You could use a solar trickle charger for the battery perhaps when leaving the car for months?The funny thing is when I went to the garage I tried to use the key fob it didn’t work, and then I had the idea of using a Kia app. The app sent a message which I wish I would’ve copied to share what it said, after a duration of an activity like my car sitting for a week it would disconnect all systems and I’d have to restart the car manually. When I was able to reactivate the system, all the batteries were in peak condition 14 kW everything. The batteries were fine. This was just a software protocol in my case that disconnected everything and the whole system went black. My current approach is to lock and unlock the car remotely with my app every day as well as when I park the car, I pop the hood and lock the car and put a cover over it in the garage and if there is an issue, I borrow the battery pack, jump, starter from the front desk and do the same thing without having to break into my car.
This whole issue could be avoided by some alert in the app or something to not have the cargo dead. I have even thought about a battery type plug-in had that would maintain connection with the computer to make it think that was being constantly connected for charging, even though I have no power in the garage.
If there’s anything I can help you with or diagnostics that you might want to share I would really like to get to the bottom of this and locking and unlocking my car every day to fake the software into believing the car is active and not being deactivated is kind of bad.
I use my Sportage 2023 PHEV in the summer every day. in the other 9 months it is in a garage with no charging and generally it sits about 4 weeks without use most months.
Yesterday for the first time I went to get my car and had to remove the driver key cover to get into the car, it was fully deactivated. the key FOB didn't work, and the phone app was not connected. I basically had to break into my own car and even then nothing responded, it was fully black. I ended up popping the the hood and jump starting the car.
TO BE CLEAR: the batteries were both fully charged, the software just shut down the car to avoid a discharge and the jump just reset the system.
The manual says there is a 12V reset button, but on our model, it is the gas filler release. Does this double for the 12V reset when the software shuts the car down?
How do I get around this whole problem and not have to use the mechanical lock and key each time I go through this? There must be a method from the outside without basically breaking into my car each time?
I need an external way to reset the 12V system to force the computer to restart or connect again. This logic disconnects the APP and the key FOB device and removing the driver door cover each time and jump starting the computer under the hood is the last resort. I can lock and unlock the doors remotely with the APP daily, but this is a bandaid just to keep the system active.