NHTSA Complaint #11505877 — 2022 KIA EV6

Hyundai Motor Group misrepresented a key feature of two new electric vehicles. The models affected are the '22 Kia EV6 and the '22 Hyundai Ioniq 5. Both were advertised to charge from 10% to 80% of battery capacity in eighteen minutes at DCFC chargers. This is done with a feature called battery preconditioning which heats or cools a battery to optimum temperature for rapid charging at DCFC chargers and is necessary for the fastest charging speed when charging a car in cold conditions. The feature is now available via a software update issued in Europe and recently for Ioniq 5 owners in North America. To date they have not offered the update for Kia EV6 owners in the US. This feature is available as mentioned via a software update for early '22 Ioniq 5 models in the USA and became standard on '22 EV6 and Ioniq 5 vehicles built after July '22. It is now standard on all '23 models of both cars. Both these vehicles have a feature called Winter Mode that the Owner's Manual states will heat the battery for charging. However, this is not the same as battery preconditioning. Owners were led to believe that Winter Mode would condition a cold battery to facilitate rapid charging because the Manual and Kia's own press releases made this implication. What is known now is that it does not heat enough. The manufacturers developed a software fix but chose to release it first in Europe and more recently to Ioniq 5 owners in the US but have thus far excluded EV6 owners of '22 models purchased earlier in the year. Kia advertises being able to charge the vehicle from 10% to 80% in 18 minutes. The fine print of the claim states that this is under ideal conditions; Winter Mode was supposed to create those conditions. It does not and constitutes false advertisement. Without preconditioning, charging can take over an hour on a cold day, nowhere close to meeting the advertised claim. EV6 owners want Kia to release the battery preconditioning update to all early '22 EV6 cars in the US.