We just shifted over to winter mode, and have the following question. If we keep our Niro plugged in, will the battery stay warm on cold nights even if the car is fully charged? Or, should I program the car to charge up before we leave in the morning to warm the battery. And, can we program the pre-warming climate control option to come on at a certain time, or do we have to pre-warm manually before we leave? Thanks, enjoy the discussions, and love the car! Jay
Winter Mode Question
- Thread starter Jay47
- Start date
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I tried setting a scheduled departure time to warm the battery and it didn’t work as expected.
- I set my maximum AC charge to 80%
- I set departure time to 6:30am for both climate and charging
- Battery was about 40% when I plugged in the night before
It charged up to about 65% in the evening after i plugged it in, and then it stopped charging. The next morning, climate and charging both started automatically at 6am. When it was time to leave at 6:30, it was only about 70 percent, not my target 80%.
Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
- I set my maximum AC charge to 80%
- I set departure time to 6:30am for both climate and charging
- Battery was about 40% when I plugged in the night before
It charged up to about 65% in the evening after i plugged it in, and then it stopped charging. The next morning, climate and charging both started automatically at 6am. When it was time to leave at 6:30, it was only about 70 percent, not my target 80%.
Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
TheHellYouSay
Member
Man, I love forums, I learn so much, they keep things real. When I read this, I thought, oh yeah, I turned that on (or left it on) because in WA state, that's all they sell is the ones with the battery management system. It was THE reason that I bought this car was the active battery management versus passive. I went out tonight and checked...oh ****, not turned on. Thankfully Seattle's only had a modest cold spell, so your post forced me to do something that I would have not thought of.
On the other hand, as I was fiddling around with the on board computer and menus and so on, I stumbled upon the Electrical Use menu option, which kind of told me that battery management hadn't kicked in. I find the real time updates to be hugely interesting, but then again, I like numbers. This car is like a 5,000 lb. gadget, I still find stuff that is not clear to me yet and I'm 3 months in to the day.
So, I guess I'm saying that I don't have much to add except that my mi/kWh did go down without the active battery management. Perhaps now the MPG will go back up or at least I will no longer be damaging my batteries? I was consistently getting 3.9 to 4.1, often, much much better, before the weather turned cold and I started using the heater, now it's down around 3.5 or sometimes even a little less. It's been rather tropical lately with nighttime temps in the high 40's, but there was a week or so with temps in the high 20's. I really like being able to start the climate control from the bathroom, but then I got the notice that KIA wants to charge like $200/yr which is BS when there's still plenty of free apps out there (well, not for the Kia, yet...). I think it's undignified of KIA to ask for that when the app barely works. But I digress....I'll try to pay attention now and see what the usage is on the Electricity Use page. At one point I thought that maybe 28 degrees wasn't severe enough, but it probably would have kicked on if I had it turned on, we'll see.
Now though, I'm wondering if I can leave the A/C on when I run into the store and the dog's in the car? Don't get that hot in Seattle, and I would put up a sign to ward off the belligerent idiots, but I was also pumped about the potential comfort of AC whilst not running an ICE to keep my pet comfy in the summer. She's pretty special.
And I also wonder if "after market" products might someday include the ability to burn a new image or something? It's ridiculous that KIA doesn't offer firmware upgrades and the like, but I'm still liking the car in spite of all of that...
davidtm
Active Member
Once the free subscription is over, you can still program the car to warm itself up on a schedule. Then, you won't even have to think about it in the bathroom! 
We had our first cold night in Virginia last night (20's), and it was SO nice to get in the car having it already toasty!!
We had our first cold night in Virginia last night (20's), and it was SO nice to get in the car having it already toasty!!
