2016 Soul EV+ Battery Replacement - Remanufactured?

[FLKiaEV]

Exactly my thoughts, biffidum: I will be charging to 80% most of the time with the occasional 100% charge only because I hear that it helps to calibrate the battery if it is fully charged approximately once every 10 cycles or so.

I've now been waiting 4 months and about 12 days, but I SHOULD be getting the phone call in the next few weeks because the Kia Consumer Services lady called me a while back and said they are fulfilling the October orders currently and mine was from November, so fingers crossed...

The Warranty Manual that comes with the car says that they reserve the right to replace the battery with a used one with a SOH of at least 70%, but it sounds like they are manufacturing new ones in this situation. Besides, it wouldn't make sense for them to give me one that is close to the "replace" threshold since I have more than 4 years left on the vehicle warranty and they'd probably be replacing it again. So, again, fingers crossed!

[FLKiaEV]

UPDATE: Amazing coincidence, but on my way to work today I got a call from Kia Consumer Relations telling me that my battery is FINALLY leaving Korea and that it will hit the California port on April 25th. After being sent to one of Kia's parts warehouses and then to my actual dealership it will probably be the first or second week of May when I get the call from the dealership saying that it's ready to be picked up. By that time it will have been just over five months that my Kia has been awaiting the battery at the dealership...

[IanL]

...... Besides, it wouldn't make sense for them to give me one that is close to the "replace" threshold since I have more than 4 years left on the vehicle warranty and they'd probably be replacing it again. So, again, fingers crossed!

Your car is a 2016, with the old technology cells. Your replacement battery should have the new tech, cells, which suggests you are very unlikely to need a new battery in 4 years. No-one knows yet how long the new cells will last, but mine is over 4 years old, and still not dropped below the 100% mark. My estimate is that is at something like 102-103%.

[FLKiaEV]

Ah, that's great to hear IanL! I was kind of hoping they'd replace it with the slightly larger 2018 battery pack (30KWH instead of 27KWH), but either way I'll be happy to be seeing 100-ish miles of range. Wow, 4 years old and still holding at 100%? That's great! I will definitely be taking extra super good care of this one (even more so than the previous one) by charging to 80% as much as possible and rarely using DC Fast charging. I hear it's a good idea to charge to 100% about every 10 cycles too.

[IanL]

I expect you will still get a 96 cell-pairs battery. The 30kWh battery has 100 cell-pairs, so you should have 96/100x30 = 28.8 kWh . Not bad!

[FLKiaEV]

Is that the usable capacity or does that 28.8 include the buffer?

[IanL]

My understanding is that the 30kWh capacity is the usable capacity, and so excludes the buffer. Therefore the 28.8 also excludes the buffer.

[FLKiaEV]

Cool. REALLY looking forward to getting my car back! The battery pack is scheduled to arrive at the port in California on or around April 25, but with the slow pace of the unloading of freighters I'm hoping that it won't be sitting on a boat at the port for another 2 or 3 months waiting to be unloaded... <Fingers crossed>

[Mdbuilder]

Ah, that's great to hear IanL! I was kind of hoping they'd replace it with the slightly larger 2018 battery pack (30KWH instead of 27KWH), but either way I'll be happy to be seeing 100-ish miles of range. Wow, 4 years old and still holding at 100%? That's great! I will definitely be taking extra super good care of this one (even more so than the previous one) by charging to 80% as much as possible and rarely using DC Fast charging. I hear it's a good idea to charge to 100% about every 10 cycles too.

I've had my replacement battery for a couple weeks now, it is charging to 103-105 miles. Seems pretty accurate as the miles since the last charge + the miles on the meter add up to 103+ as I drive it down to 20% or so.

[FLKiaEV]

Good to know, Mdbuilder. I'll report back on how many miles I end up with with a full charge once I get my car back.