Leave Plugged In during storage

Henry Clews

Henry Clews

New Member
I plan to leave my 2022 Kona EV in the garage for the winter while I'm away. I'm wondering, should leave it plugged in to my 240 V (Wall Box) or 120 V outlet - or not plugged in at all? I have observed that if I leave it plugged in and set to 70%, it charges for short periods every few hours (taking it from 69% to 70%) and, during this time, the little green hood light comes on indicating the 12 V battery is charging.
Hyundai Customer Service has no suggestion - other than "ask your dealer". Different dealers I've spoken with have conflicting advice.
Any thoughts?
 
I'd suggest it matters little as to which charger you use and both will have similar standby power usage. But set a charge period on the car's timer so that it's limited to one charge event per day, which I expect would only be for a minute or two.
I personally would use 50% as a charge limit unless you expect to need 70% the moment you return.
 
I would also add, that once you return you should charge it to 100%. After floating around 50% for a few months, a charge to 100% will help rebalance the pack and give the BMS a chance to diagnose everything/recalibrate. Should be fine to drive it right away, but next time you plug in set it to go 100%.
 
Henry Clews said:
I plan to leave my 2022 Kona EV in the garage for the winter while I'm away. I'm wondering, should leave it plugged in to my 240 V (Wall Box) or 120 V outlet - or not plugged in at all? I have observed that if I leave it plugged in and set to 70%, it charges for short periods every few hours (taking it from 69% to 70%) and, during this time, the little green hood light comes on indicating the 12 V battery is charging.
Hyundai Customer Service has no suggestion - other than "ask your dealer". Different dealers I've spoken with have conflicting advice.
Any thoughts?
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I was recently away for an extended period and left my car plugged in with my level 1 charger. (I don't have a level 2 charger). I had read that it is best to keep the battery near 50% when storing the car as it creates less stress on the battery...... so I set the charge limit at 50%. In view of my belief that a slower charger is better for the battery than a faster charge I set my level 1 charger to 8 amps and I also set the charge rate within the cars system at minimum. When I returned home the battery was at 50% as expected.
 
Thank you all for your comments. I will plan to leave it connected, probably set to 50% as suggested.
I'm guessing a possible reason Hyundai doesn't recommend this is liability, I suspect they're worried about possible fire danger of leaving car plugged in for long-term storage in a garage.
 
I was wondering the same thing. I have also been told to put the 12V on a trickle charge or take it out all together and keep it on a trickle charge in a warm place. What have you heard about this?
 
Linda Moskalyk said:
I was wondering the same thing. I have also been told to put the 12V on a trickle charge or take it out all together and keep it on a trickle charge in a warm place. What have you heard about this?
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Yes, several of the dealers I spoke with said the same thing. I think this is partly because that's what they've been recommending for years - before the advent of EVs. Also, if you can't leave your car plugged in, this is probably sound advice. However, if you can leave your car plugged in (in a garage) it makes sense (to me) to leave it plugged in and let it take care of itself. Certainly on my 2022 Kona, the 12V battery charges itself at regular intervals from the lithium batteries. (I think this is the main reason they run down over time, without any loads the EV batteries would go six months with only minimal discharge.)
 
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