2016 Soul EV+ Battery Replacement - Remanufactured?

Cliff · Feb 25, 2019

Our 2016 Soul EV+ suffered battery degradation to the point the battery qualified for replacement under warranty (below 70% state of health). Just got the car back today after waiting 6 weeks for the battery to arrive.

The dealer (in Orange County, CA) assured me that the battery pack was indeed new, not remanufactured. However, when I arrived home and looked through the receipt in detail... the part number seems to indicate a remanufactured unit.

Installed part number: 37510 E4200R REMAN PACK ASSY-BATT

Looking at the Kia site, a new battery pack has the same part number, sans the "R" and "REMAN".

Has anyone who had their battery pack replaced noticed the same thing? Do they always use remanufactured battery packs?

Kish · Feb 26, 2019

FWIW, mine doesn't look like to be remanufactured/refurb.

37510 E4000 PACK ASSY-BATTERY

I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as you're getting 27 kWh usable, it doesn't really matter whether it's new or refurb. To be fair, the battery warranty does clearly state that they may give you a new or refurb battery pack, and with at least 70% SoH.

... for capacity loss below 70%
of the original battery capacity. This warranty
covers repairs needed to return battery capacity to
70% of original battery capacity....
If necessary, the EV Battery will be
replaced with either a new or remanufactured
Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery. Any repair or
replacement made under this Lithium-Ion Polymer
Battery Capacity Coverage may not return your
Lithium-Ion Battery to an “as new” condition with
the original 100% battery capacity."

Battery Capacity Warranty

JejuSoul · Mar 2, 2019

-
Looking through the multiple posts on the US Facebook Forum about replacement batteries, there are some anecdotes that since the start of this year Kia are using refurbished batteries not new ones. The failures are all in 'hot' states. Arizona, Texas and California desert.
An example Soul EV - US Facebook : 18th Jan 2019
Also it seems a 6 month delay was common.

Gene White said:
The car would drive but have limited range due to the battery degrading. And the battery is unavailable because Kia chose to discontinue production so they could focus on the new battery packs for the second generation Kia EV‘s. Kia has no additional batteries and is having to re-manufacture the batteries for the first generation cars so you’re getting used components when they replaced the battery rather than all new.

Roci · Mar 5, 2019

Wow, thanks for pointing this out. I was told before my replacement that there was a change in suppliers this year for the batteries, but they didn't know anything else about it. They later told me that it probably just meant it was coming from a different distributor. But looking at my invoice, I also see mine is remanufactured as well. The full part number is 37510-E4200R REMAN PACK ASSY.

JejuSoul · Apr 3, 2019

-
Latest news from Quebec is that battery replacements for the 27kWh cars are now being doing with 30kWh packs.
Not sure yet on the details, will post again.
Perhaps they have run out completely of the older cells.
Also perhaps they are software limiting the 30kWh packs somehow.

--------------

Some comments on the 30kWh pack replacement - Quebec Kia Soul EV Forum: Comments by Phil Duff

RubberToe · Apr 4, 2019

Jeju,
Since my battery was replaces a few weeks ago, our 100% charge is now giving 110+ miles of range. Let me know if there is anything I can provide to help you figure this out. I had the Torque Pro app installed on my old phone, but have a new phone now and haven't yet installed the app. If I did that it would probably answer the question of pack size, right?

Just installed Torque Pro on my new phone. I seem to remember that the installation of the Soul EV files were quite painful, but I will try that this weekend if I have some time for a science experiment.

I also texted the dealer who did the battery replacement if the replacement battery was also under warranty to the same 100,000 mile or 10 year deadline, but they never got back to me on that. Them installing bigger batteries makes sense, if they don't want to have to do multiple replacements per car.

RT

JejuSoul · Apr 5, 2019

RubberToe said:
...
I also texted the dealer who did the battery replacement if the replacement battery was also under warranty to the same 100,000 mile or 10 year deadline, but they never got back to me on that. ..RT

Great news that you got your car back and it is good as new.
I think your battery is the same 27kWh.
The warranty will carry on from when the car was first sold, not start again from when the pack was replaced.

To know for sure what battery you got look at your invoice. Or ...
Download the SoulEVSpy app and look at the cell map.

If it looks like this (96 cells) it is the same as the original.

If it shows 100 cells you have a newer bigger pack.

----------------------

Update: 8th April 2019
One of the 3 cars in Quebec that claimed to have a bigger 30kWh battery pack is now known not to.
When tested with Torque using the 30kWh codes we see there is no cell 97. see - Facebook: KiaSoulEVQuebec: March 25 at 8:19 PM

RubberToe · Jun 25, 2019

Car is charging to 100 miles at 80% as of this morning.

RT

JejuSoul · Jun 25, 2019

-
I still have no proof that battery replacements for the 27kWh cars are now being doing with 30kWh packs.
But there are certainly many stories about this now.
There is a 2014 here in Jeju that just had its battery replaced after 110,000km.
Kia told the owner that the new battery was 30kWh.
I want to go and check with SoulEVSpy to see if there are really 100 cells.

It is also possible that a new 100 cell 30kWh usable pack could be software limited to behave like a 27kWh pack.

----------------------------

Battery prices can be found in USD at KiaPartsNow.com

For the 2015 there are no more batteries available - Kia Parts: 2015 Kia Soul EV > Engine > Battery & Cable

For the 2018 a battery pack costs $15,457.75USD - Kia Parts: 2018 Kia Soul EV> BATTERY HV

cixelsyd · Aug 1, 2019

JejuSoul said:
-
I still have no proof that battery replacements for the 27kWh cars are now being doing with 30kWh packs.
But there are certainly many stories about this now.
There is a 2014 here in Jeju that just had its battery replaced after 110,000km.
Kia told the owner that the new battery was 30kWh.
I want to go and check with SoulEVSpy to see if there are really 100 cells.

It is also possible that a new 100 cell 30kWh usable pack could be software limited to behave like a 27kWh pack.

----------------------------

Battery prices can be found in USD at KiaPartsNow.com

For the 2015 there are no more batteries available - Kia Parts: 2015 Kia Soul EV > Engine > Battery & Cable

For the 2018 a battery pack costs $15,457.75USD - Kia Parts: 2018 Kia Soul EV> BATTERY HV

I just got my car back today (2015) and it is a remanufactured 96 cell, verified with Soul EV Spy. Estimated SOH is 110%.

cixelsyd · Aug 5, 2019

After forcing a calibration (run to <20% then charge to 100%) my reman battery is showing an estimated 100% SOH in SoulSpy. min and max det both read 1.

JejuSoul · Aug 11, 2019

Lelik said:
I finally got my battery replaced by Kia, they told me there is a facility in Texas where they reassemble batteries. My SOH is 110%, 123 miles range. I'm not sure what battery they put but based on SoulSpy same number of cells. ...

It does seem cars in the US are getting re-manufactured 27kWk packs.

EVDee · Aug 11, 2019

JejuSoul said:
Lelik said:

I finally got my battery replaced by Kia, they told me there is a facility in Texas where they reassemble batteries. My SOH is 110%, 123 miles range. I'm not sure what battery they put but based on SoulSpy same number of cells. ...

Click to expand...

It does seem cars in the US are getting re-manufactured 27kWk packs.

Curious if that's the same or not for Canada.
I'm sitting on a 2016 that's getting close to needing a battery replacement, however I'm debating on waiting if they're not replacing them with 30kWh battery packs at the present time.

JejuSoul · Aug 17, 2019

-
I think a car in Europe just got replacement cells, not a re-manufactured pack.

JeroenE said:
...I now have a new battery in my car. They did not reset the BMS, so it still shows the old values, even for the min and max deterioration...

An opened pack looks like this -

With a re-manufactured pack the Kia dealer just swaps the pack. The 'new' pack will have been opened at a battery facility where some or all the cells will have been changed. Your 'old' pack goes to the battery facility for them to make the next 'new' one. Given that the same wiring harness, and same BMS hardware will be used again and again, these packs will always be the 96 cell 27kWh version. A dedicated battery facility probably has the capability to sort the cells coming out of the failed batteries into good and bad cells. Hence the replacement cells may not be new.

For a Kia dealer to replace cells, they must open your pack and replace all the cells. They would not have the capability to test each cell, replace the bad ones and then properly balance the pack. Again given that the same wiring harness, and same BMS hardware will be used it, these packs will always be the 96 cell 27kWh version.

Replacing a pack with a new 30kWh one is more expensive than either of these methods. I don't think many people will be getting a bigger pack.

JeroenE · Aug 24, 2019

JejuSoul said:
-
I think a car in Europe just got replacement cells, not a re-manufactured pack.

I have driven the car to below 18% a few times and the figures are still getting better. Friday morning the range had changed to 99 km. The SOH in Soul Spy is now 107.8%, the minimum deterioration is 2.7% and the maximum deterioration is 3.4%.

It seems that the range is slowly going up and the figures for the deterioration are also still changing (and getting much better).

So I have a theory: in May my car got new firmware and all the figures about the battery were reset. My range was back at 150 km (it was way worse because of the bad battery) and all the recorded trips where gone.

Perhaps all the cars who got a replacement battery had also gotten new firmware as part of the replacement procedure. Therefore it seemed like they were fresh again. Because my car had already gotten the new firmware separately they couldn't put new firmware on my car. So nothing was reset when the replacement battery was installed and the old data (including the bad range) were retained.

JejuSoul · Aug 25, 2019

JejuSoul said:
...
For a Kia dealer to replace cells, they must open your pack and replace all the cells. They would not have the capability to test each cell, replace the bad ones and then properly balance the pack...

Jeroen, I think the reason your car is taking a long time to adjust to the new battery is because the dealer didn't balance the cells. The BMS in the car is now doing it each time you charge. It's getting a little better each time.
The good news is that your battery seems to be better now than when you first bought it.

JeroenE · Aug 25, 2019

JejuSoul said:
Jeroen, I think the reason your car is taking a long time to adjust to the new battery is because the dealer didn't balance the cells. The BMS in the car is now doing it each time you charge. It's getting a little better each time.
The good news is that your battery seems to be better now than when you first bought it.

The SOH and min and max deterioration are still changing all the time. Yesterday I had a drive where I didn't came close to going below 18%; I was done driving at 54% (SOC displayed in the car). This morning the min and max were on 10.9% and 12.6% so the SOH actually got worse this time.

The maximum range the car displayed did improve though, so I guess I'll still chalk it up to the BMS/car learning how to deal with my new battery.

My drive this morning was to 48% (display SOC), so again not near 18%. The last times I drove below I did this very much on purpose, but I can't always keep driving around in circles just to get my car below 18% :lol:

JejuSoul · Oct 12, 2019

-
A car in Colorado just got a replacement battery.
It was not a complete pack, just all the cells and wiring.
Here's the new modules as they arrived in a box.

JejuSoul · Dec 30, 2019

-
I had my replacement battery put in today.
It looked similar to the one in the image just above.
96 new cells and the wiring inside a big wooden crate.
These cells are newly made, and are a newer type than the original cells.
They are labelled as MY18 cells.
Here's the label on the outside of the box.

Looking at the Kia parts website we see this part costs $13010.25 ($2,400 cheaper than 6 months ago)
Home > Kia Soul EV > 2016 > High Voltage Battery System

The BMS computer was kept but with upgraded software.
The values in Torque have all been reset to zero.

Before -
(The deterioration values got better a few days ago - now better than 70% - but they didn't look)

After -
( I'd driven out of the center maybe 2 or 3 minutes - they had been checking the car for 30 minutes or so.)

-

I will continue analysis of this new battery here :- Analysis of a replacement battery.

-

JejuSoul · Mar 13, 2020

-
Here's a post about degradation in a replacement battery :- SpeakEV : Replacement Battery Degradation

bkickie said:
I had the battery in my 2016 KIA Soul EV replaced in Dec. 2019 and after my first overnight charge on my wall ch arger it showed a range 105 miles. I was very pleased. However, over the next 3-4 weeks the range has dropped each morning to where I am now getting a range of 83 miles (100%) charge. When I get to work (59 miles one-way) I put my Soul EV in the charging station. This morning I pulled in with 29 miles of range left (according to the dash). After 3 hours my phone said that the vehicle had charged 61 miles, so I should have 90 miles, right? NO. I had only 83 miles of range. Now that's enough to get me home tonight, but I know come tomorrow morning the range will show 81-82 miles at 100%. This is all happening on a "new" battery paid for and replaced by KIA. I'm taking it back in for service this Friday. Anyone else experience this rate of degradation?

This sounds like the replacement was not done with 96 new battery cells. Perhaps this is a refurbished battery.
I have asked him to share what the part number was for the replacement.

-

2016 Soul EV+ Battery Replacement - Remanufactured?

Help Support Kia Soul EV Forum:

Member

Well-known member

Moderator

Member

Moderator

Well-known member

Moderator

Well-known member

Moderator

Member

Member

Moderator

Well-known member

Moderator

Well-known member

Moderator

Well-known member

Moderator

Moderator

Moderator

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!