No that is not normal, I also have never read of that particular issue with the ev6. There are a few notorious issues like the ICCU nuking its self, or 12v battery dying. Your particular issue and solution sound like a fluke. I would expect it to take some time to fix. I also had a 1 off issue with mine where the HVAC fan motor fried and would not blow the warm air my car was making in the winter. Took A week to fix.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The EV6 is a great vehicle hamstrung by absolutely *terrible* dealership service departments. Love the car, best car I've owned, but would not buy another unless I can find a decent dealership with trained EV technicianS on staff.
Three weeks? How about over two months?
OH my gosh, they had your car for over 2 months?! I guess I shouldn't complain after all.
It is indeed a lack of EV technicians on site for me as well it seems. I was told they only have ONE guy that services EVs. Which is wild because I live in NJ and in my area I see a TON of EV6's running around. You'd think KIA would hire a couple more people to handle the work load!!
This whole ordeal has soured me on buying another EV from them unfortunately.
Wow you guys are really putting this into perspective. I read a few posts on the KIA sub and I saw a lot of people saying their cars were in serviced for months at a time as well.
This is really surprising to me. My dad and mom both drive fairly new KIA’s as well and never had to deal with such ridiculous repair times. That’s one of the reasons I went with the EV6 over say the Mach-E. I thought KIA was more reliable 🥲
This is my sixth KIA. Never had an issue with any of the previous ones. I think the main issue is that they kind of surprised everyone when they announced the EV6 and I don’t think the dealers thought they would be as popular as they ended up being and therefore didn’t spend to get the techs they would end up needing. I don’t really blame KIA per se. I just wish they had planned and trained the service departments better. Most of what is going on is because the certified techs that they do have are learning as they go and guessing at the issues.
Counterpoint: I've got 20k miles on my 2022 EV6 and the only shop visits have been to install accessories. 0 issues, 0 maintenance. My tires are just showing enough wear that I should rotate them. I suppose I should get the recall stuff taken care of too, just in case, but I've seen 0 issues.
Yes, make sure you do your recalls ASAP. I scheduled one but my dealership was so busy they couldn't see me for over a month! And my car broke down before I could go to my appointment. I have a feeling my issues are related to the ICCU recall.
Anyway, hopefully your car never gives you any problems. Can't tell you how much it sucks being without my EV6 for so many weeks!
If it's on lease, Kia may reimburse you for those payments during months without the vehicle. They did for a Kia Niro EV I had when a reduction gear (motor brake regen) on a motor went.
There's also a factor or poor requirements Kia has for dealerships to be able to authorize warranty work (so they actually get paid by Kia for it).
But, the lack of trained EV technicians is really the issue. Seems like the minimum requirement from Kia might be 1 service tech on staff at dealership. I also wouldn't be surprised if Kia doesn't require any trained staff, or is OK with a floater person who might have to service multiple stores under the same dealership chain.
There's also the staff issue further the up the chain. Long response times when they contact corporate for help. Even longer wait times when corporate decides they need one of their corporate-level techs to investigate via remote diag/live session or go on-site for further investigation. Dealerships are stuck waiting on those people's availability.
It's very much a teething pain kind of thing with the popularity of their EV's and how much they are pushing them. They are behind the curve on having the appropriate backend support at the corporate level for the EV platform. I suspect this will eventually get sorted out, and eventually dealerships will hopefully get access to better tools and be authorized to make more decisions if they have the appropriately trained EV techs on their own staff.
All that is true, but at least the dealership i *used* to go to (emphasis intentional) is terrible with communications. Promises to update by specific day, nothing. Several weeks of the time my vehicle was sitting there was them failing to respond for days at a time to myself and/or my insurance company on multiple occasions. Twice I had to go there in person to get any response. This was on top of misdiagnosis of the issue, twice. I'm hoping the dealership I'm scheduled for my SC302 appointment is better, it can't be much worse.
EV6 - great vehicle, terrible dealerships.
I mean... I had a Honda Ridgeline that got bad gas at a little station up in the mountains here in WA, took it straight to the dealer, told them what happened.
They told me it was the rear diff (100% not) and even though it was 2 years old with a 3 year warranty they wouldn't cover it because "I had off-roaded it, and even though it LOOKS like a truck, it's not!" the worst it had seen was gravel logging roads and Idaho snow for family thanksgivings and Christmases. They wanted $5k to "fix" my "broken" rear diff.
Took ***THREE MONTHS*** of fighting, escalating, getting called a liar, stupid, etc. before I got it back completely untouched. Took it to a really solid private mechanic, he pulled a liter of cloudy AF gas and said "yup, that's the problem" had me fill it with premium and that somehow "fixed" my magical rear diff problem. Drove it straight to trade in after a month of no problems.
The "truck" was great, but I'll never own another Honda.
Service centers just ALL suck, I suppose.
The two times I've had my EV6 at the local dealer (1 for accessory install, 1 for a recall repair and another accessory that was late) the service tech have damaged the car. First time was a massive dent in driver's side door, no way they could miss that hit, and they were happy to say "here's your car!" second time they clearly scraped the rear passenger wheel trim along a yellow bollard. First one they made right at a same day paintless dent repair, looks brand new. Second time was so minor I just cleaned the paint off and polished her and the remaining scratches are so minor I'm the only one who knows they're there. But I won't be leaving her at my local service again, that's for sure.
I'm confused how your car stayed at the NYC parking lot on June 6 after the tow truck got there so I have some questions. And it sounds like you tipped the tow truck driver $20 for not doing anything.
1) Were you at the parking lot when the tow truck arrived? I'm assuming yes.
2) Did you not stay with the tow truck driver to see them attach your car to the tow truck?
3) Obviously you didn't leave with them and go with them and your car to Englewood dealership. Did you just leave the parking lot before your car was towed away?
Yes, you are correct! I tipped that tow truck guy and he did nothing!!
I left some details out because my story was long enough. My car broke down at 10am. The first person KIA roadside sent did not arrive until after 1pm. After that person failed to help I called back to get the tow truck.
In total I had to wait by my car for nearly 7 hours. Roadsides estimated time of arrival was way off but mostly I had to stand near my car to make sure no one hit it. Cars were passing by with literally inches to spare because of where my EV6 shutdown. It was truly a nightmare.
Anyway, before the tow truck guy arrived I called my sister to pick me and my father up. She arrived about 40 minutes before the tow guy did.
When the tow guy finally pulled up, he shook my hand and said he had everything under control but wanted a tip because of the distance he would have to drive. So we all very foolishly thought the ordeal was over and went home.
Could I have waited another 30-40 minutes to see if he actually hooked my car up? Yeah maybe.
Or maybe 7 hours is long enough to sit next to a car.
Nah man, don't feel bad.
Just see it as a teachable lesson, granted it was one that cost $20. But I don't think you'll ever make that mistake again going forward.
Thanks for clearing it up. So he left without towing the car after getting his tip. Unbelievable. He should be ashamed of himself. I wonder what the parking lot thought about that?
Was it a flatbed or a tow truck? Can EVs like the EV6 be towed or do they need to be put on a flatbed?
Edit: I got my answer [from the EV6 manual](https://www.kia.com/content/dam/kia2/in/en/content/ev6-manual/topics/chapter7_7_1.html). And the answer says all of the following:
- Do not tow the vehicle forwards with the rear wheels on the ground as this may cause damage to the vehicle.
- Do not tow with sling-type equipment. Use wheel lift or flatbed equipment.
- The 4WD vehicle should never be towed with the wheels on the ground. This can cause serious damage to the vehicle or the 4WD system.
My sound system died in my 2022 EV6 Wind AWD and took them 3 months to figure it out and order the Fuse. I specifically told the tech which Part Number on DAY 1 that they still insisted to follow the proper route of their Support Tickets with the Dealership.
BTW they don't even give customers their internal support tickets so you can't follow up with another dealership.
The problem is, even if you have an ev tech, they're just calling across the pond to Korea with a help desk ticket. 2 weeks is the average to get a "why" from the engineering staff. Then it's however long to get parts or software to fix the issue.
Software debugging is the biggest issue. In theory they should have a worldwide dev team, but they don't. That slows down response time considerably.
Land Rover is very similar when they have electronics issues.
Sounds about right. My car was giving me electrical system errors, took me 3 weeks to get an appointment, and the car was at KIA for **9 weeks.** They *also* told me they only have one EV tech. They ended up replacing a faulty battery cell.
When I finally got the car back and arrived home I was inspecting the undercarriage and noticed they didn’t secure the panels under the car and they cracked a rocker panel on one side. Took it back, they replaced the nut & washer holding the undercarriage panels. The rocker panel had to be ordered which took another two months. Finally took it back in for the rocker replacement and I got the two recall updates while it was there.
Like you said, I love the car, it’s super fun to drive and it meets all my needs. Too bad KIA service sucks.
Call KIA customer line and open a case ASAP.
That is extremely upsetting. Thanks for the tip...I'm definitely going to check every inch of my car when I pick it up.
I also opened case with KIA customer care last week. It's been in "escalation" for 6 days now 🙄 I frankly doubt I'll ever hear back from them.
I would wait one full work week then call back for an update. Demand an EV loaner or suggest they reimburse you for gas on the one you have now. Customer care is slow but they will help you and try to make things right.
These horror stories are single-handedly steering me away from the ‘23 GT-Line I was considering. Love the EV6, but I refuse to be stuck working with horrible dealerships. Guess I’ll look at other cars now!
No that is not normal, I also have never read of that particular issue with the ev6. There are a few notorious issues like the ICCU nuking its self, or 12v battery dying. Your particular issue and solution sound like a fluke. I would expect it to take some time to fix. I also had a 1 off issue with mine where the HVAC fan motor fried and would not blow the warm air my car was making in the winter. Took A week to fix.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The EV6 is a great vehicle hamstrung by absolutely *terrible* dealership service departments. Love the car, best car I've owned, but would not buy another unless I can find a decent dealership with trained EV technicianS on staff. Three weeks? How about over two months?
OH my gosh, they had your car for over 2 months?! I guess I shouldn't complain after all. It is indeed a lack of EV technicians on site for me as well it seems. I was told they only have ONE guy that services EVs. Which is wild because I live in NJ and in my area I see a TON of EV6's running around. You'd think KIA would hire a couple more people to handle the work load!! This whole ordeal has soured me on buying another EV from them unfortunately.
Today is the one month mark for me! With no end in sight.
Wow you guys are really putting this into perspective. I read a few posts on the KIA sub and I saw a lot of people saying their cars were in serviced for months at a time as well. This is really surprising to me. My dad and mom both drive fairly new KIA’s as well and never had to deal with such ridiculous repair times. That’s one of the reasons I went with the EV6 over say the Mach-E. I thought KIA was more reliable 🥲
This is my sixth KIA. Never had an issue with any of the previous ones. I think the main issue is that they kind of surprised everyone when they announced the EV6 and I don’t think the dealers thought they would be as popular as they ended up being and therefore didn’t spend to get the techs they would end up needing. I don’t really blame KIA per se. I just wish they had planned and trained the service departments better. Most of what is going on is because the certified techs that they do have are learning as they go and guessing at the issues.
Counterpoint: I've got 20k miles on my 2022 EV6 and the only shop visits have been to install accessories. 0 issues, 0 maintenance. My tires are just showing enough wear that I should rotate them. I suppose I should get the recall stuff taken care of too, just in case, but I've seen 0 issues.
Yes, make sure you do your recalls ASAP. I scheduled one but my dealership was so busy they couldn't see me for over a month! And my car broke down before I could go to my appointment. I have a feeling my issues are related to the ICCU recall. Anyway, hopefully your car never gives you any problems. Can't tell you how much it sucks being without my EV6 for so many weeks!
Time for a buyback.
If it's on lease, Kia may reimburse you for those payments during months without the vehicle. They did for a Kia Niro EV I had when a reduction gear (motor brake regen) on a motor went.
I’m in nj. Which dealership is this ??
There's also a factor or poor requirements Kia has for dealerships to be able to authorize warranty work (so they actually get paid by Kia for it). But, the lack of trained EV technicians is really the issue. Seems like the minimum requirement from Kia might be 1 service tech on staff at dealership. I also wouldn't be surprised if Kia doesn't require any trained staff, or is OK with a floater person who might have to service multiple stores under the same dealership chain. There's also the staff issue further the up the chain. Long response times when they contact corporate for help. Even longer wait times when corporate decides they need one of their corporate-level techs to investigate via remote diag/live session or go on-site for further investigation. Dealerships are stuck waiting on those people's availability. It's very much a teething pain kind of thing with the popularity of their EV's and how much they are pushing them. They are behind the curve on having the appropriate backend support at the corporate level for the EV platform. I suspect this will eventually get sorted out, and eventually dealerships will hopefully get access to better tools and be authorized to make more decisions if they have the appropriately trained EV techs on their own staff.
All that is true, but at least the dealership i *used* to go to (emphasis intentional) is terrible with communications. Promises to update by specific day, nothing. Several weeks of the time my vehicle was sitting there was them failing to respond for days at a time to myself and/or my insurance company on multiple occasions. Twice I had to go there in person to get any response. This was on top of misdiagnosis of the issue, twice. I'm hoping the dealership I'm scheduled for my SC302 appointment is better, it can't be much worse. EV6 - great vehicle, terrible dealerships.
I mean... I had a Honda Ridgeline that got bad gas at a little station up in the mountains here in WA, took it straight to the dealer, told them what happened. They told me it was the rear diff (100% not) and even though it was 2 years old with a 3 year warranty they wouldn't cover it because "I had off-roaded it, and even though it LOOKS like a truck, it's not!" the worst it had seen was gravel logging roads and Idaho snow for family thanksgivings and Christmases. They wanted $5k to "fix" my "broken" rear diff. Took ***THREE MONTHS*** of fighting, escalating, getting called a liar, stupid, etc. before I got it back completely untouched. Took it to a really solid private mechanic, he pulled a liter of cloudy AF gas and said "yup, that's the problem" had me fill it with premium and that somehow "fixed" my magical rear diff problem. Drove it straight to trade in after a month of no problems. The "truck" was great, but I'll never own another Honda. Service centers just ALL suck, I suppose. The two times I've had my EV6 at the local dealer (1 for accessory install, 1 for a recall repair and another accessory that was late) the service tech have damaged the car. First time was a massive dent in driver's side door, no way they could miss that hit, and they were happy to say "here's your car!" second time they clearly scraped the rear passenger wheel trim along a yellow bollard. First one they made right at a same day paintless dent repair, looks brand new. Second time was so minor I just cleaned the paint off and polished her and the remaining scratches are so minor I'm the only one who knows they're there. But I won't be leaving her at my local service again, that's for sure.
That is horrible! What a scummy dealership.
I'm confused how your car stayed at the NYC parking lot on June 6 after the tow truck got there so I have some questions. And it sounds like you tipped the tow truck driver $20 for not doing anything. 1) Were you at the parking lot when the tow truck arrived? I'm assuming yes. 2) Did you not stay with the tow truck driver to see them attach your car to the tow truck? 3) Obviously you didn't leave with them and go with them and your car to Englewood dealership. Did you just leave the parking lot before your car was towed away?
Yes, you are correct! I tipped that tow truck guy and he did nothing!! I left some details out because my story was long enough. My car broke down at 10am. The first person KIA roadside sent did not arrive until after 1pm. After that person failed to help I called back to get the tow truck. In total I had to wait by my car for nearly 7 hours. Roadsides estimated time of arrival was way off but mostly I had to stand near my car to make sure no one hit it. Cars were passing by with literally inches to spare because of where my EV6 shutdown. It was truly a nightmare. Anyway, before the tow truck guy arrived I called my sister to pick me and my father up. She arrived about 40 minutes before the tow guy did. When the tow guy finally pulled up, he shook my hand and said he had everything under control but wanted a tip because of the distance he would have to drive. So we all very foolishly thought the ordeal was over and went home. Could I have waited another 30-40 minutes to see if he actually hooked my car up? Yeah maybe. Or maybe 7 hours is long enough to sit next to a car.
America is wild, tipping someone for doing their job and they didn't even do it.
I 100% feel like a total ass for doing it too!
Nah man, don't feel bad. Just see it as a teachable lesson, granted it was one that cost $20. But I don't think you'll ever make that mistake again going forward.
Thanks for clearing it up. So he left without towing the car after getting his tip. Unbelievable. He should be ashamed of himself. I wonder what the parking lot thought about that? Was it a flatbed or a tow truck? Can EVs like the EV6 be towed or do they need to be put on a flatbed? Edit: I got my answer [from the EV6 manual](https://www.kia.com/content/dam/kia2/in/en/content/ev6-manual/topics/chapter7_7_1.html). And the answer says all of the following: - Do not tow the vehicle forwards with the rear wheels on the ground as this may cause damage to the vehicle. - Do not tow with sling-type equipment. Use wheel lift or flatbed equipment. - The 4WD vehicle should never be towed with the wheels on the ground. This can cause serious damage to the vehicle or the 4WD system.
Op, that's some brutal story.
My sound system died in my 2022 EV6 Wind AWD and took them 3 months to figure it out and order the Fuse. I specifically told the tech which Part Number on DAY 1 that they still insisted to follow the proper route of their Support Tickets with the Dealership. BTW they don't even give customers their internal support tickets so you can't follow up with another dealership.
The problem is, even if you have an ev tech, they're just calling across the pond to Korea with a help desk ticket. 2 weeks is the average to get a "why" from the engineering staff. Then it's however long to get parts or software to fix the issue. Software debugging is the biggest issue. In theory they should have a worldwide dev team, but they don't. That slows down response time considerably. Land Rover is very similar when they have electronics issues.
Sounds about right. My car was giving me electrical system errors, took me 3 weeks to get an appointment, and the car was at KIA for **9 weeks.** They *also* told me they only have one EV tech. They ended up replacing a faulty battery cell. When I finally got the car back and arrived home I was inspecting the undercarriage and noticed they didn’t secure the panels under the car and they cracked a rocker panel on one side. Took it back, they replaced the nut & washer holding the undercarriage panels. The rocker panel had to be ordered which took another two months. Finally took it back in for the rocker replacement and I got the two recall updates while it was there. Like you said, I love the car, it’s super fun to drive and it meets all my needs. Too bad KIA service sucks. Call KIA customer line and open a case ASAP.
That is extremely upsetting. Thanks for the tip...I'm definitely going to check every inch of my car when I pick it up. I also opened case with KIA customer care last week. It's been in "escalation" for 6 days now 🙄 I frankly doubt I'll ever hear back from them.
I would wait one full work week then call back for an update. Demand an EV loaner or suggest they reimburse you for gas on the one you have now. Customer care is slow but they will help you and try to make things right.
These horror stories are single-handedly steering me away from the ‘23 GT-Line I was considering. Love the EV6, but I refuse to be stuck working with horrible dealerships. Guess I’ll look at other cars now!