Sudden loss of range while sitting in garage

[thundermustard]

My 2016 Kia Soul EV has about 27,000 miles on it.
As you can imagine it doesn't get driven everyday.
We generally charge it to 80% at night.
From time to time we will charge it to 100%, mostly because my wife isn't good at using the charge later button.
A couple of weeks ago it was charged to 80% but when my wife went out a few days later it only had 25 miles of range on it.
We thought maybe we didn't seat the connector fully so it really didn't charge.
We charged it and kept an eye on it for the next few days, all seemed good.
Today it happened again, was at 100% parked in the garage a few days ago and today the battery was at 36% of range. About 26 miles.
I am charging it now to 90% and then I am going to set a reminder to check every morning for the rest of the week.
Is this a known issue?
I assume I will need to get it to Kia but I would like to have more data for them before bringing it in.
Regards,

 

[IanL]

If you want to get some useful data, use SoulEV Spy or Car Scanner ELM OBD2, with the appropriate recommended OBD dongle, to monitor the cell voltages day by day.

 

[JejuSoul]

The most important data is how far the car can drive on a full battery.
Measured by driving not by trusting the GOM.

I assume you are in the US and still have the original HV battery.
It is likely that at some point in the next two years you will get a warranty HV battery replacement.
This fault may be an early sign that your battery is failing.
I would take your car into Kia and get it checked it now. Tell them your actual driving range.
Part of this check would include a readout of the SOH.

Knowing both your actual driving range and the official SOH you should be able to make estimates of the SOH as your actual driving range declines over the next months.

Most of the time the battery replacement is authorised once the SOH gets below 70%, but sometimes the battery goes haywire, throws lots of weird faults, has a low driving range and still claims to be SOH 100%.

I have been in the latter situation. I got a replacement battery despite the SOH. Probably because I had plenty of service history documenting the fault.

 

[ChaplainDonna]

If you want to get some useful data, use SoulEV Spy or Car Scanner ELM OBD2, with the appropriate recommended OBD dongle, to monitor the cell voltages day by day.

Dumb question I’m sure but what is an OBD dongle???

 

[kojairvs]

Hi,
Is it possible that something is discharging your battery?
If I’ve understood well, this happened after full charge, and not being used for few days, and your percentage goes down?
Stupid question but is your preheating timer on? There is an option to preheat your car when cold in the morning on timer, but car needs to be plugged. Happened to me once, it was on and car was nice and warm in the morning but because charging stopped few hours before heating started, percentage went down but recharging didn’t restart automatically. If you have timer on after few mornings of preheating but not using your car, could be that a cause of your situation?
Interested to know if this is a case…

 

[IanL]

Dumb question I’m sure but what is an OBD dongle???

It is a small unit which plugs into the OBD socket of the car (located inside the interior fuse panel). It communicates with (for example) an Android mobile phone, normally by Bluetooth.

See this link for an example.