Battery degradation question

[10basetom]

Hi Kia Soul EV owners: I'm considering to purchase a used 2015 Soul EV+ with about 45k miles on it. The owner says when charged to 100% the range shows 70 miles. Is this pretty normal for a 2015 Soul EV?

I'm only asking because I'm coming from a 2013 Rav4 EV that had an original range of 104 miles, and from 2019-2020 I was using it to commute about 90 miles round trip, with about 80 miles of that trip driving 70 mph on the freeway, and with between 5-10 miles of range remaining when I reach home. In other words, the Rav4 EV battery didn't seem to degrade as much as what I'm hearing from the Soul EV (93 -> 70). The Rav4 EV did have a higher capacity 41.8 kWh battery (range in 2020 showed 130 miles after charging to 100% with "Tony test" battery reset), but it was also a lot heavier.

 

[IanL]

The displayed range is an estimate based on historic data for the car (which includes the way the car was driven, the prevailing temperature, and use of aircon/heating), hence Guess-O-Meter (GOM). (93 -> 70) implies a battery State of Health (SOH) of around 75%, but this is a very rough yardstick. If it is actually below 70%, and the vehicle is less than 7 years old, it would be eligible for a free replacement, provided the 7 year warranty was offered on the car where the car was originally sold.

You can get an idea what the SOH is by using the SoulEV Spy app and a suitable Bluetooth dongle, such as a KONNWEI KW 903, but KIA will not accept this reading, and the measurement needs to be taken with the KIA dealer's test equipment. See link to PS548. Note that dealers often do a BMS update before taking the SOH reading, which results in the SOH being reset to original value, so make sure they take the reading before the update in accordance with PS548.

If the warranty does not apply, suggest you factor-in the cost of a remanufactured battery from KIA in deciding on purchase.

 

[10basetom]

The displayed range is an estimate based on historic data for the car (which includes the way the car was driven, the prevailing temperature, and use of aircon/heating), hence Guess-O-Meter (GOM). (93 -> 70) implies a battery State of Health (SOH) of around 75%, but this is a very rough yardstick. If it is actually below 70%, and the vehicle is less than 7 years old, it would be eligible for a free replacement, provided the 7 year warranty was offered on the car where the car was originally sold.

You can get an idea what the SOH is by using the SoulEV Spy app and a suitable Bluetooth dongle, such as a KONNWEI KW 903, but KIA will not accept this reading, and the measurement needs to be taken with the KIA dealer's test equipment. See link to PS548. Note that dealers often do a BMS update before taking the SOH reading, which results in the SOH being reset to original value, so make sure they take the reading before the update in accordance with PS548.

If the warranty does not apply, suggest you factor-in the cost of a remanufactured battery from KIA in deciding on purchase.

Thanks so much for the insight on the battery situation . I have asked the owner whether I can use Soul Spy to check the SOH before purchase. It's a used car dealership, so not sure they would be open to that.

 

[IanL]

If they won't agree, what are they trying to hide :?: