check electrical vehicle system appears causing the car to come to a sudden stop

[theblokeman]

hello there, I have a 2016 kia soul EV. today, on the way home from a restuarant, the kia soul came to a sudden stop while driving and showed the error. luckily, there were no cars behind me so I wasn't hurt but it was a really bad thing to happen and am scared to try driving it again till I have an idea of what's wrong. i've seen many people with the same error but different things triggered the error. I can't find anyone who had the same problem so I just wanted to ask. i've also heard that the error dissappears from the system when turning the car off. obviously I didn't have anything handy to check and was right next to a round about so it wouldn't have been the best spot to check.

 

[IanL]

Usuallly when something like that happens, the fault is recorded in the fault log. KIA dealers can access the log and see the details. Some faults can be accessed by third party OBD testers, such as SoulEV Spy, but some need the KIA proprietary equipment.

 

[DG1]

Just had the same thing happen. Sudden jerk like the car had bottomed out, message on the screen about Check Electric Vehicle System, and the car won't move. I can't even get it to turn off. I'm waiting for the tow truck now.

 

[BEC]

As in a similar discussion in another thread — check the 12V battery.

I had some strange brake system errors and the car would not turn off in my own driveway. A jump pack connected to the 12V battery allowed an orderly shutdown. Battery read just under 8V. A new one solved the issues.

 

[Zippy]

I recently had this problem after I charged the battery to full. My house is near a very large hill, and whenever I fully charge the battery and go down the hill the regen adds additional power back into the battery. It would always happen at the same intersection, right after being fully charged. I wonder why KIA doesn't do what the other companies do, and disable regen breaking when the battery is full.

I am not sure how it works, but I think the BMS notices this and freaks out by shutting down the car; probably to prevent the battery from overcharging. I got around this problem for a while by putting it in D mode when the battery was fully charged. I also learned later that whenever this was happening it was damaging my battery. So it is a good idea to take it to KIA and get it fixed right away, it is a safety issue.

They replaced the battery, but then I was unable to recharge the vehicle, I took it back to KIA recently, and they said it needed a new BMS.

 

[mariano3113]

I recently had this problem after I charged the battery to full. My house is near a very large hill, and whenever I fully charge the battery and go down the hill the regen adds additional power back into the battery. It would always happen at the same intersection, right after being fully charged. I wonder why KIA doesn't do what the other companies do, and disable regen breaking when the battery is full.

I am not sure how it works, but I think the BMS notices this and freaks out by shutting down the car; probably to prevent the battery from overcharging. I got around this problem for a while by putting it in D mode when the battery was fully charged. I also learned later that whenever this was happening it was damaging my battery. So it is a good idea to take it to KIA and get it fixed right away, it is a safety issue.

They replaced the battery, but then I was unable to recharge the vehicle, I took it back to KIA recently, and they said it needed a new BMS.

I have 2 vehicles that allow full Regen at 100% indicated SOC
The 2015 Soul EV + and a 2023 F150 Lightning Pro SR

The Lightning has a larger buffer than the Soul EV so I assume it would be harder to get near actual pack capacity to stop Regen from working.

My 2015 Soul EV still does Regen even in D, so that seems weird that your Soul won't Regen when in D but only in B.

My Niro regular Hybrid technically still regens even when indicated battery meter is full, as this vehicle has a small 1.32kWh (battery) but it may just be using power dumped elsewhere (usually always have climate on....regening near indicated Full sometimes spins AC faster....It might hit overcharge protections if Climate control was off*)


My 2019 Bolt disabled Regen, if charge status is too high so 94-95% is upper limit of being able to retain Regen.


Loaner EV6 has Regen at 100% indicated State of Charge. (I suspect there is a large enough too end buffer)



Tesla+Toyota (2nd Gen) Rav4EV had normal mode and Extended Mode.
-When in Normal mode the Battery can show as 100% indicated State of Charge but if you switch to Extended Range mode the State of Charge would lower.
(Best practical example of having a top end battery buffer. I assumed Manufacturers which want to give the impression of more reliability with driving Regen characteristics and also flatter charging curve would prefer to have a larger top end buffer. The typical end user will just think the battery management software is better than other vehicles, when really the customer is just locked out of using most of the battery they paid for.)

*Technically a vehicle could be released where it always tries to prioritize X amount of driving range and then uses the rest of the battery capacity as "reserves"

Example would be a 200+kWh Silverado EV 4WT that instead of 450 mile of max range...was instead programmed to give 250 miles of range. (Battery would still charge the same, but regardless of weather conditions you would have roughly the same range. Basically the inverse of Power Reserve for using power outlet capacity (vehicle load) where you set a limit.)


Porsche have a rather large buffer, coupled with understating max driving range ....to where it seems they outperform EPA range and also flat charging curve when near 100% indicated capacity.

 

[sjcaus]

My 2018 Soul EV charging curve drops off abruptly at 100% charge, and does not taper at all like my Leafs used to and my Ioniq 6 does just slightly, indicating to me that at 100% the battery is not at a full charge state. So my conclusion is depending on the size of the hill it may be possible for the Soul to provide regen. without overcharging the battery. How much is an interesting question. Measuring the area under the power versus time charging curve during the amperage taper time for a Leaf may give you an approximate value. I may be able to find one of these in my egauge history.

 

[chilibt]

Just a note on KIA's manipulation of 100%:

In my 2018 Soul, prior to the latest (second) update in September 2024 the battery cell voltages were 4.18 when showing 100% (This is after the first software update in Dec 2023 time frame, which limited the range to 194-200km. which was 80% in real range). After they acknowledged the loss of range, they had a new September update, I had my range rise to a Max 210 KM, but the voltages are now capped at 4.10 volts. every charge. (I tried level 2 and 1) . The Max range seems to never change, unlike how it did every charge depending on temperature and previous driving (highway vs city).

My thoughts are Kia has reduced our range through the voltage cap at 4.10v to about 84 % of the normal range of about 242 at 4.18 volts. I think after 5 years of ownership, it is pretty crappy to throttle back everyone's battery capacity to save them a risk of the "possibility" of warranty work. This is a software patch that degrades the performance (range) of our cars. Also the range estimation is now unreliable and a problem as it often loses 10 km or more instantly which never happened before the updates.

Has anyone else had this experience?

 

[ksoul2084]

Just a note on KIA's manipulation of 100%:

In my 2018 Soul, prior to the latest (second) update in September 2024 the battery cell voltages were 4.18 when showing 100% (This is after the first software update in Dec 2023 time frame, which limited the range to 194-200km. which was 80% in real range). After they acknowledged the loss of range, they had a new September update, I had my range rise to a Max 210 KM, but the voltages are now capped at 4.10 volts. every charge. (I tried level 2 and 1) . The Max range seems to never change, unlike how it did every charge depending on temperature and previous driving (highway vs city).

My thoughts are Kia has reduced our range through the voltage cap at 4.10v to about 84 % of the normal range of about 242 at 4.18 volts. I think after 5 years of ownership, it is pretty crappy to throttle back everyone's battery capacity to save them a risk of the "possibility" of warranty work. This is a software patch that degrades the performance (range) of our cars. Also the range estimation is now unreliable and a problem as it often loses 10 km or more instantly which never happened before the updates.

Has anyone else had this experience?

Just to confirm, you are saying that the original recall BMS replacement and reprogramming kept your original range form before the reprogramming, and that the 100% cell voltages were at 4.18v, but the most recent (second) BMS reprogramming recall reduced it to 4.10v?

I can see KIA deciding to do that and screw all their customers over vs paying to replace all the battery packs that were failing after the original reprogramming. They are not known for their customer support.

 

[chilibt]

No, I lost between 22-13% range. Here is a better graphic:

Date, Range, Voltage, Other info
Before January 24 update to BMS, 240-255km , unknown voltage (no evSpy), Very reliable range estimates

Feb 2024 after 1st update, 190-200km, 4.18v per cell (evSpy Data), Unreliable range estimates(-10km)

Sept 2024 update 2nd update, 210km always, 4.10v per cell (evSpy Data), Very unreliable range estimates >10km requiring unplanned charging enroute... Or else.

The Feb update removed 20%-22% of my range which was over a 5 year range history.

The September update gives me 13-18% less than original range.

Note: these are summer (23-30 degree Celcius ranges)
Original range estimates were always updated at the beginning of the trip, now they update 1/2 to 2/3 into the trip, allowing no room for modifying route and charging options, almost stranding me once.