Pro - 3rd party via Walmart.ca) unit to monitor system metrics - perhaps a similar unit would assist with an independent troubleshoot? I recently had the battery replaced in Kamloops (purchased Aug ‘19) - maybe our timeline will help you determine yours.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs