Kia dealer has my SoulEV for 3+ months

raskal said:

My 2017 does NOT have the 80% charge option. Are you saying that your 2017 DOES have an 80% option? That would be the first time I've ever heard that

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Yes, it does have the 80% option. Although our original BMS (and battery) have been replaced so maybe the newer BMS is what is giving me that. Ours is also the + model (the mid range of three options). I don't know if they differentiated that way.

On second thought the owners manual talked about the 80% option so maybe it was there all along.

nickfank said:

My local dealer had my 2016 for over a year during the mid to late pandemic because they had problems diagnosing and then sourcing parts for what was clearly an electric problem. However, Kia paid for a Niro EV rental during the entire time, so I'm not complaining. (We loved the Niro!) The only downside is that the Soul smells a little musty now because it sat without any air circulation during most of that time. I'll probably fork out the money to have it professionally cleaned.

The irony- Due to info gained on this forum, I was able to tell them exactly what the problem was when I dropped it off. They ignored that diagnosis, and then one year later, came up with the same diagnosis.

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Two KIA dealers had my 2017 Soul EV for just over 10 months. They provided no loaner nor a rental car. Their responsibility was only to repair the car.
I'm jealous.

winepoured said:

Brand new to forum. Have a 2017 Soul EV. What is considered a "probem battery"? It started out at around 93ish miles and now down to about 70ish. Are they ALL needing to be replaced? I got letter about this but when I called they said we "will get back to you" if there is a problem. Sorry - like I said new to this issue.

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I am new to the forum also. I am ignorant about the 80% charging option or the need to use it. My 2017 shows more range in warmer weather, whether or not I use heat, defroster, seat heat. In 40' F weather, my range is on tne mid 80's. This morning it was 98 miles. I drive frugally most of the time and can get the reported range up to 120 miles in warm weather.

PopeyeCinnamon said:

I am new to the forum also. I am ignorant about the 80% charging option or the need to use it. My 2017 shows more range in warmer weather, whether or not I use heat, defroster, seat heat. In 40' F weather, my range is on tne mid 80's. This morning it was 98 miles. I drive frugally most of the time and can get the reported range up to 120 miles in warm weather.

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(I didn't mean to post that yet...)
My mileage is 25,616.
I meant to say that in 40⁰ weather my range is lower even if I don't use any heat. If I do use heat it initially drops rang by 11 miles or so, but it seems to be a bit worse than that if I drive 20 miles or so.
In cooler weather it is nigh impossible to average above 4.1 m/kwh, with the mid 3's being more usual. In warm weather on the same path to work I can reasonably get above 6 m/kwh.
I live in Tidewater Virginia in Norfolk and work in Virginia Beach. It is flat here. I bought the car used in 2021. I think it was originally from somewhere in New England. The mileage was remarkably low. Colder weather there!

JejuSoul said:

Really. I didn't know they had changed this for the 2018.
So what happens if you have two timers set.
One at 7pm and one at 11pm. You plug in at 7.30pm.
My car will start charging at 11pm.
If I plug in after 11pm it would wait until 7pm the next day, This has happened a few times and is quite annoying.
Maybe this is the reason for the change in functionality. I prefer the way the timer works on mine. I just have to be careful with the time.
The reason for setting these points is to be able to always avoid peak pricing, so if I need the car later in the evening I'll charge for a while at standard rate by plugging in when I get home. Most of my charging however is done off-peak during the night. I wait until after 7 to plug in.
I have 80% settings because I have a 2015. If I use the timer override it always goes to 100%.
I knew they removed the 80% setting in 2017, but didn't know they had changed the timer functionality.

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I do not appear to have the facility to set a second timer for charging. I assume that was deleted at the same time as the 80% option was removed. though I cannot see why they would do that.

It's not a problem for me, as I don't have off-peak rates, so I use the timer only to aim for an ~80% charge.

PopeyeCinnamon said:

Two KIA dealers had my 2017 Soul EV for just over 10 months. They provided no loaner nor a rental car. Their responsibility was only to repair the car.
I'm jealous.

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Hmmm... I think that if you look at the terms of the warranty, a rental/loaner is in there. Not sure how you'd deal with that after the fact, but I think they owe you money. (When I pointed out the loaner clause, they didn't try to get out of it, and I was able to push them to find an EV so I didn't have the additional expense of gas, which was the whole point of buying an EV.)

I'll note that it was Kia themselves, not their local dealer, that rented the car for me. I think they involved the team back at Kia headquarters in the diagnosis, and they quickly said "this will take a while, here's the rental authorization."

UPDATE: Going on 7 months now, Kia still doesnt know what to do about it but finally after applying a lot of pressure I got a loaner.

nickfank said:

Hmmm... I think that if you look at the terms of the warranty, a rental/loaner is in there. Not sure how you'd deal with that after the fact, but I think they owe you money. (When I pointed out the loaner clause, they didn't try to get out of it, and I was able to push them to find an EV so I didn't have the additional expense of gas, which was the whole point of buying an EV.)

I'll note that it was Kia themselves, not their local dealer, that rented the car for me. I think they involved the team back at Kia headquarters in the diagnosis, and they quickly said "this will take a while, here's the rental authorization."

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Yeah, for me they offered to let me rent a car out of pocket, reimbursement was less than forty dollars a day and only after the warranty work was complete. That they gave you an electric car to use is nothing short of a miracle. I am having a hard time not being jealous.

spidermonkey said:

Yeah, for me they offered to let me rent a car out of pocket, reimbursement was less than forty dollars a day and only after the warranty work was complete. That they gave you an electric car to use is nothing short of a miracle. I am having a hard time not being jealous.

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For me the dealership wouldnt give me a loaner despite asking many times (going on 6 months!), so I pressed Kia corporate who said they will authorize the dealership to bill then back. They also said the rental car parameters above.

The dealership ended up working something out that was a hybrid.. they said since it's not an EV i can save my gas receipts and submit after the whole ordeal is done.

So I would press kia corporate if i was you.. as long as the issue is kia's fault (in my case warranty work that went awry)

How many of you have gotten your car back? I am still getting radio silence after 4 months?

ClayPete said:

How many of you have gotten your car back? I am still getting radio silence after 4 months?

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I just heard today actually that next week they'll start testing a new update they're rolling out to try to fix it. First they're asking for the version, then having tests ran, then will try an update.

Will report back!

chrislarsen3 said:

I just heard today actually that next week they'll start testing a new update they're rolling out to try to fix it. First they're asking for the version, then having tests ran, then will try an update.

Will report back!

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Who told you this, please, and who is “they”? Thanks.

pg

pgeller said:

Who told you this, please, and who is “they”? Thanks.

pg

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My service manager at the dealership told me and "they" are Kia engineering.

Well I had a lively conversation with Kia corp. yesterday. To be honest it wasnt a conversation, it was me venting off seven months of frustration. To be clear, I have up until this point been very patient, polite and have actually maintained a sense of humor over the whole circus act. Yesterday not so much. Kia sold a car with a warranty, the warranty is for free parts and labor. Period. Full Stop. Nothing more. Those of you that got loaner vehicles received manna from heaven, you were lucky. Those of you that received compensation for fuel were lucky. They were very clear with me as to what Kias policy is, they were very clear as to what they wont do.

Kia is a faceless corporation, not a human being. Corporations are not capable of empathy and they are not legally bound to care. Corporations are entities that dont have a lawyer, they have a legal division. A whole floor whose sole purpose in life is to defend the corporations wealth. Just letting us borrow a vehicle from their vast inventory of vehicles diminishes the value of those vehicles, thus diminishes the over all value of Kia.

The take away from all of this is that we should be grateful that Kia is even considering honoring their warranty. Kias view is that it is our fault we purchased a fatally flawed vehicle from them. We were too cheap or too poor or just plain too stupid to understand that there are risks involved with purchasing a vehicle from a dealership. Kia feels that we are fatally flawed therefore deserve a fatally flawed car, and it is by their very grace alone that they honor the warranty at all.

The buy out isnt even enough to make a down payment on a car. The rental fees amount to a monthly car payment. That the batteries are finally in the United States awaiting quality control, that each of us have been moved to the top of the list, to the front of the line, that the engineers have made a break through, that we just need to save our receipts for compensation. All of this is lip service from a faceless corporation that lacks even the tiniest bit of integrity.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Its Kia. Kia wins. The corporation wins. Big money wins again. We are just suckers, marks and rubes. We could pray to God or write a letter to Santa and get better results.

It took me awhile to get there but I'm finally seeing it for what it is.
Thank you for listening.

Ugh. What buyout are you referring to tho?

chrislarsen3 said:

My service manager at the dealership told me and "they" are Kia engineering.

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Thanks.

To put some perspective on this, or maybe some empathy, or at the very least shine a light on what we are truly up against. These cars set peoples homes on fire. We have lost our cars but some people lost everything. Everything. When they reached out to their home owners insurance, they gave them the "we arent going to pay that out, not if we can get Kia to pay that out." Kia doesnt want that kind of ugly attached to their name and insurance companies cash checks they dont write them. So now its a battle of the lawyers.

Kia made a car that catches on fire, I didnt see that feature in the sales brochure... not to make lite of peoples suffering. This is a case of I had no shoes and was complaining then I saw someone with no feet and said, "Hey look at all the money you are saving by not having any feet...No wait thats not what I mean, I mean Its like Jesus said "Do unto others before they do unto you"...wait, that cant be right. Well you know what I mean.

Cheers.

Kia Corporate just strings me along with what I now know were lies. They seem to have the same respect for their dealerships. I will never buy another Kia because of this experience. They know it and couldn’t care less.

faf625 said:

Kia Corporate just strings me along with what I now know were lies. They seem to have the same respect for their dealerships. I will never buy another Kia because of this experience. They know it and couldn’t care less.

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Welcome to the fold my friend, welcome to the fold.

Hi all, Kia SoulEV 2016 approved for battery replacement back in November 2023. Just like everyone else no info given no updates just being told to wait. No rental or loaner given just been out a car for months now. If anyone has any updated info or help for me please let me know.