Another Check Electric Vehicle System Problem - Cant Charge

M

Malakai

New Member
2022 EX Premium, 14k miles

So earlier this month I got a sudden "Check Electric Vehicle System" warning message. Couldn't find much about an actual cause online other than the 12V battery. Called the dealer, they didn't have an opening for 2+ months. I tested the 12V battery under load and it was fine, car was running/charging fine. so I waited a week. The car would give the warning a few minutes after starting, AC would cut out, then come back. Driving felt normal.

So I try charging at home (lvl 2) I plug in and I start getting charging complete alerts on my phone, Over and over again. Check the car, sure enough it starts charging, then stops, then retries all over again. Both lvl 1 and lvl 2 charging does this. I got a video of this. It pops up a warning about schedules. I've deleted the scheduled limits, adjusted them for a wider range, played with the charge rates on both the car and the charger. Nothing worked. So I drove to a DC fast charge station and was able to charge.

End of 2nd week after getting the error message I try charging again before my range gets too low, and it now refuses to charge on DCFC. Having had enough the next day I drove to the dealership at 7am Monday morning and dropped the car off.

Now the fun part. No news for 10 days. Multiple calls and voicemails left with the dealer. Nothing. Kia connect tells me that they unlocked the car once. I finally got through to my supposed service tech and chewed him out until I got a loaner. He said its throwing a code that they dont know what it means and they're waiting on Kia tech support .

Its now 15 days with no updates. 2 Days until I'm supposed to turn in the rental or get it extended.
 
That's pretty much how they operate with these EVs. The techs on site can't really do much. They have to run a general troubleshooting, pull any codes, and send it off to Kia. Kia then responds a week or so later with steps on what to perform...the tech does it, sends off a report, and another week goes by for a response. And back and forth until, hopefully, they fix the problem. It takes a LONG time to get these cars fixed unless it's something basic, routine, or involves a "regular" part of the car.

My dealer is actually pretty responsive (via text, calling is next to impossible), and all the delays seemed to be on Kia's end, it was always "we're still waiting for Kia to respond with the next step."
 
This sounds a lot like what my Raleigh Kia dealer did, when my 22 Niro EV had a "low 12v battery" (or similar) error back in early May. I made an appointment, saying my 12v battery was low, and could they replace it. Waited all afternoon. They said they needed more time, so I came back next week and they gave me a loaner car. They kept it SIX WEEKS!! I called them each week, asking for an update. They said they were running diagnostics by Kia Corporate. Had to remove entire dashboard several times. At end of six weeks, they called and said "we replaced your 12v battery" and that fixed the problem (until my other problem arose 3 weeks ago - but that's another thread.) Decided to file for NC Lemon Law, since the car's been in different Kia dealership repair shops for more than 50 days in the past year.
 
Malakai said:
2022 EX Premium, 14k miles

So earlier this month I got a sudden "Check Electric Vehicle System" warning message. Couldn't find much about an actual cause online other than the 12V battery. Called the dealer, they didn't have an opening for 2+ months. I tested the 12V battery under load and it was fine, car was running/charging fine. so I waited a week. The car would give the warning a few minutes after starting, AC would cut out, then come back. Driving felt normal.

So I try charging at home (lvl 2) I plug in and I start getting charging complete alerts on my phone, Over and over again. Check the car, sure enough it starts charging, then stops, then retries all over again. Both lvl 1 and lvl 2 charging does this. I got a video of this. It pops up a warning about schedules. I've deleted the scheduled limits, adjusted them for a wider range, played with the charge rates on both the car and the charger. Nothing worked. So I drove to a DC fast charge station and was able to charge.

End of 2nd week after getting the error message I try charging again before my range gets too low, and it now refuses to charge on DCFC. Having had enough the next day I drove to the dealership at 7am Monday morning and dropped the car off.

Now the fun part. No news for 10 days. Multiple calls and voicemails left with the dealer. Nothing. Kia connect tells me that they unlocked the car once. I finally got through to my supposed service tech and chewed him out until I got a loaner. He said its throwing a code that they dont know what it means and they're waiting on Kia tech support .

Its now 15 days with no updates. 2 Days until I'm supposed to turn in the rental or get it extended.
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I can feel you because it happened with me as well.
 
dlu said:
Lemon Law?
Click to expand...

This, OP. Kia service on these cars is a nightmare. Mine was in the shop for months because I didn’t act and get rid of the car when I had the chance. Kia will happily let you wait forever. Just get rid of it and buy something better, preferably NOT a Kia.

I had to sue kia to get them to fix my car because they screwed me around and ran out my warranty. Although it’s fixed, for now, owning these cars long term is a losing proposition. Run.
 
snowy2020 said:
This, OP. Kia service on these cars is a nightmare. Mine was in the shop for months because I didn’t act and get rid of the car when I had the chance. Kia will happily let you wait forever. Just get rid of it and buy something better, preferably NOT a Kia.

I had to sue kia to get them to fix my car because they screwed me around and ran out my warranty. Although it’s fixed, for now, owning these cars long term is a losing proposition. Run.
Click to expand...

I'd second this. I used to really like our 2022 Niro -- I still do when it's working, but in the last two months we've started having intermittent issues with Level 3 charging (the car failing to start a charging session) and with the auxiliary (12 V) battery dying. The dealer has been unable to find any fault with the 12 V battery and when we started having intermittent problems with high speed charging I asked the dealer if the car does any kind of logging when it fails to start a charging session. The dealer claims that there are no codes set or any other diagnostics when this happens.

As a software developer I'm gobsmacked -- how did that even get past design review. Right now we've got a car that I no longer trust for trips beyond one charge and no confidence that the problem can be worked on in any kind of expeditious manner.
 
On DC charging the vendor should be able to access connection logs. Of course they'd have to be cooperative. Our's are here but it's a small country and there would hell to pay if they didn't visibly assist EV owners.

As for the 12V battery, get a BM2 voltage logger.

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