Hi all,
I thought maybe this would be the place to go to see what can be done about my mom’s situation. For context, last year, in Nov 2022, my mom bought a used, 2018 Smart ForTwo EQ for around 20k. Just a week or two ago, she calls me to tell me her car won’t start, so I ask her to show me what it says, she video calls, and I see something similar to a High Voltage battery error. So we get it towed to her house, and she makes an appt with the Mercedes dealership she bought it from. FF to today, they tell her that it’ll be 23k to replace the battery. Anyone here who might be able to help me figure out what her next steps are? She doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of money on hand, and neither do I.
This is just a guess, but did you check the 12V battery? My 500e had a 12V battery go out in the middle of the night and did something similar. Then, my 2017 Bolt did the same thing while I was at work. Both cars would give me a ton of errors and not turn on. 2018-2023 is about 5 years, close to the age of both my 12V batteries when they died on me. I am now going to be replacing the batteries every 3 years to prevent me from getting stranded somewhere like the time with my Bolt. Neither car warned me the 12V batteries were going bad, it just happened.
This recently happened to my 2015 e-golf. No warning. I spent some time on subs for battery sizing and watched battery replacement videos. Flawless victory! I feel very lucky that it 1. I had just returned home from work when the alerts lit up, 2. my OBD dongle was still good (did I really need it?), 3. I had the tools and there are no ICE parts to work around, and 4. I’m competent enough to do this.
A bad 12V battery on an EV shouldn’t kill the car if it’s already running. It’s just like an ICE where it’s needed to start the car and then the alternator/traction battery is supposed to charge the battery and maintain a voltage for the 12V system. In an ICE, it turns the starter. In an EV, it engages the contactors for the traction battery.
I did have a car die once while driving. If I turned on the headlights it would die. That’s because the alternator was bad and not charging the battery.
true. it didn’t die, per se, but i def didn’t want to drive/tow it until i made an attempt to fix it.
Ya the 12v is common problem. Happened to my model 3
Happened to our Honda e. They’re cheap to replace and worth a go.
The day we get this manufactures to stick in a 20,000 cycle lithium iron battery is the day we get to say good bye to this utter annoyance in electrical systems where lead acid is such a poor choice as they don’t need high current draw.
IIRC the majority of EVs sold today come with a lithium 12V battery.