We've owned our Kia Niro for ~3 weeks now. I installed a ChargePoint 32A charger the day before we purchased it. Every day, my wife gets home, plugs it in, and the scheduled charging (on the ChargePoint app) starts at 9:30pm. It's worked without any issue. Last night, I checked the app at 10pm and it wasn't charging. The ChargePoint lights up green when not connected, and blue when connected, and pulses when charging. It was lit blue, so it recognized it was connected to the car. However, it wasn't charging. The charging plug also wasn't locked in in the car. Tried a multitude of things to get it to charge - reset the breaker, unplugging and replugging in different ways, factory reset of the charger. Couldn't get it to charge. The app would display "Failed to start session" after hanging for a min or so. Then used the factory charger, and it immediately locked the plug in and started charging. I assumed there was an issue with the ChargePoint. This morning, I unplugged the factory charger from the wall. The car wouldn't unlock the plug, and the dash showed it as still charging. The car was unlocked. I ended up having to pull the cable disconnect under the hood to get it to release. At that point, the dash finally stopped showing it as charged. Plugged in the ChargePoint, and it started charging. But, after stopping the charging through the ChargePoint app on my phone, The dash continued showing the car as being charged. Again, I had to pull the release under the hood to get the connector to release. Since this happened with both the factory charger and the ChargePoint, I'm inclined to believe this is an issue with the car. Has anyone had a similar situation? Going to do some more troubleshooting tonight if it acts up again. The car only has 1,900 miles on it. Just trying to avoid a dealership trip. Thanks in advance.
Keep us updated. All I can think is some software glitch or some corrupted setting. Restoring factory settings might be something to try if you can't figure this out.
@spazstic Have you inadvertently set up a scheduled departure time on the car? I did that as a test when I first got my Niro a few months ago. It didn't start charging immediately when I plugged in the charging cable. I set the departure time to 9am and the charging was completed as planned. My understanding is that the car's computer calculates the optimal start time to complete the charge just before your scheduled departure. The process is described in the owner's manual. The way you've described the problem sounds a bit like my test experience; however, you may be trying to unplug the car before the inadvertently scheduled departure time.
No, that was one of the first things I checked. No departure time. Last night, my wife got home and we plugged it in. The connector locked in, as it should. I was able to charge and stop charging just fine. Set the schedule on ChargePoint and it kicked on at 9:30pm as scheduled. Looks like all is well for now. But, something to keep an eye on. Gremlins like this have a way of popping up again in the future. Next time it happens I'll take some video of it for a future warranty claim, hopefully that won't be necessary.
I'm glad it's back to normal. Thanks for sharing this experience with us. If it's a software glitch, it will likely affect other Niro EV owners, too, and Kia needs to know about it.
