[egmacrae]

I use my other car, a Toyota Prius as a backup power source using a 1500 watt inverter and the 12 volt battery to power items in my house when the power goes out. Turning the car on , it cycles between gas and electric keeping the 12 volt battery charged. It looks like the Niro is capable of this with its auxillary battery. Have any Niro PHEV owners tried this.

 

[Griswald]

There is no "12 volt" battery in the Niro, there is a section of the HV battery dedicated to "12 volt" functions, like starting and lights.

Where would you even wire an inverter in?

 

[egmacrae]

On the PHEV Niro they put a 12 volt auxillary battery in the right rear panel of the luggage compartment. I think that the incorporation of the 12 volt in the traction battery is just in the Hybrid.

 

[eddarrah]

On the PHEV Niro they put a 12 volt auxillary battery in the right rear panel of the luggage compartment. I think that the incorporation of the 12 volt in the traction battery is just in the Hybrid.

NOT in the USA Niro models........the 12v battery is a lithium ion ferrite core, and is housed inside the hybrid battery compartment located under the rear seat. NON USA models do have it in the cargo area.........attached is a pic of the Hyundai Ioniq hybrid battery, the Ioniq being the "sister car" of the Niro..........the batteries are the same in both Hyundai Ioniq and Kia Niro.............

 

[yticolev]

The US PHEV does have a 12 volt battery in the right rear of the cargo area. I've seen a picture of the cover, just like the original 2016/17 European models. I've not yet discovered a specification yet that state it is lead acid (likely, but why) versus lithium. It is likely a low capacity battery either way. Either way, it shouldn't prevent you from modifying it as a portable power source. Obviously, the Prius folks are the experts on that, particularly those that convert regular hybrids to plug ins. There are shops in California that specialize in doing that so should be able to deal with a Niro.

 

[egmacrae]

It is a lead acid battery. Same one they use in the Hyundai Velostar from my research. The battery has a 150amp fuse on the positive terminal between it and the traction battery. There is an auxillary battery saver function in the PHEV Niro but there is a notice that if it activates 10 times consecutively in automatic mode it will stop activating. Not sure what that means.

 

[yticolev]

It means that if you have a power drain while not using the car causing the traction battery to recharge the 12 V battery, it limits it to 10 time to avoid damaging the traction battery from getting too low.

Any idea why they went back to a lead acid battery for the PHEV?

 

[egmacrae]

I don't know why they went to lead acid but maybe to allow more range for the traction battery in the PHEV for EV mode so they did away with the integrated one? I am going to assume that if I turn the Niro on and put it in hybrid mode then it will switch to gas periodically to recharge the 12 volt as I am drawing power from the inverter like in the Prius.