[wgarym]

What's the percentage of ev6 owners having a problem?

Make a poll. I’m guessing not that many or the forum would be filled with posts. Personally, I have seen the charge light on the dash 2 times in 3 months…

 

[ronsk74]

Make a poll. I’m guessing not that many or the forum would be filled with posts. Personally, I have seen the charge light on the dash 2 times in 3 months…

Ya, I think few owners are having battery issues but some are and I hope it's just an unexpected batch of bad batteries.

 

[alexw]

I just got my car back, so I popped the hood and left it alone for an hour or so to make sure it was in its deepest sleep power state, then put a DC clamp meter on the battery positive. There's a continuous 2.6W of consumption, which seems quite in line with my earlier calculation. When I first shut the car off, it took quite a while at 100W, then a bit longer at 30W before I left and came back later, so presumably there's a fair bit of draw every time the telematics unit wakes up to refresh values, and my HASS system might be putting a bit more load on it than normal by polling frequently. Theoretically it only forces a refresh every 4 hours, but I'm not sure if frequent non-force requests result in a change to the sleep behavior, like the car phoning home more frequently than it would if you left the app alone.

 

[DMiller]

I've captured more graphs from the battery monitor on my car. I think the idle current is lower than @alexw estimates (although he was putting more load on his vehicle by pinging it repeatedly). My car has gone down about 3% after 48 hours sitting idle.

This is the full day, previously I posted a partial day for the 21st.

This puts a marker right before the recharge starts, showing the voltage was 12.57V

Another thread was arguing about the voltage used to charge the battery; here it is at 14.71V.

After the charge stops, the battery is at 12.96V.

Nearly 48 hours later and it has gone down 0.34V, about 3%. At the current discharge rate it should hit the recharge level (12.57V) about 3 hours from now.

 

[alexw]

I've captured more graphs from the battery monitor on my car. I think the idle current is lower than @alexw estimates (although he was putting more load on his vehicle by pinging it repeatedly).

Direct measurement, not estimate. But you’re right in that your discharge plot looks a lot flatter than mine. I’m going to try disabling the API query and avoid using the app at all for a day or two and see if the idle current drops any lower.

 

[Chip]

Make a poll. I’m guessing not that many or the forum would be filled with posts. Personally, I have seen the charge light on the dash 2 times in 3 months…

Has your 12 volt battery left you flat?

Maybe I should have asked has your battery died? Maybe this is a good question for a poll. Perhaps the most important thing is what did your dealer do to prevent it happening again and did that work?

www.kiaevforums.com

 

[alexw]

So, the manual says that if the "Aux Battery Saver+" function activates 10 times, it'll shut off assuming a problem and you should drive the car normally and it'll start working again if the battery returns to normal.

That seems to just... not be the case. I've been driving my car normally since the long stint at the dealership, and "Aux. Battery Saver+" has never started working normally again. Interestingly, the 12V battery reported SOC never seems to exceed 90.

So I guess this might be the issue for people with 12V battery issues? Maybe there IS something wrong with the low power mode on some cars, and if you leave the car alone long enough for 10 activations, you're just in for 12v discharge from that point on.

 

[ronsk74]

I've been watching this issue on this forum for several weeks now and the beast reared its head in my EV6 Wind AWD yesterday. I had an appointment already scheduled for this coming Tuesday so yesterday (Saturday) I decided to charge up for the service. I started at 46% and at about 52% the charge stopped with an error and would not restart. I sat inside and started the car and I got warnings of low 12v battery voltage. (The car was driven Friday with no problems). After a few seconds everything went black. I checked battery voltage and it showed 7.4v. I disconnected the battery, charged it to 12.5v and reconnected it and the voltage started dropping so I disconnected it again and charged it up again. While charging I connected an ammeter between the battery and car and saw a varying current draw between 6.5 and 8.2 amps, very high for a car with everything off. But after reconnecting it again voltage never dropped and the built in charger started charging it, battery voltage was up to 13.4 volts. Everything since has been normal. I finished the HV charge last night and drove it today with no issues.

It seemed like something turned on and stuck on causing the current draw after I started the charge the first time. No way to know what but it drained the battery in about 30 minutes. I'll give the service tech the info when I go in Tuesday and see what they say.

Personally, if the built in 12v charger sees a problem and shuts off, you should get a warning message to do something about it instead of dying with no warning or a warning right before it dies. That can be changed in firmware.

 

[alexw]

While charging I connected an ammeter between the battery and car and saw a varying current draw between 6.5 and 8.2 amps, very high for a car with everything off.

While charging the car, or the 12V battery? You had the ammeter connected between the car's + cable and the battery +, with the 12V charger connected on the battery terminal side? I mentioned a few posts back I measured a similar vehicle drain when I'd just turned the car off, between 50 and 100W. It's tough to make assumptions about power modes in a modern car, like that it's "off" simply because it looks off. In my case, the 100W was down to about 3 when I came back alter after the car had for sure gone into it's lowest normal power mode.

Anyway, I think I'm starting to agree that there's some kind of firmware issue somewhere, possibly that the lowest power mode isn't sufficiently low power, and possibly that the battery saver+ state logic is faulty.

 

[ronsk74]

When I started a HV charge. Until yesterday I've never touched the 12v battery. But I don't think that the 12v battery was down at the start of the HV charge, I think something came on and stayed on after starting the HV charge that caused the drain on the 12v battery. I have no proof of that, more of a hunch.

 

[alexw]

When I started a HV charge. Until yesterday I've never touched the 12v battery. But I don't think that the 12v battery was down at the start of the HV charge, I think something came on and stayed on after starting the HV charge that caused the drain on the 12v battery. I have no proof of that, more of a hunch.

If you’re HV charging, the DCDC converter should be on supplying the 12V rail, charging your 12V battery. Is it possible the current you measured was INTO the 12V battery?

 

[ronsk74]

At anytime while charging the HV battery or not, the only time the dcdc charger comes on is if the 12v battery gets down to a certain level requiring a charge.

I checked polarity on the ammeter when I connected it into the 12v battery circuit and it showed current going out of the battery. It was definitely a load.

 

[alexw]

At anytime while charging the HV battery or not, the only time the dcdc charger comes on is if the 12v battery gets down to a certain level requiring a charge.

That is absolutely not true. If the car is “on,” 12v power is being provided by the ICCU. The orange light only comes on during “battery saver” operation, perhaps that’s your confusion?

You can see this plainly in any of the battery logs people have posted, including in this thread, where the moment they turn the car on the 12V rail voltage comes up to the max of 14.8 or so.

 

[alexw]

I checked polarity on the ammeter when I connected it into the 12v battery circuit and it showed current going out of the battery. It was definitely a load.

If this part is true in the “ready” power state (and pardon my skepticism), it would indicate a problem with your ICCU.

 

[ronsk74]

If this part is true in the “ready” power state (and pardon my skepticism), it would indicate a problem with your ICCU.

In my original post I stated that after charging the 12v battery the first time and reconnecting it the battery voltage immediately started dropping. Only a large load would do that and I had not yet started the car.

 

[alexw]

In my original post I stated that after charging the 12v battery the first time and reconnecting it the battery voltage immediately started dropping. Only a large load would do that and I had not yet started the car.

Yes - wirh the car recently unlocked but not yet turned on, there’s between 50 and 150W of load on the 12V rail.

 

[blit]

Your comment regarding a backfeed issue with the use of a Battery Tender runs counter to the info. I gathered from Deltran concerning the use of their Battery Tender line. The tech. support person I spoke with told me there would be no issue at all. As far as this car already having a "tender", from what I am seeing the KIA "tender" is not up to the job of keeping the battery topped off and that the source of the issue.

WHEN I eventually get my GT L , I will be leaving it "alone" for 2 straight months per year. That has been the case for various cars I owned over the years AND I have always used a Deltran tender to keep watch over the 12v battery during that time period......my research with Deltran indicates that their tender is sophisticated enough to work with the 12v situation onboard the EV6. That said, for leaving the car for a long period, the manual does suggest disconnecting the 12v and fully charging the main battery once every 3 months.....following that logic, it would seem to me that putting a tender on the 12v would relieve the main battery from having to keep the 12v alive???? We shall see......

 

[alexw]

WHEN I eventually get my GT L , I will be leaving it "alone" for 2 straight months per year. That has been the case for various cars I owned over the years AND I have always used a Deltran tender to keep watch over the 12v battery during that time period......my research with Deltran indicates that their tender is sophisticated enough to work with the 12v situation onboard the EV6. That said, for leaving the car for a long period, the manual does suggest disconnecting the 12v and fully charging the main battery once every 3 months.....following that logic, it would seem to me that putting a tender on the 12v would relieve the main battery from having to keep the 12v alive???? We shall see......

If you have that level of control over it (I mean, you can leave it in a garage with power), disconnecting the 12V and putting it on a tender is certainly the safest strategy. With the 12V disconnected after power off, the only HV battery drain will be its own self-discharge (a few percent per year)

 

[JK-KIAEV6]

Hi all, please lets keep it civil please.

Thread cleaned.

 

[blit]

Ya, I think few owners are having battery issues but some are and I hope it's just an unexpected batch of bad batteries.

The battery issue IS important...but what is even more important is the NUMBER of vehicles affected, and I think you are correct in that we are not seeing that many forum members reporting an issue!