EnerG
Active Member
They ran out of room for informative content due to the number of warnings in the manual.
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Kona EV "Winter Mode" - defined and condensed
- Thread starter nzkiwi68
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Confirmed this morning, battery heater is active on DC fast charger even without Winter Mode selected. So the only condition it makes a difference to select or not the Winter Mode, is when driving the Kona: it will activate at 33% soc and below with a battery temp less than -5deg. The Winter mode should be unselected if a fast charge is not required to get to destination. This way you are saving 2.5kW while you are below 33% soc.
Gsbrryprk8
Member
Thank you for this! Very helpful and it may explain some of the complaints I see on PlugShare about slower than expected charge rates at public chargers (SOC also is relevant).
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Couldn't agree more, would love an option to engage the battery warmer on approach to a DC charger to get better charging speeds.
Great to see someone talking about real winter temperatures. I am a new ev owner and have the battery warmer and heat pump on my e-Niro. I’m wondering what strategies you employed with Winnipeg temperatures. There is very little info. about how the battery warmer works and under what conditions it works. What can I expect in the winter - parking my car for a full day and not plugged in where I work.
apu
Well-Known Member
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.
apu
Well-Known Member
I would plug overnight for most evenings.
GeorgeS
Active Member
If you want some pretty good testimony about winter driving in Winter, Bjorn Nyland has several winter videos where he tested range and even slept in the back of a Kona EV Ultimate. . Two parts. I was impressed with "utility mode" and how he used it to camp all night. Just a great example of good engineering. All this and I still prefer not to drive it in the winter. FWD is better in snow than RWD but I prefer 4WD. We keep it in the garage when the weather gets tough and use our Toyota 4Runner. We are fortunate to be able to do this.
If I were to drive this in a cold winter such as Canada, I would get some top rated snow tires, keep it warm in a garage when not using it and avoid charging it on fast chargers in cold temps. We took a winter road trip when it was new and were not disappointed. Daytime temps were 25F. Charging was slower than summer but not bad. Range was of course bad ranging about 2.6 Mi/Kwh. Just plan your trip with high consumption in mind.
If I were to drive this in a cold winter such as Canada, I would get some top rated snow tires, keep it warm in a garage when not using it and avoid charging it on fast chargers in cold temps. We took a winter road trip when it was new and were not disappointed. Daytime temps were 25F. Charging was slower than summer but not bad. Range was of course bad ranging about 2.6 Mi/Kwh. Just plan your trip with high consumption in mind.
e-Niro has same problem with coldgates. Pls, have anyone CAN codes to run battery warmer?
We can add menu items (15C 50kw, 25C ufc) to eniro dashboard (working on Konas too) https://github.com/nickn17/enirodashboard
Or any info if Hyundai/Kia will add preheat to steering wheel menu or to infotainment?
navguy12
Well-Known Member
New Kona driver here: I've had two winters worth of driving a Tesla Model 3 and the brake regen, for all practical purposes, disappears in cooler/cold temperatures until the battery warms up (about 45 minutes at highway speeds).
Does the winter mode in the Kona help keep a similar amount of brake regen year round?
Or, does the Kona also have to warm up the battery via driving it for a while in the winter before a "normal" amount of brake regen occurs? Thanks.
Does the winter mode in the Kona help keep a similar amount of brake regen year round?
Or, does the Kona also have to warm up the battery via driving it for a while in the winter before a "normal" amount of brake regen occurs? Thanks.
apu
Well-Known Member
My Kona had normal regen even in -32C, I believe this is likely due to the large top end battery buffer and winter mode/2 Kw battery heater. Heater turns itself on when the battery temperature(not ambient) is colder than -17C. I kept my Kona outside all winter and based on my monitoring with the torque app I don't think I ever saw it let the battery ever get colder than that. I think where the model 3 does better is with winter DC charging. While the Kona does turn its battery heater on at the DC charger, in winter it struggles to do it quick enough. The model 3 has the benefit of calling on its motors to produce heat well before it hits the supercharger.
navguy12
Well-Known Member
Thanks for that information.
The Kona is my wifes car, she is not an EV geek and I want her EV experience to be as transparent to her as possible.
So I am happy to hear that her expectations of how her car slows down will not have to change based on the season.
Sidebar question: You mention the large top end battery buffer...is this why there seems to be a laissez-faire attitude by Hyundai about topping the battery up to 100%?
apu
Well-Known Member
Pretty much, when the car is new 100% displayed charge is more like 95% as reported by the BMS. The upper buffer has been speculated to be around 3-4 Kw/h.
GeorgeS
Active Member
I don't believe the the top end buffer is related to regen at cold temperatures. Li-ion batteries take energy slower at extreme low temperatures. I do not know how the Kona does the regen at extreme cold. There are techniques such as super capacitors but I haven't heard it does this. It could be even that it wastes some of the energy the batteries won't take. If someone knows how the Kona accomplishes this, it would be interesting. There is a Youtube video where the batteries are charged to 100% in Australia then taken on a long downhill grade. Eventually the regen stopped.
navguy12
Well-Known Member
Lars
Well-Known Member
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.
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.