Hyundai and Kia, two of the biggest players in the electric vehicle (EV) market, have faced criticism from Consumer Reports due to reliability issues related to their Integrated Charging Control Unit (ICCU). The ICCU, responsible for converting high voltage to low and recharging the 12-volt battery, has been at the center of several complaints from EV owners. According to a recent report by Consumer Reports, between 2 and 10 percent of Hyundai and Kia EV owners have experienced ICCU-related issues, with some owners reporting coming to a dead stop on the road despite having sufficient charge to drive. This is not only inconvenient but also extremely unsafe. The auto conglomerate has issued two recalls in the past and has attempted to fix the problem with software updates and part replacements. However, the Consumer Reports claims that the repair has been ineffective, with many owners still reporting issues after repairs. The ...
Hyundai and Kia, two of the biggest players in the electric vehicle (EV) market, have faced criticism from Consumer Reports due to reliability issues related to their Integrated Charging Control Unit (ICCU). The ICCU, responsible for converting high voltage to low and recharging the 12-volt battery, has been at the center of several complaints from EV owners.
According to a recent report by Consumer Reports, between 2 and 10 percent of Hyundai and Kia EV owners have experienced ICCU-related issues, with some owners reporting coming to a dead stop on the road despite having sufficient charge to drive. This is not only inconvenient but also extremely unsafe.
The auto conglomerate has issued two recalls in the past and has attempted to fix the problem with software updates and part replacements. However, the Consumer Reports claims that the repair has been ineffective, with many owners still reporting issues after repairs.
The failure occurs when the transistor inside the ICCU fails due to overvoltage at the beginning and end of the 12-volt battery’s charging cycle. So far, the repair has involved scanning the car’s ECU for a specific trouble code that may flag the issue to the technician performing the recall fix. If it’s found, both the ICCU and the corresponding fuse will be replaced, and a low-conductivity coolant flush will be performed at no cost. If the trouble code isn’t found, then a simple software update for the ICCU is performed.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 actually performed better than the Tesla Model Y in Consumer Reports’ own testing, but ICCU failures hurt the Ioniq 5’s reliability so much that it has a lower Overall Score than the Model Y, and didn’t meet the criteria for a spot among their Top Picks.
Hyundai told Consumer Reports that it’s working with suppliers to ship parts to dealerships as quickly as possible and will reimburse owners for some out-of-pocket expenses related to the issue. Meanwhile, Kia said the necessary parts are in stock to perform the repairs.
The publication did not comment on whether Genesis had commented on the issue.
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