Kona EV "Winter Mode" - defined and condensed

[electriceddy]

Forgive me I just got my car, so I am still learning. After reading the manual and this blog and the fact that we are in the 21st century to me the Winter Mode setting is nuts. Cars equipped with the battery warmer should be "smart" enough to set the "winter mode" on/off when needed to maximize range, charge ability in cold weather, etc. To ask owners to worry about this setting is crazy. There are already too many bells end whistles on this car.

My suggestion is to set Winter Mode ON and forget about it. If the car is equipped with battery warmer and the sensors(s) work correctly, it should do nothing in the summer anyway.

I was checking the different settings the other day and noticed winter mode was still on, so yes after setting it on the car some 18 months ago I have literally "forgotten about it". Does't hurt to check once in while though.

 

[George Davidson]

The only appreciable difference is reduced range. My Kona was outside the whole winter. In severe winter expect to see only around 300km on a full charge vs 500+km in summer. This mostly because of resistive cabin heating. The heat pump is pretty much useless under -10C. Preheating the cabin while hooked up to the charger helps. That said my Kona has been one of my best and reliable winter vehicles. I think your e Niro will do just fine, congratulations on your new car.

Good to hear that in severe winter your range is around 300km on a full charge vs 500+km in summer. I have got Kona EV 2019. In severe winter the range is around 250km on a full charge vs 370km in summer. I have got 105,000km on odometer after 18 months. I would say the degradation of the battery is more than 10% a year if you drive a lot.

 

[apu]

Good to hear that in severe winter your range is around 300km on a full charge vs 500+km in summer. I have got Kona EV 2019. In severe winter the range is around 250km on a full charge vs 370km in summer. I have got 105,000km on odometer after 18 months. I would say the degradation of the battery is more than 10% a year if you drive a lot.

George that is is an impressive amount of driving in 18 months. Curious, is the 370 km summer range city or highway( if Hwy what is average speed)? How much DC charging do you do? Sounds like your degradation is around 11% which would be higher than typical for 18 month battery. I would have expected only around 6-7% in that period.

 

[George Davidson]

Thanks for your reply. The 370 km summer range is mostly highway (perhaps 60-70%) as the commute from the rural area to the city is long. In summer there is little DC charging. Mostly over night at 7.4 kW. In winter it changes as the 250km at 100% may not be enough for a day with all the heating and fan at full speed. Not wanting to risk coming home close to 0%, so several times a week a small topup is needed for the unlikely what if stranded on the highway situation. Several winter months (with the average temps around -10 / -20) the overnight charging is done to 100%. Temperatures sometimes go to - 35 for a week o two. The lowest temp at the dashboard was -37 last winter.

I believe the battery warranty is two years / 160,000km. I would like to figure out if I can claim that over 10% degradation or not.

 

[apu]

Thanks for your reply. The 370 km summer range is mostly highway (perhaps 60-70%) as the commute from the rural area to the city is long. In summer there is little DC charging. Mostly over night at 7.4 kW. In winter it changes as the 250km at 100% may not be enough for a day with all the heating and fan at full speed. Not wanting to risk coming home close to 0%, so several times a week a small topup is needed for the unlikely what if stranded on the highway situation. Several winter months (with the average temps around -10 / -20) the overnight charging is done to 100%. Temperatures sometimes go to - 35 for a week o two. The lowest temp at the dashboard was -37 last winter.

I believe the battery warranty is two years / 160,000km. I would like to figure out if I can claim that over 10% degradation or not.

Actually your battery warranty is for 8 years or 160,000km. The warranty degradation threshold is less than 70% of nominal rated capacity, which would be around 45 Kw/hr or less than 200km on a full charge assuming 4.5kw/100km average consumption. You should nonetheless get your dealer to verify its state of health.

 

[persianrider]

ok here's a question now

why not just leave the winter mode ON all the time then if it only kicks in below a certain tempurature ?

Why fiddle around and remember to turn it on/off ? Specially for someone like me who our winters in Montreal get pretty cold, therefore turning the system OFF isn't really an option

would you just leave it on even in the summer ?

 

[Maple]

It is your decision turn on or off the winter mode. I will not turn it on because I normally charge at home. Turn off winter mode will save lot of energy in extremely low temp days. Only benefit to turn on winter is you can fast charge battery. You can turn on it 15min before you start fast charge. That why it is manually controlled.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

[navguy12]

It is your decision turn on or off the winter mode. I will not turn it on because I normally charge at home. Turn off winter mode will save lot of energy in extremely low temp days. Only benefit to turn on winter is you can fast charge battery. You can turn on it 15min before you start fast charge. That why it is manually controlled.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

I have no data to back up this observation; IMO the mass of these battery packs is such that to raise the core temperature enough to actually affect fast charging speeds would require more than 15 minutes of xxx kW of power.

 

[KiwiME]

I would assume all here have read the entire thread ...

 

[Lars]

Forgive me I just got my car, so I am still learning. After reading the manual and this blog and the fact that we are in the 21st century to me the Winter Mode setting is nuts. Cars equipped with the battery warmer should be "smart" enough to set the "winter mode" on/off when needed to maximize range, charge ability in cold weather, etc. To ask owners to worry about this setting is crazy. There are already too many bells end whistles on this car.

My suggestion is to set Winter Mode ON and forget about it. If the car is equipped with battery warmer and the sensors(s) work correctly, it should do nothing in the summer anyway.

The Winter Setting seem to be gone in the latest software update I got.

 

[R P]

Just checked, mine is still there, and I have all the latest updates. Where are you looking? It is in the EV menu on the HU screen on the right, under EV Settings.

 

[Lars]

Just checked, mine is still there, and I have all the latest updates. Where are you looking? It is in the EV menu on the HU screen on the right, under EV Settings.

If I recall I couldn't find the EV Settings window where the Winter Mode setting was - it was the only setting on this window. As I still do not have my car back I can't check it. Sorry

 

[R P]

If I recall I couldn't find the EV Settings window where the Winter Mode setting was - it was the only setting on this window. As I still do not have my car back I can't check it. Sorry

Perhaps you are thinking of the Aux Battery Saver option. That was removed a few updates ago.

 

[Larry Basem]

I was checking the different settings the other day and noticed winter mode was still on, so yes after setting it on the car some 18 months ago I have literally "forgotten about it". Does't hurt to check once in while though.

Well I feel better already. Having just purchased the 2020 Kona Sel, and discovering that the battery warming system doesn't come standard, I was slapping my forehead. Having read the posts on this thread, I'm now like 'meh' - I'm in northwest Indiana (suburbs of Chicago) and it won't make much of a difference - -15 C (5 F) is fairly rare, I don't DC charge, and if range isn't preserved, I, like Rhett Butler, don't give a damn.

 

[AlexK]

I have now driven my Kona for 8 months (17,000km) and my first impressions were during -35C frosts in January. I had to store the car outdoors but at least had the Hyundai 2,6kW (230V, 12amps) charger that came with the car plugged at all times. I rarely DC charge (6x so far) my car but as a stupid newcomer I kept the winter mode on at all times. I haven't noticed a big impact from the battery warming system or it just doesn't report the usage in the EV window. I occasionally checked the power used to heat the battery from the EV window and it always showed 0%.

Nothing to do with this thread but was wondering:
Is there a thread about optimizing the heating of Kona Ev in winter times or should I just keep it in Auto and 20-22C? The manual says Auto 22C is the optimal setting. As a M.Sc. of energy technology I doubt this is the real case in winter because a direct electric heating coil assists the heat pump. I have the Ultimate (= Style here in the EU) and it comes with the heat pump system.

 

[navguy12]

I have now driven my Kona for 8 months (17,000km) and my first impressions were during -35C frosts in January. I had to store the car outdoors but at least had the Hyundai 2,6kW (230V, 12amps) charger that came with the car plugged at all times. I rarely DC charge (6x so far) my car but as a stupid newcomer I kept the winter mode on at all times. I haven't noticed a big impact from the battery warming system or it just doesn't report the usage in the EV window. I occasionally checked the power used to heat the battery from the EV window and it always showed 0%.

Nothing to do with this thread but was wondering:
Is there a thread about optimizing the heating of Kona Ev in winter times or should I just keep it in Auto and 20-22C? The manual says Auto 22C is the optimal setting. As a M.Sc. of energy technology I doubt this is the real case in winter because a direct electric heating coil assists the heat pump. I have the Ultimate (= Style here in the EU) and it comes with the heat pump system.

My experience (one winter with the Kona EV, three with a TM3) is that if one knows what one is doing, one can “beat” the efficiency of the auto setting of the HVAC system.

I don’t have enough winter HVAC experience with the Kona to provide a definitive “procedure”, but a starting point would be seat heater and steering wheel heater on high, HVAC set point 17C and fan speed just high enough to keep the windscreen clear.

I’m sure other folks will add to the list.

 

[herode10]

I have now driven my Kona for 8 months (17,000km) and my first impressions were during -35C frosts in January. I had to store the car outdoors but at least had the Hyundai 2,6kW (230V, 12amps) charger that came with the car plugged at all times. I rarely DC charge (6x so far) my car but as a stupid newcomer I kept the winter mode on at all times. I haven't noticed a big impact from the battery warming system or it just doesn't report the usage in the EV window. I occasionally checked the power used to heat the battery from the EV window and it always showed 0%.

Nothing to do with this thread but was wondering:
Is there a thread about optimizing the heating of Kona Ev in winter times or should I just keep it in Auto and 20-22C? The manual says Auto 22C is the optimal setting. As a M.Sc. of energy technology I doubt this is the real case in winter because a direct electric heating coil assists the heat pump. I have the Ultimate (= Style here in the EU) and it comes with the heat pump system.

Winter Mode has no effet when connected to AC or DC charger. It will only trigger the battery heater while driving the car based on the battery temperature and SoC. With a battery temperature below -5 DegC the heater will turn on around 33% SoC. Some people reported activation around 45% SoC with battery temperature below -20 DegC. This would help maintaining higher available power. In fact, it is quite useless. I experienced situation where I had 30 % SoC with battery temperature around -15 DegC and not being able to drive the car over 100 km/h. Similar condition where I could not climb a hill over 70 km/h because the Max Available power was 60 kW.

 

[EVA 1]

I have now driven my Kona for 8 months (17,000km) and my first impressions were during -35C frosts in January. I had to store the car outdoors but at least had the Hyundai 2,6kW (230V, 12amps) charger that came with the car plugged at all times. I rarely DC charge (6x so far) my car but as a stupid newcomer I kept the winter mode on at all times. I haven't noticed a big impact from the battery warming system or it just doesn't report the usage in the EV window. I occasionally checked the power used to heat the battery from the EV window and it always showed 0%.

Nothing to do with this thread but was wondering:
Is there a thread about optimizing the heating of Kona Ev in winter times or should I just keep it in Auto and 20-22C? The manual says Auto 22C is the optimal setting. As a M.Sc. of energy technology I doubt this is the real case in winter because a direct electric heating coil assists the heat pump. I have the Ultimate (= Style here in the EU) and it comes with the heat pump system.

Hi Alex. I haven’t had to drive my eNiro in those kinds of temperatures. Winter mode does not use power to keep the battery warm if your car is not pugged in - otherwise in winter you would loose charge while your car is sitting out in the cold. While plugged in at home winter mode would take it’s power from the pugged in power source. So it would take 0% from the cars battery.
Always glad to hear from people who have taken the leap to electric though they have colder temps to contend with. Good on you.

 

[KiwiME]

... While plugged in at home winter mode would take its power from the plugged-in power source...

There's been no evidence that the Winter Mode setting has any effect when you're not driving.

Winter Mode has no effect when connected to AC or DC charger. It will only trigger the battery heater while driving the car based on the battery temperature and SoC...

 

[AlexK]

Thank you for your answers. Maybe I put too much about the charging in the wrong paragraph and confused you. My bad.

It will only trigger the battery heater while driving the car based on the battery temperature and SoC.

This is the thing I was referring to. It has never noticeably triggered on my car during a drive. The battery care section in the EV Energy Consumption window has never showed any percentage or kW. I have sometimes checked consumption during and after a drive to see how much I used for the cabin heating.

With a battery temperature below -5 DegC the heater will turn on around 33% SoC. Some people reported activation around 45% SoC with battery temperature below -20 DegC.

I think this is the reason. The battery rarely goes under 45% during my winter commute to work and I can charge at work.

Similar condition where I could not climb a hill over 70 km/h because the Max Available power was 60 kW.

I have once experienced this last winter. The SoC was something like 60% and I was wondering why the car slows down in a steep hill.