2015 Soul EV: My Battery Replacement Story

[Tcalp]

Hi Everyone, I recently just purchased a 2016 Kia Soul EV with Luxury trim (Canada). It was previously used as a Taxi Cab (Teo Taxi bankruptcy). The unit has 130,000~KM but has a pretty awful range when fully charged; Getting 90-105KM when fully charged. I took my car in to get inspected by the local EV service center today. They wanted to keep the car for further testing (as they said Kia head office would likely ask for additional tests to be done), but given that it was the weekend, I opted to pick-up the car and bring it back when requested (if requested), next week. Sadly, there seems to be a hick-up with my paperwork as I asked for copies of my battery report and was provided a report for a 2018 EV from mid last month; Not sure if this was just an error in the print/copy or if they ended up sending the wrong data to Kia head office. Either way, I suppose it's a good sign that they at least are at least forwarding the data onto Kia head office for review which, I imagine means, that they agree there is a problem. Anyhow, I'll give them a call in the morning and keep you all updated over the coming weeks on what/if happens with my attempt to get my battery replaced under warranty. This is the newest vehicle I have ever owned in my life, so hoping this all goes well, though, a little nervous about it.

[Tcalp]

So, I just spoke to the dealer, and the guy that answered the phone was the guy that I was dealing with yesterday (really nice guy). He agrees that the data for my car is from a report from roughly 1 month ago / wrong car / wrong year / wrong VIN etc... which kind of sucks (not the end of the world though). The tech that did the work isn't in until Monday, so pending until that time.

[ksoul2084]

Hi Everyone, I recently just purchased a 2016 Kia Soul EV with Luxury trim (Canada). It was previously used as a Taxi Cab (Teo Taxi bankruptcy). The unit has 130,000~KM but has a pretty awful range when fully charged; Getting 90-105KM when fully charged. I took my car in to get inspected by the local EV service center today. They wanted to keep the car for further testing (as they said Kia head office would likely ask for additional tests to be done), but given that it was the weekend, I opted to pick-up the car and bring it back when requested (if requested), next week. Sadly, there seems to be a hick-up with my paperwork as I asked for copies of my battery report and was provided a report for a 2018 EV from mid last month; Not sure if this was just an error in the print/copy or if they ended up sending the wrong data to Kia head office. Either way, I suppose it's a good sign that they at least are at least forwarding the data onto Kia head office for review which, I imagine means, that they agree there is a problem. Anyhow, I'll give them a call in the morning and keep you all updated over the coming weeks on what/if happens with my attempt to get my battery replaced under warranty. This is the newest vehicle I have ever owned in my life, so hoping this all goes well, though, a little nervous about it.

Mine is almost exactly the same in terms of year/mileage, and range. I'll watch for your updates.

[scotty2shots]

Sweet! That's great to hear, and you're welcome. In and out in 15 mins at a Kia dealer, that must be a record time! The magic keywords are "Give me HV battery SoH report!". Now the question is, how long this entire ordeal will take for you? For me it was done in 8 days, but others had to wait for months.

As an aside, SoH at 48% is crazy low. Are you the original owner of the vehicle? What kind of condition was the car in for the last few years? 48% of the original EPA miles (93) is like 45 miles. That means a round trip of no more than 22 miles without having to stop to recharge, ouch!

I'm not the original owner - so not sure how exactly it was treated before me. And yeah, work commute got really close to empty for a while there. Whenever I took my 405 route home, which involves a decent hill climb, I was down to single digits after a 42 mile round trip.

Kia just called me and said the car is ready - so that's three weeks on the dot since dropoff. For a while they were telling me the HV battery was on backorder with no ETA, but before I could call today and ask it was done.

and after combing through all these threads, I definitely want to get my OBD reader and PID codes in order so I can keep an eye on battery temp.

[TubbyLumkins]

A similar circumstances happened to me. Purchased a certified 16 Soul EV in April of this year and noticed that when I drove it off the lot it didn’t give me a typical 90ish range. I purchased the vehicle because my work has EV ChargePoint stations and thought it would be nice to not have to pay for gas. Last week, I took my car in because it was not fully charging up to 100% on a lvl 2 charger, and it wouldn’t give me nearly the capacity on a DCFC. Thus, I was getting around 40 miles on a max charge (originally 69 miles when I first bought it).

I took it to Kia of Pomona (before reading this blog) and they had to have it overnight to do additional tests. I dropped the car off on Wed, 8/7/19 and the next day the dealer told me that Kia was authorizing a replacement battery. I received the loaner car from Hertz in the approval day to replace the battery, not in Wednesday when I turned it in. I called the dealer today and they said that my car should be fixed by tomorrow afternoon (less than a week). I hope this is the case, but I am anticipating more time.

I have an apple phone so all the android diagnostics tools are difficult to get (or I’m not sure how to do this in an apple). Anyway, I am hoping that there is good news tomorrow. It what they said to to be true, I think my scenario would be the record keeper as the quickest replacement of 5 days / 3 weekdays).

[JejuSoul]

...I took it to Kia of Pomona... I dropped the car off on Wed, 8/7/19 and the next day the dealer told me that Kia was authorizing a replacement battery... (this maybe) the record keeper as the quickest replacement of 5 days / 3 weekdays).

Wow! Just last year this process was taking upto six months.
It seems that the service centers now know exactly what to do and they have replacement batteries already in stock.

...I finally got my battery replaced by Kia, they told me there is a facility in Texas where they reassemble batteries...

Having a facility in Texas probably saves an enormous amount of time and cost compared to shipping everything from Korea.
Still Kia must be losing a fortune from all these cars needing replacements.

[Lelik]

I believe the cost of replacement the battery including the battery was $3300, so it’s way more cost effective to reassemble one then shipping new one from Korea.

[TubbyLumkins]

Update: Yes, I received my car today as promised. It is running so much better and the estimated mileage on a full charge is 107 roughly. I am so impressed with Kia and they way they serviced my vehicle.

[Tcalp]

So, I just spoke to the dealer, and the guy that answered the phone was the guy that I was dealing with yesterday (really nice guy). He agrees that the data for my car is from a report from roughly 1 month ago / wrong car / wrong year / wrong VIN etc... which kind of sucks (not the end of the world though). The tech that did the work isn't in until Monday, so pending until that time.

Well, I took my vehicle in last month on the 20th, at this point I am still waiting on any word from the Kia dealer. I have called a number of times (to the dealer), and have been promised call backs on a number of occasions, but still waiting on any word. I wrote an e-mail to the service advisor that I dealt with, hopefully it will yield some form of response. (don't misunderstand my tone, this dealership is super busy, and the guy I dealt with was super nice -- So I'm not upset, just giving you guys an update on my situation ... though I suppose a small part of me is starting to feel like I'm getting a bit of a run-around)

[Kish]

Update on my car after exactly 1 year and 8 months and 13k miles later:









SOH is down to 102.8%. The Min/Max cell voltages have started to become slightly unbalanced: min sits at 4.10V and max is at 4.12V. The Min/Max deterioration values have changed: The max det is at 8.5% on cell #36, and the min det is at 5.9% on cell #2. Max det is up from 5.8% and the min det is up from 4.8% from 7 months ago.