Hi Brian I got locked inside my EV6 this morning. I was attempting to top-up charge up on the way for a long trip. In the past few days I kept getting 12V battery low warnings, especially after having my phone on wireless charge and another item on charge via USB. Whilst attempting to charge the vehicle, the tailgate was open and so was the front driver's door. The window was slightly open too about 2cm. When the charge failed, I changed to the next charger. That failed too. I noticed the 12V warning alarm sounded, so shut the tailgate, got back in the car & shut the drivers door. The car wanted to be started with the key pressing the start button. The doors deadlocked, & the car refused to start because the 12V battery was too low. All doors were locked and I was trapped inside the car. No one was passing to call for help. As the driver window was slightly open I had to phone a relative to come to my rescue. When he arrived, he was able to manually open the car from the outside with the key, but it was particularly difficult to do. Fortunately I had my jump starter in the front trunk and got the car going again. Whilst I was waiting I made a phone call to Kia. They hadn't heard of a locked inside trap in before, but they are now. Thinking about it after the event. An alternative to breaking windows, remote climate control or escaping through the back would be to have a jump starter in the front trunk manually open the bonnet & get a trusted passer by / rescuer to connect a jump starter to the 12V battery. With the car started, the doors should be able to be unlocked. Kia will replace my 12V battery when I get back home. But what a horrible situation to be in. My battery monitor shows the decline in voltage. It dropped like a stone.
Glad to hear you got out. Having boot and doors open for long periods always drains 12v quickly unless you have it in Utility Mode where the 12v gets charged.(unless there is an ICCU problem) There must be some bug or combination of events when the 12v is low making the car deadlock. Yours is 3rd case in the UK now i’ve heard of now.Yes keeling jump started in Frunk is a good call.
Hi Brian , John here - the originator of the "locked in car" storyboard , asking for your advice and insights on Sunday. Thank you for taking the time to re-enact possible situations although at onee point , started doubting myself in some of your experiences - thankfully, your revised video made some sense on my situation. I can confirm that on returning to the car and entering it manually - door locks were in "open" position, once sat down and I closed the drivers door, ( seat didn't move , dash didn't light up ) the instruction from the dash was to start the car with the key by pressing the start button - which I followed having never experienced this instruction before. Having followed this instruction by presenting the key to the start button , it was at this point that the car deadlocked ,mirrors folded and I was locked inside with no response to me pulling on the door handle - and beginning my panic/ anxiety. I had no idea that you could manually leave the car by accessing the boot and by using the manual door key tto leverage the lock manually - albeit this could be difficult to access and I guess you need to be of a fitness and agility to do this in a timely manner - but I really do appreciate the tip on this and by demonstrating that this is achievable. WoW, love my EV6 but never envisaged that a situation could ever arise, I would ever be trapped inside my own car with no easy route to leave in an emergency or critical situation. Thanks again for your great videos and popular insights - hugely appreciated - Thank you , Best regards , John
Cheers John. It also happened to viewer Alan Bootle today. In all 3 cases now i’ve heard of the 12v was failing or nearly failed and the car was stationary. Alan’s comment is pinned to the top of the comments if you’d,like to compare experiences. I feel that car maybe going into some kind of fail safe mode and dead locking or it’s a software bug. This has to be reported to Kia by as many who have had the problem.
Thanks for your efforts Brian I agree with others that the exit is way too hard I have another issue when my 12 failed. Doors were fine but it left the car in neutral. Luckily I was on flat ground, if it was hilly then I would have been stuck until roadside assistance arrived. Design fault that has been logged through Kia Australia
Thanks for the follow-up! I've managed to deadlock myself in an old ICE car by just banging my leg with the key in the pocket, but how on earth it would ever do it just as the 12v batt completely died you'd have to be the most unlucky of people.
Thank you, appreciate all the thoughtful scenario demos. I wish Kia would make the function of unlocking the hatch easier from the interior. Otherwise, I’d be willing to pay for an aftermarket devise that does an easier job of it than the key as I seem to miss hand gym days.
Thank you, Brian, for this info that I haven’t seen on any other media yet! Kia should install another way to unlock a front door using the manual key. Cheers from Germany to your channel!
So it sounds from the story below that the 12 volt battery going dead actually activated the deadlocks. And yet when brian disconnected the battery, it did not. Which suggests that as the battery is failing, either there is a hiccup causing the deadlocks to activate, or the system is deliberately doing so. Either way, Brian has proved there is a mechanism that can result in people getting locked inside the car, and I imagine only 1% of people know there is a boot release facility. Sounds like a safety issue.
Another tip - keep your 12V jump start kit in the frunk and not the boot. I could not open the boot (I could have climbed through) but could open the frunk
Good job testing it so thoroughly and showing what an absolute pain it is. Just thinking back to old school ICE cars, where deadlocks were fitted to stop thieves smashing a window or hooking to unlock the door .. the exact same situation would happen of being trapped in a car by deadlocks?? (And just saw you call out that exact point at the end!)
Thanks for the video, we had a crash in our Niro EV4 last week (not my fault) and had to go to empty out the boot but the battery had been disconnected and I could not open, so I climbed over the seat and used to key in the slot that you showed me in the video.
A 12 volt battery story (from an ice car)... My Peugeot 308 diesel battery we're showing signs of weakness and the stop start system hadn't worked for about 5 years. Halfords tested it said it replacing and just said about £250 to fit a new one. I decided to invest 40 quid in a Topdon 200 tester. This confirmed Halfords assessment and said despite being 100% charged the battery only had 25% capacity left. I wanted a new battery from Tayna batteries and tested it on arrival despite being 100% charged it said the battery was 69% capacity and needed replacing! Tayna asked me to install it charge it run it and report back. This I did but the battery condition actually was slightly worse. On the strength of this I rejected the battery and on receipt of a new one, tested it at 96% capacity and 100% charge. On the strength of this I would wholeheartedly recommend having a battery tester to monitor your battery health over time to check is status within warranty so you can complain before expiry. I wish I'd had one for my original battery when the car was less than 3 years because I suspect the battery was failing then! BTW a Bosch battery from Tayna saved me £80 less than Halfords but I had to fit it myself.
Further to this I would suggest that when reconnecting the 12 volt battery in any modern car that you give it a few minutes maybe at least five, for the systems to boot up and settle down before activating anything else. I am sure this has let the problems when I've been in haste!
Cheers Brian. Just watching this video. I see you have a steering wheel lock. Looking for one myself and wondering what one you have. Keep up these videos been a great way of checking out all the different bits and pieces.
Thank you. It’s a Stop Lock Pro. Others have suggested ones that completely cover the steering wheel give better protection. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XP21DK6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hi Brian ! I'm from Denmark and just got my second hand Performance GT-Line and will be having problems conditioning my HV battery before charging on tour. Most of the chargers that I have contracted with is NOT to be found in the navigation system. When that's the case I don't think it's posible to start conditioning by navigating to the charger. OK I could just navigate to one nearby - but that's not a good solution because I don't know the way to go to MY charger, so I need that in the navigator "too" and you can't have 2 distinations. I think we need an update to MANUALLY star the battery conditioning - right ? Is there a way to MANUALLY start conditioning the battery or do you have another solution ? Best Keld in Denmark
Is it an MY22 model (2022 Model Year). You can tell if it’s got the Battery Conditioning update by going into the EV menu-> settings. If it says Winter Mode then it will need the update by your dealer and you might have to pay to have this done.
@@evodessey I have it set to DANISH language, but if I set it to ENGLISH it has a chack mark for "Battery conditioning ... " so nothing about "Winter Mode". But is this check mark the MANUAL start of conditioning of the battery ?
No that just enables the function. If you have the latest Infotainment update installed then you just navigate to a DC fast charger with the built in maps and the car will activate the battery pre-heating when it gets closer to the destination. Usually it takes 20 minutes to run. If the outside temperature is already 25-30c then the battery pack might be warm enough already so it will not activate. (it has to be less than 20c to activate). You will also need an active Kia Connect for it all to work.
Unrelated, but I recently went on a road trip up north and my Ev6 won’t accept any charge above 22kwh. It just cuts out so I can’t use any fast charger, which is super annoying. My car is booked in on the 30th for the ICU recall. Does you happen to know if these two issue are likely to be linked or if there is another problem with the car?
I'm not yet an EV6 owner (planning to, soon after the midlife release!) but learning what I can about the car before! It's my understanding that 12 volt battery charges when the car is on, or off and the traction battery is charging or when systems are activated by using the app. Does the main battery keep the 12 volt battery topped up any other time? What about when the car is parked up while away on holiday? (Assuming ICCU is working normally)
Yes, the car will recharge the 12V battery if necessary, even if the car is completely turned off. But this can only be done a few times (7?) to avoid the traction battery being drained by a defective 12v battery. BTW, I haven't experienced any problems with the EV6 yet.
The VCMS (vehicle charging management system) keeps the 12v topped up. 12v is charged if car is in it’s “ON” state,in Utility Mode,if the V2L adapter is plugged in,even with no load and nothing plugged in,12v also charged during Remote Parking Assist & whilst Kia Connect is active.12v also topped up as you drive & also whilst the car is being charged.
@@evodessey Is that statement complete? I can hear the car going into (12V) charging mode even when it is off and no charging cable or adapter is connected.
Maybe but I think it’s unlikely since the unlock button in the car had already failed to unlock due to lack of 12v in one of the real life cases i looked at. Running the climate for 5-10 minutes would charge the 12v enough though whereas doing the remote unlock would only briefly wake up the 12v charging system. The only way to find out for sure is to test in a real 12v failure situation.
If 12Volt is gone - you won't even get to start the climate. The electronics is dead. As in dead. However, If there is a little bit of juice to turn on the electronics, and you get to the Climate button quickly enough before the voltage drops out - then you can do a recover. Been there, done that.
I'm doubtful that a 12v battery too flat to unlock the car would then have sufficient oomph to simultaneously run the climate system and engage the traction battery contactor to permit charging. Otherwise, another great video!
@@jongosling711 Yesss - should have mentioned that - have gotten used to using the key 🔑 to get into the car. So much so, that I leave the lock trim permanently off the door handle ! (Soul handle is different to EV6)
That boot emergency exit is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. Gotta be a better solution. Incidentally, you mentioned the little hammer, Brian - which seems like car manufacturers should supply one as standard, for emergency use. Have seen a suggestion, that removing a head restraint, and using the metal support to break a window might be a last resort option too. Will have to find a scrap car to see if that works.
It seemed more difficult to open when deadlocked.I totally agree. I was thinking about other things i could use. That’s a good one and might actually work. Other way i was thinking was to use 12v booster in the glove box to energise the door wiring if i could get at it.
@@evodessey Yeah, but this is us, trying to fix THEIR problem ! Hyundai/Kia people should have had this brain-stormed and sorted years, and years, ago. Talking recently to a guy with 2017 Hyundai Ioniq (the original one) and he had his NoCo booster pack for years. Same experience as mine with the Soul - once a 12V battery has had about 12 months of use, it'll be dead. Particularly at its first cold snap after 12 months. Those of us with any kind of technical abilities have been coming up with various "fixes", when H-K should have had this nailed a long time ago. Certainly before bringing out new models. They're going to get a really bad name for themselves - when much of their other tech is good - better than VW anyway !
