[egmacrae]

A couple of times now I get a message when I get back in my Niro PHEV and turn on, that "battery saver was used when I was in park". How can I be using battery saver when car is off?

 

[yticolev]

I'd do a service check. Your 12 V battery is discharging and being recharged from the traction battery. You have excessive 12 V drain.

 

[BridgeTripTrapper]

I've had my phev ex since early May, and I've seen this message twice over the past 3 months. Do any other phev owners see this message? Trying to figure out if it really means there's a problem with the 12v battery or if the battery saver system is being overly aggressive or is just plain buggy

 

[yticolev]

Quite a few see it. I think it is normal, but there is something odd about how they designed the system to charge the 12 V battery. Looks to me that rather a constant charge (15 V more or less in regular cars) to the battery, there is nothing until a trigger low voltage threshold is reached and then the traction battery recharges the 12 V battery. You only see the message about a recharge if it happens while the car is off, not while driving.

Not sure how my HEV handles charging the 12 V battery either, but clearly it is different. Lithium 12 V battery as well so the chemistry is different than your lead acid 12 V battery.

 

[Michael Jones]

Aux Battery Saver + is a feature that reduces power consumption from plugged in accessories while the vehicle is turned off to prevent discharge of the 12V battery and Extended EV battery that in the right rear of the cargo area. You can access the control for this in your settings menu under "Other Features".

 

[yticolev]

If the PHEV is wired similarly to the HEV, plugged in accessories cannot run at all with the car turned off - the outlets either time out, or quit when you open the car door after turning the car off.

 

[deltasmith]

I've been seeing this frequently. I have a PHEV and I go for days or weeks without running the ICE, often driving in full electric mode for just a few miles a day, but maybe running the headlights in addition to other stuff that requires juice from the 12V battery. Perhaps this is normal for someone who uses the car the way I do. But I recently saw it just two days after I drove 100 miles (and obviously used the ICE on that trip, which should have provided a good opportunity to recharge the 12V battery). On that particular occasion, my electric range seemed to have dropped by several miles overnight while the car was off, although I can't swear to it because I wasn't paying close attention to what the gauge said the day before. I'm wondering how big the drain is on the 12V battery is when the car is off and if there's anything I can do to influence that? I've already disabled the feature that leaves the headlights on for a few minutes after I turn the car off: it wasn't really helpful in my situation.

 

[yticolev]

All modern cars have 12v drain. Have to keep the computer systems on, can't even unlock doors without them. Pretty minimal, usually only an issue after a week or so (both HEV and PHEV have very small capacity batteries). The PHEV battery is recharged automatically when low from the traction battery. 12 v battery is being charged while car is on, or when the PHEV is being charged, even if not moving.

 

[deltasmith]

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought too, but I see this message every two or three days, and that seems a little excessive. How often do other PHEV owners see it I wonder?

Every year or so, something comes up that requires me to hop on a plane and head out of town for some period of time. Sometimes it's two weeks, sometimes it's twelve. I'm left wondering how long I can leave my PHEV parked before the 12V battery will be flat when I return.

 

[hawke]

I drive my PHEV on electric most all the time except for a bi-monthly trip out of town. The auxiliary battery charge notification appears about every three or four days. When it does appear I have never noticed any drop in the remaining distance reading for the main battery. It always reads the same as it did when I turned off the car the night before. But just as a precaution, if I ever have to leave my PHEV at an airport parking lot for a week or two, I plan on fully charging the battery before my trip and only use the ICE on the drive to the airport. I still haven't been able to learn enough about the PHEV to have the confidence not to do that.

 

[yticolev]

The 12 v battery in a PHEV is very tiny in capacity compared to the traction battery. It would be very surprising if the traction battery graph budges when it recharges the 12 v.

 

[jmurphEV]

If the PHEV is wired similarly to the HEV, plugged in accessories cannot run at all with the car turned off - the outlets either time out, or quit when you open the car door after turning the car off.

Seems that the PHEV is different in this case. My wife discovered that at least the USB outlet in the dash cubby stays powered when the car is off. Useful for charging a phone if you forgot to bring a charger.

I've seen the battery saver message once or twice. Seems if the car sits for more than a couple of days it drains the battery enough to trigger a recharge. Not worried about it, like you said, the car is drawing current when parked for a whole bunch of systems and the battery is pretty tiny, so it's not surprising it drains if it stays parked for a while.

 

[yticolev]

Out of curiosity, does the USB in front of the shift lever stay powered when you turn off the car and open the door? I don't have the storage port, but my USB does stay on for about 10 minutes after I turn the car off, unless I open the door.

 

[jmurphEV]

Out of curiosity, does the USB in front of the shift lever stay powered when you turn off the car and open the door? I don't have the storage port, but my USB does stay on for about 10 minutes after I turn the car off, unless I open the door.

That's the port I was talking about. The one the connects to the infotainment system. In the PHEV it seems to stay powered all the time. It definitely is powered before i start the car as well. I plug my phone in before starting and the port is live at that point. Don't know if that's triggered by an unlock though. It would be nice if these sorts of details were documented.

 

[yticolev]

Sorry, read too fast and thought you meant armrest storage where some trims have an outlet.

Mine is also powered up when I open the door. But it will time out if car is not turned on.

 

[Dakota Niro PHEV]

Related topic

For owners of Niro PHEV with USA specifications, Do you have this problem with UVOeco or the new Owners Portal:

Your car IS plugged in and even set upfor scheduled charging and you are able to remotely sync with your car from your smart phone app. Then you even get a text notice that charge was completed on schedule, BUT after not doing anything with your car for 2 days you can no longer remotely sync with your car??

The KIA “Help” desk can't contactit either and tells you that it went to sleep to save the battery. They will tell you that over the phone but will not put it in writing in the form of an eMail or otherwise.
Wait What?? The car is plugged in, the purpose of having it plugged in is to charge the battery on schedule like once a week.

So, you have someone you trust go to your garage and “wake up” your car by pressing start (yes they have the key). They confirm that the signal strength meter of the built in cel unit shows a strong signal, you confirm remotely that you can lock/unlock the doors and see the battery level etc. A few hours later you reconfirm that, BUT 2 days later again unable to contact it again.

 

[deltasmith]

I've noticed on one occasion that neither the UVO Eco app, nor the web site, could sync with the car. I can't say for certain, but I don't think the car had been sitting for two days when that happened (it rarely sits for two days). It did occur to me that the data transfers might run autonomously (whether I'm using Eco or not) when the car is off and this might be part of what causes the low voltage battery to need to be replenished from the high voltage battery while the car is off.


I wonder if you are polling it so frequently with Eco that it's using up change and causing it to go into sleep mode?

 

[hot4bo]

I have noticed twice now with my brand new 2019 Niro PHEV EX that, after being plugged in and reaching a full charge, when I get in after a few days, the battery is half gone and the notice about the auxiliary battery appears. This time, I plugged it in Sunday afternoon. I know it charged fully (I checked it in my EVO app on my phone) but it was half depleted this morning. Is this normal??? It never happened with my Ford C-Max PHEV and I am not happy about this at all.

 

[jmurphEV]

I have noticed twice now with my brand new 2019 Niro PHEV EX that, after being plugged in and reaching a full charge, when I get in after a few days, the battery is half gone and the notice about the auxiliary battery appears. This time, I plugged it in Sunday afternoon. I know it charged fully (I checked it in my EVO app on my phone) but it was half depleted this morning. Is this normal??? It never happened with my Ford C-Max PHEV and I am not happy about this at all.

That doesn't sound right to me. I've never seen the traction battery on my PHEV deplete appreciably even after sitting for a couple of weeks. If you are seeing that much discharge of the battery in a couple of days I'd get that looked at ASAP. That's a lot of energy going somewhere it shouldn't be.

 

[yticolev]

Two things: if you are going to let the car sit for a few days, don't charge it and let it sit for a couple days, it is hard on the battery to be charged fully and not used immediately.

Yes, you have an excessive 12 volt current somewhere and need to get that fixed. Any chance you have an OBD device plugged in? Took me twice to learn that particular lesson.