Recall · 23V218000
Kia America recalled the KIA Soul EV over electrical system
2,689
Vehicles covered
1
Model
5
Model years
March 29, 2023
Filed with NHTSA
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:PROPULSION SYSTEM:TRACTION BATTERY
- The defect
- Kia America, Inc. (Kia) is recalling certain 2015-2019 Soul EV vehicles equipped with an E400 battery. The high-voltage battery pack may experience an electrical short-circuit while driving.
- What it can cause
- A battery electrical short-circuit increases the risk of a fire.
- What the dealer does
- Dealers will update and/or replace the battery management system and software, as necessary, free of charge. The new software will illuminate the EV warning light, limit charging capacity, and reduce vehicle power if abnormal voltage is detected. If this occurs, the battery will be replaced, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed August 18, 2023. Owners may contact Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542. Kia's number for this recall is SC267.
- NHTSA's note
- Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.nhtsa.gov.
The repair is free, whatever the age or mileage of the vehicle, and whether or not you are the original owner.
Which vehicles
A recall reaches a range of VINs inside these model years, not every car built in them. Yours may not be covered even if it is listed here, and the only way to find out is NHTSA's own VIN lookup .
| Vehicle | Model years | Safety record |
|---|---|---|
| KiaSoul EV | 2015 to 2019 | 2017 |
How this campaign compares
At 2,689 vehicles this is a bigger campaign than 69% of the 19,818 vehicle recalls filed since 1995 whose size NHTSA published. The middle campaign on file covers 472. It covers model years 2015 to 2019, so the oldest vehicles on it were 8 model years old when the defect was reported to NHTSA.
Kia vehicles have been recalled over the electrical system 17 times before this, most recently in December 2022 as 22V899000. That is not evidence the earlier repair failed.
This site holds the complaint record for 3 of the 5 model years the campaign names. Their owners have filed 31 complaints with NHTSA, 16 of them before this campaign was filed. 14 of those name the electrical system, the system this recall is about — a count of complaints, not of this defect. The earliest of them reached NHTSA in March 2017, 6 years before this filing.
The vehicles on this campaign carry 3 other recalls published here: 23V724000 (power train), 22V031000 (air bags), 20V389000 (power train).
Check your own car
A VIN check is the only answer for a specific vehicle, and it also shows every other open recall on it, which is usually the reason it is worth doing rather than reading one campaign.
Filed by Kia America, Inc. with NHTSA on March 29, 2023 as campaign 23V218000. Every word of the defect, consequence and remedy above is NHTSA's published record of that filing, not a summary of it.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2023-03-29.
Independent developer and analyst