Battery SOC indication dropped suddenly after DC lvl 3 charge

Hi All,

I just charged using lvl 3 for the first time at my dealership. When I left, I had a SOC of 85%. When I got home, I had maybe in the high 70% range SOC. I took the car out again and as I was backing out of my garage, the car suddenly shut down. When I turned it back on, my SOC dropped to 51%. My dealership is only 7 miles from me, so I doubt the GOM was that off.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Is this a typical problem when charging with quick chargers? If so, how can you accurately gauge range when planning a trip longer than 90 miles?

Clammy said:

... as I was backing out of my garage, the car suddenly shut down. When I turned it back on, my SOC dropped to 51%. ..
Has anyone experienced something like this? ...?

Click to expand...

Hi Clammy, I think your case is the first. Something is wrong with your car. Best to take it back to the dealer and have them check it. Please report back here with what they say. Good luck.

Hi Clammy,

Yes. I have been having trouble with a local level 3 QC unit in my area.
My car did exactly as you are describing...

I arrived at the location of the ABB charger and experienced this problem more than once now.
With 26% charge, I plugged in & received a charge to 84% (according to the unit & my car) ..
By the time I arrived at my friends house 7 miles away my car was saying I only had 42% ? ...

The first time this happened I was very concerned that something was amiss with my car.

The second time it happened I noticed that the start/stop notification emails I received from Greenlots, the provider that operates the charger were telling me I was NOT getting anywhere near what the charger itself was telling me (and my car) I had received.
ie: I should have received somewhere around 19 kwh but only actually had received 5.5 kwh according to the e-mail report.

It turned out there had been multiple reports that this charging unit had some issues on my favorite cell phone app, Plugshare.
It's now listed as 'inoperative'.

The ONLY time my car has done this is with this particular charging unit which is by-the-way at a KIA dealership.

Before I would assume there is a problem with your car I would check to see if the QC unit is at fault.


-- Happy ELECTRIC motoring!

AJ ..

The critical error that should be reported and checked out is "... as I was backing out of my garage, the car suddenly shut down..."

The secondary error.
It seems the external fast c harger is sending mismatched data. The energy actually supplied does not match what the external c harger says it is giving. I am surprised that the car believes what the cable says, rather than what it actually does. This is also an error in the car that should be fixed.

I actually also received emails stating only about a 5.5kwh charge so it sounds like it's the exact same issue. The car stopping is concerning though but it seems like it was resetting itself to provide the accurate charge. I will bring this up to the dealership, although they rarely respond to me unless I physically walk in.

I would agree with JejuSoul that there must be some kind of software issue aboard the Soul EV which allows the SOC to believe false communication from a QC charging unit.
ie: Any corrections of SOC data/Assessment of Charge which the car has received should not be delayed.

I believe the first time this happened my car also did a 'reboot' like Clammy experienced.
This has ONLY happened with this particular QC charge unit as I said earlier, otherwise all is as it should be.

-- It is also important that charging providers & other users be notified when charging equipment is not operating properly.

AJ

Level 3 charging is a bit different from level 1 and level 2.

Level 1 and Level 2 are AC in to the onboard charger that then feeds the battery in communication with the BMS. The EVSE just signals how much current the onboard charger can draw, the onboard charger is the one that talks over the CAN bus to the BMS.

In level 3 then BMS talks CAN bus directly to the external charger. If the external charger is lying to the BMS about how much current it is putting in then I wonder if that puts the SoC off.

thanks notfred,

Indeed my understanding is that Level 3 QC does not use the OBC as level 1 or level 2 do.

I called KIA consumer assistance center today and suggested that KIA take a car to this charger and when this anomaly occurs check the car's logs to see what's going on..

Perhaps some kind of software protocol is missing? ..

AJ