Featured Novel idea from the Hyundai Ioniq

I was one of those reporters since I attended Hyundai's media drive event in Santa Barbara earlier this year and wrote up a review:
2017 Hyundai Ioniq Review First Drive

I'm passing along what I was told at that event. It's probably correct but the people at these events often answer questions outside of their own area of expertise and occasionally flub an answer on technical details.

 

My use of subsection likely came from an earlier reveal article; likely pre North American release.

So, no frunk in the Ioniq Electric, and is the battery really just air cooled?

 

Right. As you can see in one of the photos in the article, there is no frunk in the Ioniq Electric. Here it is:



I should have written more about it but, yes, I believe the Ioniq Electric uses active forced air cooling along with electric air heating. Hyundai says the battery cells operate better at cold temperatures than some other BEVs.

The Ioniq Hybrid's 12V Lithium-ion battery is described on pages 10 and 29-30 of its emergency response guide here:

http://www.evsafetytraining.org/~/media/electric%20vehicle/files/hyundai/erg2017hyundaiioniqhybrid.pdf?as=1&iar=1&la=en

 

My opinion is that it IS a cool feature, an NO Prius doesn't have it.

My only exception is this statement:

Even if the HV battery is capable of charging the 12 volt in case of emergency or when it get's low-which I think is a really neat feature and benefit, I still don't think that means you don't want to change 12-volt it when it needs changing.
The only potential drawback of this feature might be if people neglect their 12-volt, relying way too much on the back-up emergency feature.

But besides that?
Hey...it's a cool idea. Good for Hyundai.

 

and if you think the prius 12v is difficult to change, get a load of the pic in jeff's link. but i have no idea how long the ionique 12v will last. if it's 10-15 years, no biggie. and if you're the original owner, it's under warranty.

 

The 12 volt battery is under the rear seat beside the traction battery. How does replacing that relate to what is under the hood?

 

first of all, 99.9% of prius 12v battery problems are gen 2 & 3, which is in the hatch, right rear corner under the floor. the c is under the seat, not sure about v.

secondly, the ionic has to be removed from underneath the car, iirc.

 

Disappointing on the frunk; guess Hyundai skipped it to keep the MSRP low. Looks like there is space for someone to jury rig a plastic bin in front of the lead battery.
Also on the air cooling; another cost saving. It does have fan, and draws in cabin air, so the HVAC system can help more than what the Leaf has. Id the heater just the heat pump, or is there a direct heating mat-like system?

The PDF Jeff N linked actually describes what are thinking of as a self jumping feature. In short it isn't. The 12volt battery has a discharge protection circuit that disconnects the battery from the 12 volt 'grid' in the car if the charge gets low to stop any further discharging. Other cars with lead acid batteries can have similar. The battery reset button does not charge the 12volt from the traction pack. It reconnects the 12volt, and gives you 15 seconds to start up the car. The guide says to let the car run for 30 minutes after this start up to ensure the 12volt is fully charged up.

Li-ion and lead-acid are really different chemistries. The Li-ion isn't as damaged by s deep discharge as a 12 volt starter battery is, or Hyundai set the protect limit to a sizable buffer.

Any idea on how easy a Hyundai rear seat bottom is to remove? People were popping the gen4 Prius one off by hand, and taking pictures of the battery at the model's reveal event.

Which chances are is more of a PITA to replace. then again, it properly going to be about 10 years before you have to start worrying about the batteries health.

 

@Jeff N Do you know which Ioniq have a spare? All, some, none?

 

agreed, see my post #25. toyota may have solved the problem in gen 4 at a lower cost, time will tell.

 

The electric doesn't.

 

So the hybrid and plug-in hybrid do have a spare? Interesting...

 

Sounds like the cars.com website technically got it wrong.

Because if this description is correct.....

Then the 12 volt isn't being charged...just protected from a level of discharge.

Still....an interesting and I think useful safeguard feature.

 

The PHEV isn't arriving until fall, and I don't know if it has a spare or not.

 

I don't recall offhand and I didn't think to take a picture of the area under the hatch floor on the regular hybrid models.

Here is an under the hatch floor picture from the electric model. There isn't much space except for the 120v charge cord (I guess) since the BEV model extends the battery pack under most of the hatch area.

I'm guessing the doodad labeled "33" in the right side of the storage area is a GPS tracking device used to monitor where the car was driven during the media test drives.

 

I actually think it's a decent idea and I'd add it as an option on my Prius if I could.

It's true I've never needed it with my Prius, but there's an off time when a 12V battery is starting to degrade, that it could save your bacon enough to get to somewhere to buy a new battery. I keep an extra battery/tire compressor in my car all the time -- just in case...

 

Do you compress your battery? Or did you mean a Battery Charger/Tire Compressor?

 

It'd be nice to compress the battery and the tires, but just air for tires. (and words out of sentences!)