Several Australian Kia EV6 MY22 owners told me recently that they’d contacted Kia Australia asking for a Kia Europe battery conditioning update to be applied to their cars because they wanted to speed up cold weather charging speed at DC Ultra Fast Chargers eg: Chargefox and Evie 350kW locations. This article is a result of my queries on their behalf.
The owners also showed me the KIA America TSB ELE291, which allowed car dealers there to provide the battery conditioning update if Kia EV6 MY22 customers requested it to improve their cold weather charging speed.
In October 2022 Kia Europe announced EV6 MY22 owners could get a software update to greatly improve ultra fast charging speed in cold weather.
“The battery conditioning feature, which is fitted as standard on MY23 EV6 models, the new EV6 GT and the all-new Niro EV, is now being offered as an optional retrofit with all MY22 EV6 models, overcoming the slower charging speeds that can occur with all battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in colder temperatures”.
“Under optimal operating conditions an EV6 can charge from 10% to 80% in as little as 18 minutes, thanks to its 800 V ultra-fast charging technology enabled by the EV6’s dedicated Electric-Global Modular platform (E-GMP). However, at five degrees centigrade that same charge can take approximately 35 minutes in a MY22 EV6* without battery conditioning – the retrofit feature ensures the optimal battery operating temperature is achieved**, unlocking up to 50% improvement in charge time”.
I asked my contacts at Kia Australia to investigate and they replied as follows:
“We’ve spoken to the Kia technical team, and they’ve advised that the Australian spec of MY22 EV6 doesn’t have the necessary hardware to have the TSB ELE291 update applied, even upon customer request”.
“Battery conditioning mode was applied at MY23 timing globally. We cannot comment on NZ as we have no visibility over their operations”.
“Australian spec of MY23 EV6 has been updated to include the hardware necessary for battery conditioning mode, and has this function applied”.
“All customer queries can be sent through to customer_service@kia.com.au or 131 542.”
While this answer may not please some Australian Kia EV6 MY22 owners, at least they can be sure now that their cars cannot be updated with the cold weather battery conditioning feature because of a hardware limitation, not because they’re missing a software patch.
As a side note answering another question from me Kia Australia advised that their customers can update maps themselves by visiting the following link: Official Kia Australia Navigation Update.
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