[Gatordon]

I’m apprehensive about this being for everywhere outside of NL. However I’m getting the tires rotated next week and I might just swing by the dealership today to see if mine has any updates available…just so I know if it needs to be at the dealership for longer…also I’m curious and anxious about this lol

I can't imagine it being Netherlands-only... it's not especially cold there. The coldest month in Amsterdam has an average low above freezing.

 

[Gatordon]

So I've returned from a 1200-mile weekend road trip and the temps never got out of the 40s.

Using Car Scanner Pro, I could see my battery temps. Low cell temp was usually in the mid 40s, max cell temp was 62 I think.

I used the built in nav (which I would normally never use) to direct me to the EA stations in the hopes that some preconditioning would occur.

No luck.

I had some looooong charge sessions on 350s where the max speed was around 42 kW. I saw this same 42-ish kW max a few times, so I wonder if that's the real-world max for cold battery.

As I've posted elsewhere, this car is not a viable long-distance winter road tripper without pre-conditioning.

 

[Gatordon]

At what point is pre-conditioning really something we need?
Batteries charge slower in the cold, I get that, but how cold is cold enough to necessitate pre-conditioning?

I live in Texas, and well, it's 80 degrees outside right now (Well.. will be in an hour or so). Barring freak weather events, we seldom get below freezing. We already know that as soon as you turn the car on there's some form of battery heater but at what point does it afford a benefit?

I live in Colorado. Based upon my ~1500 mile drive this past weekend in temps that weren't all that cold (highs in the 40s) it's something we really need.

I didn't see charging speeds exceed 42 kW in my 8 charge stops

 

[Gatordon]

I’ll be hitting an EE station after 2-3 hours of driving on Thursday. I’ll monitor battery temps as I get close and see if they rise above the ~42º temps they’ve been settled at for the last few days. That’s also about where it starts each morning after sitting overnight.

spoiler alert: they won’t

 

[Gatordon]

Do we really need battery conditioning if Winter mode can warm the battery? Granted that has to be manually turned on while driving to the charger.

winter mode warms the battery once you've plugged into a DC charger.

It does not warm the battery beforehand.

 

[Gatordon]

It warms the battery regardless of being plugged in, the onscreen message states it improves driving performance in cold weather at the expense of efficiency.

You're not looking at OBD data, are you?

 

[Gatordon]

Are you sure? Why would it say that it maintains DRIVING and DC charging performance, but it reduces driving range?

I am sure that winter mode (on or off) has no impact on the min cell temp or the max cell temp under any driving condition that I've encountered. Nor is the coolant temp impacted.

 

[Gatordon]

Have you tested it below -10°C (14°F)? My understanding has been that it will only heat at -10°C or below. I can't confirm or deny it, it generally doesn't get that cold here. I'm just saying that the claim that it only operates when plugged in to DCFC goes against the description from Kia/Hyundai, both in the description on-screen, and in other places:

Winter tips:

Manual:

I have not tested it at 14F... hasn't gotten quite that cold yet (during the day anyway)

However the optimal battery charge temp is approx 68 degrees. (20C ?) so I'm not sure why it would not work until something as low as 14. I can tell you for certain that I got abysmal charging times when the max battery temp was 42. It did warm through the course of charging, but it was too little, too late to get a charge in a reasonable amount of time. (took about 45 mins to from 20-85%)

 

[Gatordon]

I'm not sure that any battery warming occurs when using any AC charger. I'll test this soon.

 

[Gatordon]

No problem. These are the EU specs for Battery Conditioning but look like the same conditions for the US based on battery temps to get optimal DCFC charging speeds of +200kW.

If you have a US pre-July build EV6 with Winter Mode, please write an email to the contacts below requesting your interest in having this feature, your disappointment if we do not get it as early adopters/loyal customers and for transparency on when we can expect it.

Michele Cameron
Executive Director, Consumer Affairs & Warranty Operations
[email protected]

Chief Executive
SeungKyu (Sean) Yoon
President and CEO, Kia Motors America
[email protected]

I will definitely be emailing them on Monday

 

[Gatordon]

This email for the CEO does not work. Can try [email protected].

[email protected] might be the correct one

 

[Gatordon]

Yes, Winter Mode should work better than Tesla's method of running the motors. EV6s actually have a battery heater. It probably wouldn't take as long to start charging or might even start charging right away.

In 2023 models with preconditioning, Winter Mode should be automatic.

I wish we could get Bjørn or someone with quantitative OBD2 data to do charging tests on the 2023 EV6. For some reason, few YouTubers want to bother with getting an OBD2 adapter and the Ioniq 5 seems more popular. My car can't come soon enough so I can start making those videos, hopefully before winter is over.

I'll do some cold charging with OBD data next time it gets really cold here. I was just too busy on this last temp drop.

Looks like we'll get down near 10 degrees next Monday.

 

[Gatordon]

I went and looked at the Tesla patent for generating/capturing waste heat from electric motors. It's interesting, but seems unnecessarily complex, esp compared to resistive heating which is dead-nuts simple and inexpensive. But what do I know.

US20180083509A1 - Electric motor waste heat mode to heat battery - Google Patents