Battery Heater behavior

Kia Soul EV Forum

Help Support Kia Soul EV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SiLiZiUMM

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 22, 2015
Messages
92
Location
Québec, Canada
Hello all,

I want to discuss about the battery heater. It is quite an important piece of equipment for nordic Soul EVs like mine.

We are having a cold wave since December 26th, outside temperature is around -22C (up to -40C with the wind chill factor). Obviously, the available range is greatly reduced under those temperatures.

As posted by Jejusoul in another topic, I've got this message on December 27th:



It translates into "low battery temperature, limited power". The battery temperature was -21C:



This is the first time I see this message in 2 years, and we have those kind of temperatures every year. Some other users in Québec also saw this (Soul EVs as well as Hyundai Ioniq EV).

For the record, the car was plugged overnight (level 2 EVSE).

I thought the battery heater would have started itself during the night to prevent the battery from freezing. This is what the Leaf is doing by the way. To my understanding so far, it will only be active while charging or while the car is on, which is something I find surprising.

Anyone have more information on this? Here's what we can see in the service manual. To me, the BMS must be active for the heater relay to be active.

7X6cw38.png


NmjUHmg.png


W4oSAq4.png


SPrQjOj.png


tIp1ZEa.png


For the record, having a warm battery does help a lot. I am currently at my parent's house plugged on the provided level 1 EVSE (120V). Yesterday before going out, I went to the car to check the battery, It stopped charging the night before at 95%. GOM was at 75km. The pack was at -15C. I unplugged/replugged the car and started charging for 1h30. We didn't charge a lot in this hour but the battery warmer did its job. When we left, we were at 97% SOC and the battery was at 0C, GOM at 95km.
 
Back
Top