My range keeps dropping?

[bkickie]

I bought a 2016 Soul EV+ back in June 2019. When I bought it the range was supposed to be about 92 miles on a full charge. Well, the first month of having the vehicle I would charge at a 100% of the battery (according to the dash) and the range would show anywhere from 78-80 miles after charging. Over the next 6-8 weeks the range after charging has gone from 78 miles, to 72 miles, then 68 miles, and this morning after charging overnight it says 65 miles.

I drive 59 miles one-way to work so this is concerning. Last night I left work with 68 miles range on a full charge (at work). When I pulled into my driveway I had 6 miles remaining until the car died.

Any explanations? I've read where I need to get a Statement of Health on the battery from the dealer.

 

[JeroenE]

Any explanations? I've read where I need to get a Statement of Health on the battery from the dealer.

Perhaps they BMS software got upgraded and then it resets to "new". It can take a while before the BMS learns the actual SOH.

You can ask a KIA dealer to get a reading or buy a OBD-II dongle and use the Soul Spy app to find out.

 

[sprigle]

I am experiencing the same issue: range dropping; am also down to 65 miles

Could you add detail to the solutions and abbreviations? I am unfamiliar with them
BMS software
OBD dongle
Can one simply request a statement of health from a dealer?

can this be attributed to a software issue or is hardware a more likely culprit?

thank you

 

[JeroenE]

BMS software

Battery Management System, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_management_system

OBD dongle

On-board Diagnotiscs, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics

Can one simply request a statement of health from a dealer?

You can do that, they have equipment to read this.

can this be attributed to a software issue or is hardware a more likely culprit?

It also depends on your usage and things like the weather. But I guess the most likely culprit is actually the hardware, especially if it is a car that had been driving for several years.

You can first drive around until you get below 18% and then recharge to full. That way the BMS will recalculate the battery health and use that for it's range prediction.

 

[bkickie]

Now it's 10/28/19 and a "full" charge only gets me 60 miles!! By next week I'll be in the 50's!

 

[JeroenE]

Now it's 10/28/19 and a "full" charge only gets me 60 miles!! By next week I'll be in the 50's!

Have you asked a dealer to make a SoH report about your battery?

 

[kiteboarder]

Same here....

Bought 2016 Kia Soul EV + aprox May 2019. LOVE the car BUT! Already having the problem where it suddenly went from full charges reporting around 88 miles to now only 65 or so!

Dealer spent 2 days testing and it failed so they are replacing the battery under warranty. Were told it is a "remanufactured". It's taking A MONTH to receive it. Also before buying the car the carfax reported "battery replaced" so I'm assuming this is the 2nd battery. FOR a car with 20k miles!?!?!

Kinda concerned that their batteries aren't so great. Have heard / read that among the EV's none compare to the quality / durability of the Tesla apparently due to the battery cooling system.

 

[slyugo]

I wouldn’t sweat the Carfax notation, it’s more than likely the accessory 12v battery that was replaced, I was concerned of the same thing with the Carfax on a 2016 I was recently looked at... those accessory batteries should be well through their lifetime. But if you find out otherwise please tell!

But overall, it seems that the primary batteries hold up pretty well (at least when they’re not defective or trying to survive hot climates). My 2017 reported 104 miles on a full charge last week, and found a pretty interesting study that indicated the Souls degradation pretty well below average. Looks like Ford is the scariest of them :shock:

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/

 

[IanL]

Just to calibrate things, my Soul EV is 2.5 years old and 35,000 miles. The GOM states 128 miles and SoulSpy SOH is 100%. But I'm not in Arizona - my region is Southern UK/Northern France.