How important is a battery warranty on a 2017 Kia Soul EV?

[seena]

We just bought a 2017 Kia Soul EV with 26,000 km on it in Vancouver BC. It was imported from California by a dealer. They initially told us that the KIA battery warranty applied - up to 160,000 and this was a major consideration in our purchase. After we got it home the dealer called to say they just found out the warranty wouldn't apply now that the car is in Canada.
We're looking for an after-market warranty now - but also wondering if it is really important. We only plan to keep the car for a few years until an EV van is released in North America.

 

[notfred]

I would check the battery state of health. If it's good (and not just having had updates done that reset it to good), and given that you only plan to keep it for a few years then it's probably worth the risk. Otherwise I would take it back and get your money back as what they sold you (car with warranty) was not what you received (car without warranty).

One other possibility would be of the dealer is prepared to give you a warranty themselves. If not, that should set your alarm bells ringing!

 

[seena]

Thanks very much for your reply!
How would I check the battery health? I have a carfax report and the display says the range is 90 miles when it's full - which seems to be about right. Is there some other way of knowing?

They did offer to give us $1200 towards a warranty - but as far as I can tell it will cost about $2800 to get something as good as Kia's 160,000 km warranty. So we'll be out another $1600. (This is all Canadian money by the way).

We did find another 2017 Kia Soul EV that's from Canada but costs about $1000 more. It's a bit better version - the luxury one with leather seats and does have the warranty - but it has 56,000 km on it. The one we have right now only had 26,000 km - which was also partly why we bought it.

 

[IanL]

The KIA warranty is worth paying the additional amount. The mileage is less significant than the source of the car - California-hot-bad for battery longevity, and no Kia warranty on the battery :roll:

 

[EVDee]

Purely my opinion, but the extra $1,000 for the Canadian car is a steal when compared to buying that additional warranty for your California car. As someone else pointed out, heat is a major factor with these batteries which is why Kia stopped selling electric Souls in America..

As someone who bought a 2016 and had the battery pack replaced under warranty at 152,000km, I'd be freaking out if I didn't have coverage.. I'd have to do some digging because I'm unsure which chemistry the 2017 model year used, but I know for the 2018's it switched and seemed to hold up better than the previous chemistry.

As to how to check for yourself, you need to buy a OBD2 dongle (Bluetooth is suggested), an Android device (if you don't already own one), and download an app called SoulSpy (easiest & fastest route). Once you've pair the device to the OBD2 reader and got the app running, it will show you SoH or State of Health.

The key thing here is that it's reading a value provided by the car. That value only changes (roughly speaking) when:
1. A cycle from ~90% (100% is best practice) to less than 20% occurs - no charging in between.
2. The battery is then fully charged - without interruption.
3. The outside temperature is above 10C - so no recalibrations during the winter.

Best of luck!

 

[seena]

Thanks so much for all this info.
We did a test drive on the Canadian 2017 Kia Soul EV Luxury this morning and it was fine. More km but the battery health is 92% and it has the battery warranty to 160,000 km on it. We're going to return the first one and buy this one instead.
Glad to find this forum - will be needing lots of advice as we figure out how to drive an EV

 

[JejuSoul]

-
Good choice. Getting the Canadian car makes a lot of sense.

1/ The warranty. Cars driven in the 'hot' states of the US have almost all had battery problems.
2/ California cars do not have the heat pump or battery heater. They are less good in winter.
3/ The display is in km not miles.

I recommend everyone should avoid the California cars.