Arizona SOUL EV Heat testing

jstack6 · Apr 13, 2015

We have at least 3 of us that have the new SOUL EV in the greater Phoenix area. We ordered them from California. We will be doing extensive HEAT testing and measure the battery capacity to be sure it can take our HEAT.

We get a high of about 122F but on the dark asphalt it can reach 160F. The LEAF and others have had a hard time with the heat. An Air Conditioning system also has to work very hard in the extreme heat. The KIA SOUL EV has a very efficient Heat Pump. We will see how that hold up in our HEAT.

Our area is the first indicator that any vehicle can or can't take the heat. This is why many car manufacturers like Toyota, GM , Audi-VW and others test here. But they don't always give you the real life test. In real life we park in the hot sun for 8-10 hours a day since we work. We then drive home in heavy traffic and park in a hot garage to charge. They don't seem to test like that but we do!

iletric · Apr 13, 2015

Can't wait for the report.

jstack6 · May 4, 2015

So far all of our 2015 KIA SOUL EVs have been doing great. No problems and great range even at 60-70 on the highway.

We had a 100 Electric Mile Rally for our Phoenix Elec Auto Association and local Tesla owners club. My wife and a friend went 109 miles and still had 16% (about 16 miles) left on the guess o meter. That is very good.
-One small issue is when you charge in our small hot garage all the fans and cooling start up and make a heat loop in the garage. We charge at night so I can park outside ,then move in later. I also can just reduce the charge amps from 30 down to 12 on my JuiceBox charge EVSE and it doesn't need the fans and cooling. (this is common on every EV with cooling)

The SOUL EV just got ranked as the best EV value.
Kia Soul EV Named “Best Value In America” In Electric/Plug-In Hybrid Category

http://insideevs.com/kia-soul-ev-named-best-value-america-electricplug-hybrid-category/

hybridbear · May 21, 2015

jstack6 said:
-One small issue is when you charge in our small hot garage all the fans and cooling start up and make a heat loop in the garage. We charge at night so I can park outside ,then move in later. I also can just reduce the charge amps from 30 down to 12 on my JuiceBox charge EVSE and it doesn't need the fans and cooling. (this is common on every EV with cooling)

Why don't you want the fans on to cool the battery while charging?

tractioninc · Jun 25, 2015

jstack6 said:
We have at least 3 of us that have the new SOUL EV in the greater Phoenix area. We ordered them from California. We will be doing extensive HEAT testing and measure the battery capacity to be sure it can take our HEAT.

I see that the high today in Phoenix is 112 F (44 C). This year has been a scorcher! Do you guys have an update on how your cars are coping?

joy · Nov 18, 2015

Hello from Sedona,

I am wondering how you went about ordering your EV from California? The local AZ Kia dealers just try to talk me out of even considering getting one. Do you call a dealer in San Diego? Visit there? Thx for any info, Joy

inphoenix · Nov 18, 2015

joy said:
Hello from Sedona,

I am wondering how you went about ordering your EV from California? The local AZ Kia dealers just try to talk me out of even considering getting one. Do you call a dealer in San Diego? Visit there? Thx for any info, Joy

Hello Joy,

I am in Phoenix metro area and I really wanted to get the SOUL EV after seeing it. I talked to the dealers in California who were very willing to do remote paperwork and put it on a truck to be delivered to me here in Phoenix. Before I finalized the deal I decided to talk to local dealers about possible service issues. I visited two dealerships and spoke to service managers and spoke to one other on the phone. Here is the bottom line.....when you need service and it is a "minor tweak" they can help you with it (if they know what to do). If it is any thing that would need to be billed to KIA under warranty they will not touch it as they cannot bill any service for that car. Also, they do not have any diag tools for the EV system. So if you needed anything related to the electrical system your only option would be to put it on a truck and ship it to Cali. You would be paying about $700 for shipping and getting it back. I decided to drop the idea of buying a SOUL EV at this time.

Though, I am curious that what are the local SOUL EV owners doing about recent firmware upgrade which is impacting the charging of 12V battery. Can the local dealerships do that?

JejuSoul · Dec 10, 2015

The U.S. Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity for testing EVs on real roads is at the Intertek facility in downtown Phoenix. The results for this summer seem to show a dramatic loss of range in the heat. From 105 miles to 70. Did you have the same experience?
The discussion on AVT data is http://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=351

tractioninc · Dec 14, 2015

JejuSoul said:
The U.S. Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity for testing EVs on real roads is at the Intertek facility in downtown Phoenix. The results for this summer seem to show a dramatic loss of range in the heat. From 105 miles to 70. Did you have the same experience?
The discussion on AVT data is http://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=351

No, not at all. It may be worth noting that while our daytime highs approach that of Phoenix, our nights (when most of us charge) are much cooler here in Atlanta.

Daily weather charts for June 1 - Sept 30 2015 (thanks Weather U!)

Atlanta, USA

Phoenix, USA

jstack6 · Feb 6, 2016

iletric said:
Can't wait for the report.

So far all of our KIA SOUL EV vehicles are doing great. Range continues to stay better than we expected with all drivers getting 100 mile range even in COLD, HEAT with Air Cond on etc. Many of us had a LEAF and they all lost 10-15% every HOT summer. We have just had one hot summer and no loss.

I like to charge at night slow so the fans don't pull out heat and make the garage hotter causing delays in charging and wasted energy. In a closed space you get a heat loop, Pull out heat, garage is hotter causing more heat etc.

We all got our SOUL EV at Escondido KIA , http://www.northcountykia.com/search/new-soul_ev/tp-md2940/
They did everything on line and always seem to have 4 to 10 in stock. Very easy leasing.

jstack6 · Apr 9, 2016

No problems in the heat. The air conditioner HEAT PUMP is very efficient. No loss of capacity after 1 full year and through a HOT summer.

JejuSoul · Mar 19, 2018

-
Three years later - It seems all the Soul EVs in Phoenix have now had battery failures.
10 private owners and 4 cars at the Intertek AVTA facility.

There are many posts by Jim Stack on Facebook about this.
see - Has anyone had traction battery problems with their SOUL EV ?
and - https://www.facebook.com/groups/SoulEV/permalink/1623626941051246/
and - KIA SOUL EV forum on InsideEVs.com

Jim Stack said:
Yes I located every soul EV owner in my area. All 14 owners and lease drivers had their battery fail and need replacing. That took from 1 to 2 months. Most failed in 1 to 2,years. Mine took until the 3rd year since I always charge Off Peak at night when it's cooler. I also charge,at 3 kw with an adjustable juice box to keep charging heat down.
All I want is to have,all automakers see that liquid cooling is good for long battery life.
I wish there was a,site with all the data and cars.
INTERTEK does testing and share info. They have 4 of the local Soul EVs and confirmed all 4 of theirs had failed.
...
I also talked to another person who has a small test fleet of 4 2015 SOUL EV. All 4 also had their batteries fail. They got replaced but no other improvement for cooling. They were turned in and are for sale in the area but will fail again and again.
...
We have seen many traction battery fails in the Phoenix area. We thinks it's from heat.
Mine takes 2 hours to charge the last 10% . Then when we drive even 1 mile it will drop 10 to 20 miles in range.
This same type of problem has happened to all 10 soul ev owners in my area after 2 to 3 years of use.
...
watch out for HEAT related battery pack and BMS failures. It's not good in the heat. ... In Phoenix we even had the controller shut down right in traffic and you can't move an inch.
...
took a month to get the battery replaced. Some have taken 2 months. They don't have any electric courtesy cars. Some have also had the OBC on board c harger fail. That also took months to get replaced. It's a great evening when new and if it doesn't fail. But they can't take the HEAT.

The AVTA stopped posting data after the last US election so we don't have any battery data to show what happened, but we can assume the problem is extreme heat.

Note Kia does not sell EVs in Arizona. A proper liquid cooling system for the battery seems essential in this environment.

Here's a couple of charts comparing the degradation on my car with the 4 cars at the AVTA Intertek facilty in Phoenix Arizona.

ignitedAZ · Jun 14, 2018

I live in East Mesa and bought a 2015 Kia Soul EV about 3 months ago and have gone from 87 miles on a full charge, down to 70 in the hot heat of the summer. I have a service appt with Mark Kia in a couple weeks to hopefully up the range somehow.. fingers crossed.

Anyone else service their car with Mark Kia? Should I be going somewhere else?

Thanks!

JejuSoul · Jun 14, 2018

-
Good luck with your new car. This thread suggests the battery will need replacing within a few years.
As long as your commute is possible with a 70% degraded battery, then you will be fine for the years that the warranty lasts.
Kia will replace the battery with a new one each time you get down to 70%
Did they tell you this when you bought the car?
They obviously know this fact because they have done the battery replacements.

I just checked markkia.com.
They don't sell new Soul Evs, but do have 3 used.
Two were imported from California and have not had a battery replacement.
Seems fairly evil to bring these cars into Arizona knowing that they will fail here.
The Arizona car has had a battery replacement. Done by Mark Kia.

Note - the dealer can hide the actual state of a used battery by resetting the BMS.
It will show a false reading of 100% SOH for a few months until the BMS properly calibrates again.
The only way to check is to drive the car from 100% down to zero and see what the full range is.

mpea · Jun 19, 2018

ignitedAZ said:
I live in East Mesa and bought a 2015 Kia Soul EV about 3 months ago and have gone from 87 miles on a full charge, down to 70 in the hot heat of the summer. I have a service appt with Mark Kia in a couple weeks to hopefully up the range somehow.. fingers crossed.

Anyone else service their car with Mark Kia? Should I be going somewhere else?

Thanks!

Hello There, I am having the same issue with my recently purchased EV was Mark Kia the only dealer you could have it checked at?

ignitedAZ · Jun 26, 2018

Mark Kia was the only dealer I could find that would work on the Soul EV's and they did they trick. There were 3 updates that needed to be done and I left the place with the guess-o-meter showing a 103 mile range

JejuSoul · Jul 25, 2018

-

Record-breaking heat across Arizona shattered temperature records Sunday ... Temperatures in Phoenix, Flagstaff, Tucson and Yuma broke daily records Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Phoenix reached 118 degrees (F)

From : Arizona temp records toppled by deadly heat wave

Temperatures of 48C are extremely bad for Lithium Ion batteries unless they have good liquid cooling. This means more Soul EVs in Phoenix will soon require new batteries. There are some new comments on the American Facebook forum about this. It seems the length of time for 30% usable battery capacity to be lost has gone down from 2 years to less than a year.

Roderek Michael Soest said:
My 2016 (21k miles) is getting a new battery. Got a rental for the time being ... degradation with car only showing a range of 40miles... I drive it hard with highway speed in legal excess of 80mph ... I got 15k miles on mine till it gave. Came from San Diego.

From : https://www.facebook.com/groups/SoulEV/permalink/1802929353121003/

Iguesssoulmanistaken · Jul 30, 2018

Hi all,

My first post on here - I am actually up here in Canada, and worried about the COLD! lol. My question is about thermal management, so I thought I'd ask. I hear there is an upgrade you can buy - maybe for just the cold, but anyone heard about this?

Jim

mbrown827 · Aug 4, 2018

ignitedAZ said:
Mark Kia was the only dealer I could find that would work on the Soul EV's and they did they trick. There were 3 updates that needed to be done and I left the place with the guess-o-meter showing a 103 mile range

Mark Kia is the only dealership that services EV's in AZ. Next closest is Palm Springs. I bought my 2015 Soul EV 7/5/2018 with 48,XXX miles on it. It was certified preowned. At first the battery charged to 81 miles, then dropped to 70 within a week then 60 a week after. Took it to Mark Kia, getting the main battery replaced under warranty. Gave me a brand new Optima for a loaner. Repair should take 30-45 days.

ignitedAZ · Aug 6, 2018

After taking it in to Mark Kia, the battery has gone to crap. I can barely get 35 miles on a charge at the most if I drive on city streets. I took it back in to Mark Kia and they said the battery was "fine" and that it was working to "Kia standards".

I then called the Kia Corporate Consumer line, and they escalated it an escalation rep and have been waiting around.. The first time they said that Mark Kia was not authorized to work on Kia Soul EVs, and now last Friday they are saying that they are. So now the escalation rep is checking with the tech that worked on my car and they will have me take it to Mark Kia again. I just want a friggin car that works at this point :evil:

Arizona SOUL EV Heat testing

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