What is your biggest Concern w/ Equinox EV?

2222 Views 72 Replies 18 Participants Last post by MaybeFutureBuyer, 5 d ago

Evan1

Discussion Starter · 18 d ago (Edited)

See Poll.

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Chip

· #9 · 17 d ago

You should add size.

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After thinking about "my" primary concern it would have to be to see if GM can manage to get the 12 volt (re) / charging protocol right. This one issue seems to be a major stumbling point to many new EV's. Carrying around a 12 volt jump box in the trunk to energise the car's flat 12 volt is neither a good look, nor something that a car @ this price point should have its owner concerned about.

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Chip

· #37 · 14 d ago

hellsop said:
I've never had a problem with a flat 12v in an EV. But I've been Well Aware that EVs use 12v batteries very differently than ICE cars do, which means I look for what they DO show and change the battery when the problems show. Usually the first problem people encounter in an ICE car with a weak 12v battery is either slow turnover or misfires due to weak spark in the first couple of seconds after starting. And neither of those conditions obtain with an EV. We do know that batteries age, and a steadily increasing percentage of them will be failing after 4,5,6 years. We've hypothesized over on the Volt forum that the battery's internal resistance measure is the sole objective test that might have some bearing on how functional the battery still is (>1 ohm good, 10 ohms might be causing problems, 70 ohms is junk).

As I read your reply it seems to me you don't understand that when an EV 12 volt battery is dead the car is dead as well. You don't necessarily get any warning to change the battery before you are left in a "brick" condition. Some early Mach E's suffered this issue, but many more Hyundai Ioniq 5's and Kia EV 6's are now experiencing more than a few number of battery failures that I believe due to a faulty charging protocol. Some are no doubt due to bad batteries, but I suspect that most of those so called bad batteries were caused by not being recharged frequently enough by the car's big battery and allowed to sit in a low voltage condition for too long. This is a sure fire way to kill an otherwise good battery.

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Chip

· #42 · 13 d ago

hellsop said:
I understand all that, but if the 12v is dead in an ICE car, the car is dead too. That's not even new.

What I'm saying is that I've never had a dead 12v on an EV. I've read some about the issues other manufacturers have been having and they're.... ones that are outside what I'd consider normal experiences. Ford had a software failure that broke then "unplugged battery maintenance cycle", but that's not a thing non-EVs even HAVE, so... Hyundai had a problem with third-party status apps keeping their cars "awake" with nagging requests, but that's just an unorthodox kind of vampire drain. The rest of the problems I've seen others talk about are far more NORMAL vampire drains: dash cams, radio rigs, etc being installed suboptimally on unswitched circuits.

And there's a LOT of complaining from people who didn't read their owner manuals and lead how to deal with "bricked car" in the first place. I know how Chevy does it because I read that part: unlock door with key, pop hood, supply 12v* to jump lugs provided for that purpose, turn car on, THEN figure out whether the battery drain is just low or if you've damaged your AGM too much to recover onboard. I do not for a second doubt that it'll be exactly that procedure for the Equinox EV as well, because that process works. (Ford apparently puts their 12v source connection behind a cover on the bumper and a LOT of people miss that one for obvious reasons. Or "insufficiently obviousness" reason if you wanna look at it that way.)

* Is a 12v jump pack inelegant? Sure. Does it beat waiting for AAA or GM Roadside to send someone in a truck around? Also sure.

I suppose we can argue about the why's and / or the how's, but we will just have to agree to disagree with the exception of your first statement. "I understand all that, but if the 12v is dead in an ICE car, the car is dead too. That's not even new." I've never owned an ICE vehicle in over 60 years that the battery didn't offer up a tell-tale warning that it was on its last legs. This is not the case for most of the dead battery "bricked" EVs that I've read owner reports from.

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