Tweet Hyundai UK and make sure everyone knows what they've done. Chances are if the battery has failed it's covered under warranty in the UK. Who do Hyundai use for breakdown in the uk? Ring them up anyway and see if they will offer recovery that you can pay for and then hopefully get the consequential loss back from Hyundai for their failed car.

Do you have legal cover on your car insurance? It might offer some help in what you can do or even pay for recovery home then they'll go and sue the arse off Hyundai.

Does the breakdown company have a web chat? That's often better than a phone number. Have you got their recovery app on your phone?

 

Well, that's what the software is supposed to do so it may have saved you from a more interesting travel story. At least you'll get your new battery faster, the only question is in which country? Hopefully you won't be on the hook for a flatbed tow.

 

I know it's not what you want to hear but they're correct the roadside assistance is for UK and Channel Islands.

What’s included with Hyundai Roadside Assistance?

• Coverage - UK and Channel Islands
• Roadside Assistance - For breakdowns over 0.25 miles away from home, we will aim to fix your car at the roadside
• Roadside Recovery - If we are unable to repair your car, it will be taken to a local Hyundai dealer or a local destination of your choice
• Home Start* - For breakdowns at home or near home, we will aim to fix your car or take it to a local Hyundai dealer
• Onward Travel*† - We will provide a replacement car for up to 2 days or overnight accommodation or cover incurred public transport costs

 

I know it's not what you want to hear but they're correct the roadside assistance is for UK and Channel Islands.

No, I understand it is my fault for making the assumption.

Another perspective is that a total vehicle failure under warranty and a safety recall that they have not honoured in the year and a half since they notified me is very different to a "general" breakdown like a flat tyre, or other easily fixed road-side problem.

 

I have a feeling I've seen a report that this can be cleared with a code clear with an OBD tool - might be worth a try.

 

 

Could you check the voltage on the 12 Volt battery? It should read well over 12.5 volts. It might be the one causing trouble. Let us hope it is and you can get on your way again with just a new 12 V battery or a battery charger.

There may be an issue with the on-board charger for the 12V battery. This guy is recharged by a separate charger taking the energy from the traction battery. The control system electronics run on the 12 Volt system. If that 12V system fails, the system cramps up and disengages everything because it fears it may damage stuff by failing to control properly.

 

Sorry to hear this. Check out your insurance cover. Given you have been waiting on a battery replacement for a year I would talk to a lawyer you may well have a case against Hyundai. Am in La Baule just up the coast. The heat is intense maybe this maybe having an effect!
n

 

Try taking the 12v off overnight, and reconnect tomorrow.

 

I did, but it didn't change anything.

 

If you are safe where you are then I'd not try driving home but keep on at Hyundai and others to sort out proper recovery.

Have Hyundai said what their plan is if La Rochelle can't recover the car or have it fixed within a couple of days? Are they going to pay extra accommodation costs while you wait for it to be fixed or offer a loan car that you can go back home in and then they will collect when they drop off your car once its fixed?

 

If you are safe where you are then I'd not try driving home but keep on at Hyundai and others to sort out proper recovery.

Have Hyundai said what their plan is if La Rochelle can't recover the car or have it fixed within a couple of days? Are they going to pay extra accommodation costs while you wait for it to be fixed or offer a loan car that you can go back home in and then they will collect when they drop off your car once its fixed?

I've not spoken to the local dealership yet (closed for lunch).

As far as I know, the dealership should be able to deal with any warranty issues since they sell the car here in France.

I'm going to ask them to organise recovery and see where that goes.

 

What a bummer. Worst nightmare to be stuck in a different country with a broken car.

My two cents worth: If Hyundai know the battery is for replacement, without mentioning where you are, phone them and tell them of the error code and that it needs fixing under warranty. Then get them to agree to recover the car and fix it and that you need a courtesy car, THEN give them the address. It will be up to Hyundai to liaise with the local Hyundai garage to recover and fix the car.

 

Try Amazon fr for the obd and get it sent to wherever you are staying. Alternatively if you can get to a Roady or Norauto they may sell them. Or try a local garage people can be very helpful here our local Citroen garage are excellent at helping people out but that is a village garage.

 

Vehicle Movements from/to France | Shift A Car - Expert Vehicle Delivery Management

www.shiftacar.com

 

It won't help you but we are thinking of you and wishing you the best of luck. Do keep in touch online. I decided some time back that at my age I would not risk having to 'learn' to drive on the right - and we both agreed 'abroad' was not an option. Take care.

Lawrence

 

So update time...

First of all, kindest thanks to @andyswarbs and his good lady for taking time out of their holiday to swing by and try to help by bringing an OBD dongle and good vibes. It was lovely to see you both and have a natter.

As for my Kona, it seems that Andy's presence was sufficient to bring things back to life. Well, possibly not but the actual sequence of events has lead me to believe that the issue might be the 12v battery.

Before Andy arrived, I had been tinkering with things trying to get some more information about the problem. On one of my previous startup attempts, the car started complaining about the 12v battery and telling me to pull over and stop - an interesting message considering the damn thing wont even start, let alone drive.

At this point I added my Halfords lithium battery booster to supplement the 12v supply which just got me back to the "check EV system" warning. By now getting quite fed up of everything, I decide to give up and start trying some other avenues of enquiry (another story for later) however, I left the battery booster connected and left the car alone for couple of hours.

When Andy arrived, I of course started trying to demonstrate the problem and to my surprise, the car started, much to Andy's amusement.

So, I also am now able to charge the car on the granny charger also. Where previously the charge port would turn immediately red, the car now correctly starts charging and the port goes green.

So what is going on?

The comments of others on the forum and these latest observations lead me to strongly suspect that this might all be a result of a failing or degraded 12v battery. I am now strongly considering going and getting a replacement 12v battery in the hopes that will resolve my problems.

Any more opinions?

Once again, huge thanks to @andyswarbs

 

Happy to (not) help. I think the problem is (kind of) fixed by what I refer to as the China pig solution. You have an intransigent problem but you also have a China pig on your mantlepiece. So you talk your problem away until your blue in the face ... to the China pig. It can't possibly help and yet magically your problem is solved. Today I was that China pig. Oink.

 

Summer trips with long packing/unpacking and staying for days at camp sites put big strain on a 12v battery. Every single door opening wakes up all electronic modules (as car prepares to drive) and after you closed the door it may take up to 1 hour before all modules go to sleep again. It repeats after every door opening. Plus rear mirrors opening/closing from proximity sensors. Unfortunately the Kona/Niro EV has half-size 12V battery (35 Ah) compared to any petrol/diesel cars (60-80 Ah).

When sitting in a parked/stopped car remember to never use Accessory mode, but always put the car in Ready to drive or in Utility mode. Otherwise the 12v battery will go flat really soon. And I hope you don't have any dashcam installed?

 

Summer trips with long packing/unpacking and staying for days at camp sites put big strain on a 12v battery. Every single door opening wakes up all electronic modules (as car prepares to drive) and after you closed the door it may take up to 1 hour before all modules go to sleep again. It repeats after every door opening. Unfortunately the Kona/Niro EV has half-size 12V battery (35 Ah) compared to any petrol/diesel cars (60-80 Ah).

When sitting in a parked/stopped car remember to never use Accessory mode, but always put the car in Ready to drive or in Utility mode. Otherwise the 12v battery will go flat really soon. And I hope you don't have any dashcam installed?

I had just completed over 8 hours of continuous driving, the vehicle was not powered off for more than a few minutes at a time. Even when we popped into some shops, the car was left in utility mode (so the aircon would stay on).

I don't think the DCDC charger topping up the 12v is the problem, I suspect the battery is just not holding charge or can't deliver the required current as well as it should.

 

The number of bizarre events that are tracked down to just a low voltage in the 12v DC auxiliary battery has taken up many pages in many threads in this forum. Seven years ago I had similar problems in an early Leaf 24. Back then the dealer's solution was to just replace the 12v battery under warranty and move on. Classic symptom treating rather than problem curing. I know of one car back then where they changed the 12v battery three times and still blamed a 'bad batch' of batteries.

My real-life solution back then, after taking advice from the forum resident lead acid battery expert, was to buy a modern 12v 'smart' charger with a de-sulphide conditioner programme and analytics that checked the battery first, then applied a fix, then slow charged it to float voltage overnight. ( Not cheap btw ) I was advised to attach that smart charger at least once per month overnight, or better still for 12 hours, whether it seemed to need it or not.

And as part of my monthly tyre kicking and screenwash filling routine that has been done ever since. Zero 12v problems since then. And zero weird and wonderful EV events such as being locked out or failing to start. And no dire warnings on the dash.

I can only pass on this wisdom and hope that a similar course will also solve this particular problem. But first off - charge that 12v battery fully - and whilst you are away, every other day as well.

 

The number of bizarre events that are tracked down to just a low voltage in the 12v DC auxiliary battery has taken up many pages in many threads in this forum. Seven years ago I had similar problems in an early Leaf 24. Back then the dealer's solution was to just replace the 12v battery under warranty and move on. Classic symptom treating rather than problem curing. I know of one car back then where they changed the 12v battery three times and still blamed a 'bad batch' of batteries.

My real-life solution back then, after taking advice from the forum resident lead acid battery expert, was to buy a modern 12v 'smart' charger with a de-sulphide conditioner programme and analytics that checked the battery first, then applied a fix, then slow charged it to float voltage overnight. ( Not cheap btw ) I was advised to attach that smart charger at least once per month overnight, or better still for 12 hours, whether it seemed to need it or not.

And as part of my monthly tyre kicking and screenwash filling routine that has been done ever since. Zero 12v problems since then. And zero weird and wonderful EV events such as being locked out or failing to start. And no dire warnings on the dash.

I can only pass on this wisdom and hope that a similar course will also solve this particular problem. But first off - charge that 12v battery fully - and whilst you are away, every other day as well.

Would it be possible to recommend a charger please?

 

@inf0mike

Changing the 12v is an easy solution compared to getting a recovery home. If you can even get as far as Dover and it conks it's far easier than being the wrong side of the channel.

 

Andyswarbs is a legend! A true knight of the road.

Is the 12 volt battery over 2 years old? If not, get it changed under warranty. If it is, get yourself a larger capacity battery from a reliable manufacturer.

Glad to hear you are back on the road.

 

Andyswarbs is a legend! A true knight of the road.

"Agreed"

Is the 12 volt battery over 2 years old? If not, get it changed under warranty. If it is, get yourself a larger capacity battery from a reliable manufacturer.

It's not my first 12v battery. The first one was replaced without asking when the car was in for some other warranty work. They told me "we noticed your 12v battery was knackered, so we changed it for you under warranty" so it is probably 12 - 18 months old.

I have purchased a replacement battery, probably not the best high quality one but the dimensions are the same. Capacity is slightly larger than the previous 45ah, this is 47ah.

I will fit it later when the heat here has dropped below 40º

 

Interestingly, the Toyota Prius I bought new in 2005 had a recall to address a 12 V battery problem. Like an EV, the Prius only has a tiny 12 V battery, as it doesn't use 12 V for starting the engine (doesn't have a starter motor or alternator). IIRC, the problem related to Toyota having selected a battery type that wasn't up to the job, plus there were issues with the battery charging DC-DC converter, in that certain patterns of use could result in the 12 V battery going flat. When that happens, just like an EV, the car can just die, with not enough power from the 12 V battery to get the systems to fire up properly.

Toyota seem to have fixed this with the recall, as I never had any problems, either with that Prius or the other two I subsequently owned. Seems very odd that some manufacturers are still running into what seems to be a very similar issue with 12 V battery health, all these years later.

 

Did you actually do any clearing of codes via OBD, or did the "check EV" thing go away by itself ?
BTW I think the Torque app +Bluetooth dongle can clear codes.

 

I've now also picked up an OBD scan tool from the same place as I got the battery. I have a feeling I've wasted my money on this as it seems it can only query 2 ECUs and as you would expect, no DTCs. These two ECUs could be the limit of what is available on the OBD port and not the fault of the tool.

So there were no codes to clear.

 

I've been following this thread with interest and am glad to hear that it looks like the OP will be back on the road again.

I have a CTEK MXS 5.0 battery charger and aim to charge the 12v batteries in our EVs monthly. It's well built, easy to use and does the job although I've never tried to bring a battery back from the dead!

I'm thinking it's time to order a Bluetooth 12v monitor - Battery Monitor BM2 device for Cars & Campervans 12V Battery/leisure battery tester Compatible with Android iOS and Ipad with bluetooth 4.0 and above. : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive because, as I said, I only aim to charge the 12v batteries every month - sometimes I forget.

 

I've been following this thread with interest and am glad to hear that it looks like the OP will be back on the road again.

I have a CTEK MXS 5.0 battery charger and aim to charge the 12v batteries in our EVs monthly. It's well built, easy to use and does the job although I've never tried to bring a battery back from the dead!

I'm thinking it's time to order a Bluetooth 12v monitor - Battery Monitor BM2 device for Cars & Campervans 12V Battery/leisure battery tester Compatible with Android iOS and Ipad with bluetooth 4.0 and above. : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive because, as I said, I only aim to charge the 12v batteries every month - sometimes I forget.

I would not be anxious about forgetting a month or two, the key is to make sure it is routinely in good health so it lasts a number of months. The charge is to make sure it maintains good health, not so much it has to be charged up. Like, getting out for a good bit of exercise every so often, no point running a marathon once a year.

Key is either a very long trickle charge, just held over 13.6V for a few days, give it a week if you can, or desuphation charges which includes high excursions to resolvate the hard sulphate deposits. Avoid rapid charges at high currents, you want the low current settings for long duration trickle charging. 48 hours on trickle (max 4A will do, probably won't get over 1A), once a month would be perfect, I believe.

If you put a charger on a battery that's been in regular use (viz. you have just done a long drive and you pull up and stick the charger on) and it draws 4A or more, it is in the process of dying already. Time for some life support!

Good luck and HTH.

 

Happy to see you off stress.

I am in violent agreement with @Hitstirrer. Use the charger as a stop gap. Figure out the real problem ASAP. And get a new 12 Volt battery.

With a fossil car, 12V battery health shows up easily to the driver. With an EV, the problem stays hidden. Because the on-board 12V battery charger will keep charging the battery with energy from the HV battery, even if it takes ridiculous amounts of energy. You get a warning from the system and your inclination is to ignore it because everything seems to work. Untill the 12V battery is so beyond recovery everything stops. So mind the system message!

Anyway, still using a lead acid for the 12Volt system is beyond me. For an EV you certainly don’t need a starter battery, now here is mindlessness. A deep cycle battery is probably a better bet. A starter battery will probably fail within 2 years unless the on-board charger keeps it full all the time.

 

Can someone explain to me the procedure for actually charging the Kona's 12v battery? This seemingly obvious question is because I don't think that the process is described in the manual. I'm presuming that it has to be disconnected first - etc. No problem for me with the ICE but this is a new ball park. I would be quite happy to occasionally charge the 12v if that is sensible - eg., before a long drive.

Lawrence

 

Can someone explain to me the procedure for actually charging the Kona's 12v battery?

I have never removed the battery from the car. I leave it connected as normal and just attach the charger croc clips to the correct terminals. Directly to the lead terminals. Done that for years.

I know that there is a lot of advice about attaching the negative to a metal part of the chassis. Apparently to avoid the possibility of a spark near to the battery itself - that might have been emitting hydrogen - and causing ignition. That must have happened at some time in the history of vehicles. And the advice grew legs. To become serious advice without question. But modern lead/acid batteries do not seem to have a few litres of liquid acid inside that can be seen bubbling off hydrogen at times. So possibly this is now a remote risk. Dunno. I just take care not to have the charger switched on until all leads are firmly connected, to avoid any sparking.

There is also a possibility of a problem these days though, as the negative side of the battery leads now have an in-line device that sends signals to the car's central brains. And it is possible that it could be confused if it detects an external charge that it wasn't expecting. Never been a problem with my cars over some years. But make your own mind up. If it bothers you take the battery out of the car and charge it up somewhere else.

 

My 16 month old Soul one failed today, I’d got a warning yesterday morning as I drove out of the garage about ancillary device causing 12V discharge (my dashcam and wireless car play box only come live when the car starts, as they are not hard wired) so I just ignored it.then I got a couple of spurious messages in Kia Connect
about my doors and boot being open, but when I checked they weren’t (this should have been my red flag). Now the car gets driven every day but the last few have just been school/shop runs, but the previous weekend we did 300 miles to Wales and back, so it’s had a decent run recently. While in Wales we did a couple of nights of granny charging thanks to our kind airbnb owner. Im wondering if the lack of driving the past few days plus the heat have pushed it over the edge.

Annoyingly I have a jump starter but sods law couldn’t remember the safe place I put it in so needed a breakdown guy to come out and jump the battery (he was convinced it wouldn’t work, only in his early 20s but his colleagues EV prejudices had obviously rubbed off on him, I was like nah mate, stick your jump box on and it will light up in a second, which it duly did). I then drove over to my mums for a later than planned lunch with my son and left it in convenience mode on her drive for the couple of hours we were over there, and so far so good.

Its going back to Kia at the end of the month anyway as I’m taking advantage of being able to walk away from the lease penalty free (see my other thread on getting a bigger car for the dog) so maybe it just knew we were binning it off and decided to have some “fun“ with me. Im wondering if I can avoid having to take it to Kia to get the battery swapped out if I do a 1 hour convenience regime every day the car doesn’t get to stretch its legs and let BCA sort the issue when it gets to them

 

Glad that it seems the OP has a possible cause for his woes. Also so nice to here of the aid a fellow forum member gave.
Turning to the advice to charge the battery regularly Mercedes specifically state in their manual that the 12v battery should be charged only by a qualified workshop albeit it has the same terminal connections available to the owner as the standard ICE cars where Mercedes’ advise you how to charge them in the manual ( I know as my eclass sent me a warning during one of our long lockdowns when the car was standing for days on end and then just going 6km max). The app incls the 12v battery as an item monitored and seems to always be in ok condition unlike the e which would often show partially charged after a short journey.
From earlier discussion threads and investigations I have discovered it is also a small battery but classed as deep cycle. Be interesting to see if the Mercedes’ develop the faults seen in other cars. However it seems I cannot do anything to avoid any issues if I follow Mercedes’ advice, fortunately they give a full european warranty inc non EU countries to get you mobile and the car returned.
Hope the OP can get some benefit from their vacances.

 

Thanks to everyone who has commented and offered supporting words and ideas.

We've been out on a short drive in the car and I went to buy a new battery although I didn't turn it off just in case. When we returned, I powered off and plugged into the granny charger at 6A and it started charging without issue.

So far, behaviour seems completely normal and I've not changed the battery yet.

Next steps are to swap this new battery in later, check the car starts and AC charges ok. Then, I might try going to a nearby rapid to see if we can get some big juice in there.