[reihem]

So I’m late to the party. Got the warning this morning and car was towed. Was informed that in all probability they are replacing the entire battery, they’re all waiting for confirmation from Korea. I read in one of the posts above that this could take a month ? Is there any further clarity ?

[Rossiter]

Originally Posted by reihem

So I’m late to the party. Got the warning this morning and car was towed. Was informed that in all probability they are replacing the entire battery, they’re all waiting for confirmation from Korea. I read in one of the posts above that this could take a month ? Is there any further clarity ?

Yes this is an ever growing group of bricked Konas. In my case, they have run tests and their technical team in Korea has confirmed that only a certain module related to the BMS and charging system has to be replaced. The battery pack itself is fine, so won't be replaced. ETA for the repair is one month. I guess you'll be in the same timeframe as the rest of us.

Two other cars here in Bangalore are having the entire battery packs changed though.

In your case, it depends on the onboard data from your car if it's just the module or the entire battery pack that needs to be changed.

[reihem]

Originally Posted by Rossiter

Yes this is an ever growing group of bricked Konas. In my case, they have run tests and their technical team in Korea has confirmed that only a certain module related to the BMS and charging system has to be replaced. The battery pack itself is fine, so won't be replaced. ETA for the repair is one month. I guess you'll be in the same timeframe as the rest of us.

Two other cars here in Bangalore are having the entire battery packs changed though.

In your case, it depends on the onboard data from your car if it's just the module or the entire battery pack that needs to be changed.

I’ve been told to expect 15 odd days of wait time . I’m also being given a Creta in the meanwhile. Sourced from Zoom apparently. I’ll confirm once it arrives on Monday. I have pretty low expectations at this point so I’ll hold off on commenting till I see it.

I suspect I’ll get the Kona back mid January if I’m lucky. I hope it will then work well for many years, because let’s be honest, they’re never going to sell another Kona in India after this fiasco and the resale value just went to zero very rapidly. I’ll use it for as long as it serves me and probably junk it. It will be replaced then by a European diesel. They’ve never failed me.

This is what I get for trying to be green. This is what I get for trying to be an early adopter. Anyway, as they say, once bitten ...

[NannuBhai]

Originally Posted by reihem

I’ve been told to expect 15 odd days of wait time . I’m also being given a Creta in the meanwhile. Sourced from Zoom apparently. I’ll confirm once it arrives on Monday. I have pretty low expectations at this point so I’ll hold off on commenting till I see it.

I suspect I’ll get the Kona back mid January if I’m lucky. I hope it will then work well for many years, because let’s be honest, they’re never going to sell another Kona in India after this fiasco and the resale value just went to zero very rapidly. I’ll use it for as long as it serves me and probably junk it. It will be replaced then by a European diesel. They’ve never failed me.

This is what I get for trying to be green. This is what I get for trying to be an early adopter. Anyway, as they say, once bitten ...

Don’t be so dramatic. Have faith. Give it time. Something good will turn up. If a negative can come, then so can a positive. Hyundai will be mindful of the fall in kona’s value. It affects their brand image as well. But that is all long term.

For now let’s get our vehicles rectified.

[Rossiter]

Originally Posted by reihem

I’ve been told to expect 15 odd days of wait time . I’m also being given a Creta in the meanwhile. Sourced from Zoom apparently. I’ll confirm once it arrives on Monday. I have pretty low expectations at this point so I’ll hold off on commenting till I see it.

I suspect I’ll get the Kona back mid January if I’m lucky. I hope it will then work well for many years, because let’s be honest, they’re never going to sell another Kona in India after this fiasco and the resale value just went to zero very rapidly. I’ll use it for as long as it serves me and probably junk it. It will be replaced then by a European diesel. They’ve never failed me.

This is what I get for trying to be green. This is what I get for trying to be an early adopter. Anyway, as they say, once bitten ...

This is just a blip on the overall horizon, and hasn't dented my experience or of Hyundai who have been quite cooperative till now. Unlike Mahindra Electric who have been giving us e2o owners a torrid time over the last couple of years. Now THAT is paying the price for being an early adopter.

And it's not like regular ICE cars are bulletproof with all the electronics/sensors and haven't been in service centers for weeks.

That said, I'm pretty sure they'll blow past the 15 days they've told you, because Hyundai here in KA (and MH looks like) have been quite consistent in their commitment of mid-Jan for the parts to come in.

I was offered a loaner as well, but I declined. I've my regular ICE cars and also not too keen on using a car which may/may not have been thoroughly cleaned, from a covid safety point of view.

[NannuBhai]

Originally Posted by Rossiter

This is just a blip on the overall horizon, and hasn't dented my experience or of Hyundai who have been quite cooperative till now. Unlike Mahindra Electric who have been giving us e2o owners a torrid time over the last couple of years. Now THAT is paying the price for being an early adopter.

And it's not like regular ICE cars are bulletproof with all the electronics/sensors and haven't been in service centers for weeks.

That said, I'm pretty sure they'll blow past the 15 days they've told you, because Hyundai here in KA (and MH looks like) have been quite consistent in their commitment of mid-Jan for the parts to come in.

I was offered a loaner as well, but I declined. I've my regular ICE cars and also not too keen on using a car which may/may not have been thoroughly cleaned, from a covid safety point of view.

Yes. Very true. I agree 100%. Hyundai have been extremely cooperative - that’s rare among automobile companies. And this trait, thankfully, has been drilled down right into the dealership and their workshops. So yes, something to look forward to.

It’s a good thing first of all, that the manufacturer has acknowledged the problem. That’s 50% problem solved. The second 50% is identifying the solution and that’ll happen sooner than later. Remember it’s a hybrid mix of electrical, electronics, hardware and the software to drive them. Anyone or all could have a problem in them. It takes time. Let’s give them the time they need to resolve it. We don’t want to rush into a solution that hides this problem without resolving it and then open up a can of worms.

Originally Posted by pkirwadi

Did you ascertain what sensor did they reset ? Just checking as I have never come across this particular explanation so far, for the "Check EV system" warning. Nor does it seems like a plausible explanation to me. As to the monitoring part, how are they doing it ? is the car standstill, plugged in to any kind of readers ?

My Kona, is tucked away in their garage, awaiting a battery module replacement, after being detected with a fault code, in-line to the issues that were designed to be detected by this infamous BMS update.

Surprising thing for me is that I was expecting some sort of deviation in the voltage levels in the cells, but that doesn`t seem to be the case, at least in my car. So, I'm eager to know what this new angle about sensor error, that is now surfacing.

Got an update. Doesn’t look like the sensor reset did the trick. The warning came back up again.

I checked with the workshop manager. I told him about how all of you guys are facing this problem and how Hyundai is saying in almost 70% of the cases, the battery needs to be replaced. He acknowledged about the battery replacement issue with other vehicles.

However, He also says that unlike others, in my case, the DTC code doesn’t point tow the battery issue at all. With others, the DTC code pointed towards the battery which prompted Hyundai to issue a battery replacement for those vehicles. However in my case the DTC code does not point towards a battery issue. He says most likely it could be some kind of sensor malfunction which they need to identify. He has gotten in touch with the Hundai Mumbai/Delhi technical team and they are working to identify the problem and a resolution.

[reihem]

Originally Posted by NannuBhai

Don’t be so dramatic. Have faith. Give it time. Something good will turn up. If a negative can come, then so can a positive. Hyundai will be mindful of the fall in kona’s value. It affects their brand image as well. But that is all long term.

For now let’s get our vehicles rectified.

Agreed I’m perhaps being dramatic, but I’m also just tired. From the day I first heard of the news of the global kona recall, in early October, I have been harassing the Hyundai India team to let Indian owners know what they were going to do about. I have written about a dozen emails and when I finally got my hands on someone’s WhatsApp I engaged him as well. Message after message about how this was not an issue for India. Message after message about how this won’t affect us. These messages go back to October 12th. And here we are today. I’ve had recall experiences with Volvo and BMW. They were different, what can I say !?

Anyway I’m taking your advice and waiting for something positive to come out of this. In between my last message and this message I was informed the loaner wasn’t a new creta from the company as discussed but either a company owned xcent or a creta from Zoom. Needless to say I too have declined this option.

Hoping this chapter closes soon. Also to be clear my dramatic response was in no way an indictment of EVs, merely an indictment of the way this was handled.

[shaheenazk]

Hyundai to end domestic sales of Kona EVs after recalls:

https://auto.economictimes.indiatime...ports/79791529

[reihem]

Bricked Konas are showing up all over the 1400+ member KonaEV group on Reddit. In a strange way I’m comforted that there are others in my predicament.

[shaheenazk]

Originally Posted by reihem

Attachment 2095203

Seems to be a software glitch in the BMS update.

[ADI7YAK]

Got Kona software update as well as 10k km service today. The bill mentions
1.BMS Software update and,
2.ESP Upgrade IEB Improvement.

A sad scene at service centre though, saw 7 other Konas parked away gathering dust presumably waiting for battery pack/other part replacement. Hope the issues are sorted out at the earliest.

[shaheenazk]

Originally Posted by ADI7YAK

Got Kona software update as well as 10k km service today. The bill mentions
1.BMS Software update and,
2.ESP Upgrade IEB Improvement.

There have been several instances of Konas getting bricked after the BMS update. Hope it does not happen to your Kona. Happy driving

[Aditya]

Hyundai Kona EV owners face battery issues & breakdowns in India - Posts moved to a new thread.

[GTO]

Quite sad to hear. Hope you guys get all your issues fixed soon and happily cruise through 2021.

A reminder to the conservative amongst us = don't buy the v1 electric cars of any manufacturer. The only matured EVs are the Teslas, but they aren't available in India.

[Crow]

Having read a Kona ownership thread on Team-BHP recently, I was quite excited by the prospect of a vehicle that could take me from Mumbai to Pune on a single charge. Sure, it’s not ideal for my annual 2,000-km road trips, but for what I call “4am misal pav runs” it could have been a tempting eco-friendly option.

Unfortunately my excitement has been totally crushed for the Kona now. When you couple this with other issues that have been collated beautifully in another thread (brake failure in Seltos, paint peeling off on some Hyundai vehicles, etc), it paints a terrible picture. It’s not like the Kona is some cut-price car that people are picking up from a scrapyard.

After paying a premium and working around the infrastructure limitations that all EV owners face in India, Kona owners deserved much better than this. I fear that an experience like this could be damaging for EVs from other brands too. Really hope people don’t use this incident to start saying that “software updates brick all EVs”.