Sorry, car is 2022 Kia EV6 air.

 

Just on the 'does it work in the UK', this is on the National Highways site, so I am guessing 'yes' (although it may not have been when you bought the car I guess)

eCall SOS - National Highways

eCall is a safety feature that gets you help quicker and faster.

nationalhighways.co.uk

 

Why in the middle of the dash and why only a 3 year lifespan....sheesh. Poor planning.

 

@Chris Lund That is frustrating that it's not a 5 min DIY job that's easy to replace the battery.

However, I would not be skipping this part of the service. As @Truan posted, e-call does operate in the UK, and in the event of an accident/emergency, and should the worst happen, skipping on this now means your car would not be able to automatically communicate with 999.

Treat the cost as anything else safety related, whether it's worn out brake pads or worn out tyres. You wouldn't skip on replacing those, would you?

 

Personally I wouldn't bother. Highlight the stupidity of the designers. It should be a small slide out tray with a couple of CR2032 or similar. Ridiculous.

 

200 pounds for a battery?? WTH??? Have they never heard of rechargeable batteries? Just chuck an 18650 LFB battery in there, keep it topped up at 60% and it'll last the lifetime of the car.

This is just another scheme to make money out of those cars. I know that if my country does not force me by law then they can stick their battery whereever they want but not in my car.

 

This is a screenshot from a video where someone followed the instructions to replace the ecall battery in their Ioniq 5 themselves. Hmmm... I would rather pay the dealer to do it.

 

This is a screenshot from a video where someone followed the instructions to replace the ecall battery in their Ioniq 5 themselves. Hmmm... I would rather pay the dealer to do it.
View attachment 208398

I can see why they put the e-call unit there as it's somewhere safe. What I can't really get my head around is the glovebox design. It should be either toolless or just a few screws holding it in so you can take it out in two mins. Then the e-call unit battery would be a quick swap out.

As for the OP (my personal choice) would probably leave the unit as is and wait until the battery fails and you get the permanent warning on the dash and then do it either yourself, at an independent Hyundai/Kia specialist or at the dealer.

 

And I'd wager after a garage has dismantled the dash, there will be a squeak or rattle afterwards.

 

@colinstone Perhaps. Bear in mind that ecall batteries are not always so difficult to replace in every brand's car. It could be in the boot, it could be in the rear headliner, it could be behind the instrument cluster. It varies.

 

Thankyou all.
Chris