[deltasmith]

Thanks for the responses.


Yes, I have the free roadside assistance, although I vaguely recall one or two people commenting on this forum that trying to use it was a painful experience (something about a recorded message asking the owner to type in the VIN, and no keyboard to type with). And I'm not really expecting to have an out-of-battery-charge condition, but there are a few threads on this forum where others did experience that. The manual notes that the vanity lights over the visors and the interior light that comes on when the back hatch is opened will not automatically shut off and can wear down the battery. I've already observed on two occasions that it's possible to get the back hatch in a half-latched state where you can't push it in to get it fully latched, but you also can't open it from the exterior button on the door. I don't know if the interior light comes on in that scenario, but I imagine it could. When this has come up for me, the only thing that worked was to use the key fob button that unlatches the hatch.



A few people have noted that the trickle charger that comes with the PHEV is described in the manual as an "emergency charger". The manual also recommends keeping it in the car. I'm starting to think that it is recommended to keep it in the car in case you find yourself with a flat traction battery for some unexpected reason, because booster cables probably won't solve the problem if both batteries are flat.


It looks like my electric range goes to zero when the high voltage battery has about 20% capacity, but I've seen the battery get as low as 6% (as reported by the PHEV app on the dashboard). In that condition, if someone were to leave a visor light on for a day or two and the "Battery Saver" were to run multiple times to replenish the 12V battery from what's left of the high voltage battery, it's easy to imagine that both could be low enough to prevent starting the ICE.



As for giving someone else a boost, I wonder if temporarily disabling the PHEV's "Battery Saver+" feature, and hooking up the cables with the ignition turned off, would be safe for both cars? In other threads, certain HEV owners have commented that they plan to decline to ever give anyone a boost. That's easy to say, until it's your wife or your brother that needs a boost, and maybe there are urgent circumstances, and your Niro is the only option around...


It would be nice if the Kia owner's manual documentation was clearer on some of these questions.

 

[deltasmith]

2018 PHEV here. I have had to jump start mine....I'm one of the 'miserable roadside assistance experience' people. Few comments on the process...

1. The HEV and PHEV are different. The PHEV version has a completely separate standard 12v car battery found behind the plastic panel in the right rear of the hatch. The HEV does not.
2. The HEV has a 'reset' for the 12v...they are physically the same unit. The PHEV has some kind of recharge scheme that the main battery will charge the 12v up if the 12v drains when the car is off. However it only runs a set number of cycles and will stop so as not to run the high voltage battery dead.
3. Yes you can (and in my case must) jump start the vehicle if the 12v is dead. In my case the high voltage battery was still nearly full. For whatever reason while the car was sitting plugged in overnight the 12v drained, was refilled by the big battery, then drained again. I think it'll only do this a couple times before giving up. In any case car was stone dead to the point of no interior light. A full main battery does not help in this situation. It WILL NOT start regardless of the status of the main battery.
4. There are two spots to jump start it. Under the hood there's a big electrical box with plastic cover. Pop it off and there's a positive battery post there among other things. Well not exactly a post but a designated metal piece to clamp on to. The negative is to be latched onto whatever metal piece you like for ground. There is no negative post. This is the approved procedure in the manual. Alternatively I suppose you could connect the jumpers straight up to the 12v battery in back. I'd just use the one they tell you to use though.
5. Similarly you can jump start someone else using the same connections.

Thank you for the information! On my coming road trip, the car will be packed to the gills and so the idea of bringing along booster cables and the emergency charging cord is unappealing. And it just occurred to me that even if both batteries were truly flat, I probably wouldn't even be able to charge it with the emergency charger until after I had provided enough juice to the 12V system to run the computer and allow the charger to operate. So if push comes to shove and I can only bring either 12V booster cables or the emergency trickle charger, I'm thinking that the booster cables are the better bet. Your response seems to corroborate that idea.