Niro - Check Electric Vehicle System warning

[Raleigh Ron]

This is the second time I've seen a Check Electric Vehicle System warning on my 2022 Niro EV.

Last time, it happened when I stopped at an interstate rest area for 10 mins. Tried to start the car, and got that message. Car wouldn't shift into gear. Called Kia Roadside Assistance, and had it towed to Winston-Salem Kia dealer, who sat on it for 3 weeks and refused to even run diagnostics. Said they were backed up in service dept. for weeks. So, I paid to have it towed to Greensboro Kia dealer, who (within 24 hrs) said my 12v battery was dead. They charged it, and error went away.

This freaked me, so I bought trickle charger and voltmeter, but soon got "12v battery low" errors. Was able to keep it charged via trickle charger for a while. Took it to local Kia dealer, who sat on it for 6 weeks (but did give me a loaner car). They ran diagnostics, said my 12v battery needed replacing, and did so under warranty.

Skip ahead three months. AAA, when rotating my tires, said my 12v battery was low, but I didn't see any start-up error messages, and my voltmeter showed 12v, so I lived with it.

Today, can't start the car. I get "Check Electric Vehicle System" warning, and car won't shift into gear. I trickle-charged the 12v battery until full, and tried starting it again - same error. Luckily I'm at home, as no dealer is open on Sunday. Will have to call Kia Roadside Assistance and have it towed to nearest Kia dealer, who's 25 miles away.

Has anyone other Niro owner seen errors like this?

 

[Jim Matthews]

Verify UVO is off - Many have reported that the constant query sent by the car is enough to drain the 12v battery - when the ca is parked.

 

[KiwiME]

... Has anyone other Niro owner seen errors like this?

The Niro, Kona, Ioniq forums are full of 12V battery complaints if you take the time to look around.

I keep a very close eye on my Kona's 12V battery. The bottom line is that it's too small in capacity to support certain situations such as leaving a door open for longer than needed for entry and egress, excessive telematics comms, repeated queries from a connected charger when initiating a charge, and even a quick succession of short (< 5 min) trips. At 45 Ah it's right on the edge and owners learn (usually the hard way) to either leave the car "on" or use Utility Mode when they need to leave a door open, both of which use the traction battery to keep the car alive.

The -2022 Niro and -2023 Kona have a slightly larger battery than the Ioniq, and the new Niro 2023+ and Kona 2024+ have a slightly larger battery again, but that minor change alone won't fix the core problem.

For our current EVs it's better to learn what not to do and buy a jump pack. If you install an inexpensive BM2 (or BM3) Battery Monitor (Amazon) you can learn what upsets it and avoid that. Next month my Kona 12V battery will be 5 years old, still going strong but I can see that I have to pay it daily attention to avoid a surprise.

I totally accept that the engineering is incremental over the years and I know this will be fixed at some point in new models. Tesla implemented a fix a year or 2 back and Hyundai/Kia will do the same, perhaps that's even present in the latest models. Frankly, I think they could have applied a hardware modification on our generation of EVs to get around this but in the end, like all businesses, they are beholden to their margins.

 

[Raleigh Ron]

Just to close this thread - got my car back yesterday. Paramount Kia in Asheville diagnosed and fixed the problem in 5 business days, which I think is pretty good.

From their invoice (covered by warranty):
"Update required for miss [sic] diagnosis of battery malfunction per TSB. P1AA600 stored. TSB states to update BMS software and verify correction. Applied update to BMS module. Verified update. Test drove vehicle".
Also this note under "Recall campaigns":
"SA512 inverter coolant/debris message. Inverter coolant flush procedure and refill with updated coolant. Applied flush to hybrid cooling system. Verified air bleed procedure. Verified correction".

Still think I've got a "lemon" since, according to NC regulations, if any new car (within first 24,000 miles or 24 months) is out of service for more than 20 business days (mine has been in service more than 50 days), it's considered covered by Lemon Law. Not sure if Kia will agree, though.

 

[Raleigh Ron]

Quick update. After repair in August (mentioned above), car ran fine for two weeks. Then the "Check Electric Vehicle" warning message started to appear again every time I started the car. I initially thought it was bricked again, but this time I can shift into gear, and the message goes away after 15 seconds, but the orange/yellow "EV" warning light remains on while driving the car. I'm worried about driving with a warning light, so I contacted my local Raleigh Kia dealer, who has a 5-week wait time for service appointments.

I can't rely on this car anymore. I decided to file for Lemon Law protection - submitted all paperwork via NC DOJ's Lemon Law site - https://ncdoj.gov/protecting-consumers/automobiles/lemon-law/ . Within a couple weeks, Kia Corporate reached out to me, saying this was an approved Lemon Law case. I haven't heard back from them on what they will do. Hopefully that means they'll buy the car back, but that means I'll have to wade back into the car buying waters, which I don't look forward to.