The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is a lovable, retro-futuristic hatchback-ish EV, and the very first car built on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform. It’s got pixelated tail lights, bold sharp lines on its sides, fun active grille shutters, and a column-mounted shifter. Everyone who reviews it loves it, including me. But as cool as it is, we’re now learning from the car’s early owners that some Ioniq 5s have had a serious flaw, and it’s got folks from the U.S. and Korea ranting about being stranded by a brand new EV. Here’s what we know.
The Problem Is A Part Called The ICCU
Across the internet Ioniq 5 owners are complaining of a total loss of power that’s leaving them stranded. What’s the cause? Well, it’s a component called the Integrated Charging Control Unit (ICCU), which is tasked with charging both the high voltage battery that drives the electric motor and the 12-volt battery that powers the car’s cabin accessories (among other components). Here’s Hyundai’s description of the ICCU:
The integrated charging system newly developed by Hyundai Motor Group charges both high voltage batteries and spare batteries in a vehicle.
As Hyundai notes, the ICCU also allows discharge of the high voltage battery to components other than the 12-volt battery (which it charges through its DC-DC converter, which I assume is integrated into the ICCU). At the German Car of the Year event I attended a little while ago, Hyundai was powering a coffee maker with its Ioniq 5, as an example. From Hyundai:
Unlike previous BEVs, which only accept one-way charging, the E-GMP’s charging system is more flexible. The E-GMP’s newly developed Integrated Charging Control Unit (ICCU) represents an upgrade from existing On-Board Chargers (OBC), which typically only allow electricity to flow in a single direction from an external power source. The ICCU enables a new vehicle-to-load (V2L) function, which can additionally discharge energy from the vehicle battery without additional components. This enables BEV based on the E-GMP to operate other electric machinery (110 / 220V) anywhere. The system can even be used to charge another EV.
You can see the ICCU in Hyundai’s graphic here:
Here it is in exploded view:
And here’s an entire (short) video on the component:
I actually saw the part in-person at the German Car of the Year event a few years ago near Frankfurt. It’s the little box sitting atop the battery pack just ahead of the rear drive unit:
It’s on the left here:
Reports Of Coolant Leak Problems In Korea.
So what’s the problem? Well, the electrical components within the ICCU are liquid-cooled, and a number of sources say that a manufacturing flaw — perhaps having to do with welding — has allowed coolant to leak into the device’s electrical bits. Once that happens, the ICCU’s ability to charge the car’s 12V battery is gone, leading to dead screens, windows, climate control, shifter, etc. The car just stops working — it’s bricked.
Last year, news agency United Press International’s Korean reporters Kim Hye-ran & Kim Tae-gyu wrote the article “Hyundai acknowledges coolant leak in Ioniq 5.” Here are the opening paragraphs:
Hyundai is under fire from customer complaints that the Ioniq 5 leaks coolant within the first months of usage.
Acknowledging the issue, a Hyundai Motor spokesman said Friday the leakages can be attributed to problems in production, including poor circulation of the coolant due to failure of the water pump, but that chances of a fire occurring are slim.
Kia EV6 forums, Hyundai Ioniq forums, and reddit all include threads that mention a coolant leak as a primary cause of ICCU failures. In fact, some of these threads even point out an apparent recall being instituted in Korea, with a link to a Korean forum about this issue. The forum includes a screenshot of the apparent recall, which I’ve translated below via Google translate:
This bulletin provides information to inspect and, if necessary, replace the Electric Power Control Unit (EPCU) assembly on certain 2020MY Niro EV (DE EV) vehicles produced from June 18, 2020, through September 4, 2020. The EPCU assembly in the subject vehicles may have been produced with improper sealing. Due to this improper sealing, coolant can internally leak in the EPCU and contact the EPCU circuit board. If coolant contacts the EPCU circuit board, the vehicle may stall while driving. A vehicle stall increases the risk of a crash.
Interesting.
The Issues In The U.S. Are Apparently Not Coolant-Related
We reached out to Hyundai Motor America inquiring for more information, and the company mentioned that the primary issues associated with the ICCU are actually not coolant related. Here’s Hyundai’s response to our inquiry about these ICCU issues:
COMPLAINT: 12V Battery Drain.
This has been caused by 2 different unrelated issues:
- Overactive unauthorized Bluelink use by 3rd party Apps that is waking up the car too often.
- Resolved since 1/31 the Bluelink server is limiting traffic to 20 transactions per day. Customers informed to change Bluelink PW.
- Most vehicles are solved since 1/31, but some came back and required 12V battery replacement failing to take charge after was dead too many times or too long before 1/31.
- EV Light On with DTC P1A9096 ICCU related.
- ICCU and ICCU fuse has to be replaced to resolve.
- Some vehicles also incurred DTC P1B77 as a result of the ICCU (integrated charge control unit) failure if only ICCU fuse was replaced without replacing ICCU together.
- DTC P1B77 cases required the PRA (power relay assy) in the EV battery to have to be replaced.
NOTE: There is a rumor going around on forums lately about ICCU campaign in Korea for coolant leak possible related issue causing the above….
FACT: Not related the Korea issue pertained to an Inverter Coolant Low Warning light on, not an EV Light On issue. It only applied to vehicles before 4/23/21 Production. Above issues have not been specific to such mfg period.
So it sounds like the coolant issue was nipped in the bud early (about two years ago), and that the real issue has to do with third-party apps waking the car up, draining the battery. Inside EVs explains this issue a bit in its article titled “Hyundai Finds Causes For Ioniq 5’s 12V Battery Drain, Reveals Fixes,” writing:
The main one is “overactive unauthorized Bluelink use by 3rd party apps that is waking up the car too often.” Basically, unauthorized third-party Bluelink apps are requesting information too frequently from the Ioniq 5. Each time that happens it wakes up the vehicle, causing significant draw until it goes to sleep.
While the drive battery has enough energy to recharge the 12-volt battery multiple times, the battery saving mode cannot keep up with hundreds of even thousands requests per day – The Ioniq Guy [on YouTube] says the PR rep told him some of the vehicles were seeing as many as 5,000 Bluelink requests per day.
Apparently there’s also a fuse that needs to be replaced to fix whatever is causing all these problems, though on some vehicles a relay has to also be swapped out.
More Than Just One Or Two Owners Have Been Stranded
I say “all these problems,” because this is hardly just one or two people complaining about their new Ioniq 5s. There are complaints all over the internet about owners being stranded. The U.S. government’s auto safety organization, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, includes quite a few complaints from owners, with the most recent having an “incident date” of just last week. Here are 16 of them; many of the complaints mention a loud “pop” — presumably from the fuse in the ICCU — followed by a warning light, and then the vehicle going into limp mode before ultimately dying altogether:
Forums are littered with complaints about apparent ICCU failure causing vehicles to die on the roadway. Here are a few from the Hyundai Ioniq 5 USA Facebook page:
@the_autopian please press Hyundai to explain what the heck is going on with Ioniq 5 cars suddenly going totally dead. pic.twitter.com/sWgMmGUaRM
— Matt Karolian (@mkarolian) April 14, 2023
There are lots of these posts on Reddit, too, with user arvarkcal posting a subthread under the “Ioniq5” forum titled, “Stranded on I-80 on the way up to Tahoe, another case of broken iccu.” The thread includes a photo of the car looking rather sad, dead and surrounded by deep snow:
Within minutes of posting, dozens of Ioniq owners shared their failed ICCU experiences.
There are plenty of other posts on that “Ioniq5” Reddit page about ICCU issues. Here’s one titled “Disaster Struck“:
And here’s one with a title so long, I’m gonna put it into block quotes:
After seeing so many posts about the ICCU issues, and the amount of time people have spent waiting for their cars and the back and forth with the dealers, I’m experiencing some serious buyers remorse. I’m I just overthinking it? 2023 SEL picked up 2 weeks ago.
That post basically involves someone who had recently purchased an Ioniq 5 worrying after having seen so many ICCU complaints, and learning that people have had to wait quite a while to get their cars repaired (one redditor says in his post titled “Ioniq 5 Lemon? 8 weeks I the shop – 12v Battery and Traction Battery Issues” that he’s had to wait over 85 days to have his car fixed). “Now I can’t help but feel like I’ve made a terrible mistake after reading the amount of horror stories that seem to be popping up almost daily,” the poster, pissedoffcalifornian, wrote. Redditer jasonfsmitty responded to that post by describing his own struggles, writing:
I know what you mean. My SE has been at the dealership waiting on an ICCU for 2 months, and I honestly don’t know what to do …. should I wait it out, or try to get Hyundai to buy it back? (I’ve filed a case with Hyundai, but may take another 2-3 weeks for processing). I absolutely love the car, and there’s nothing else out there I’d want in it’s place, but I simply don’t know how much to trust the car moving forward
Heres another thread from 19 days ago, this one titled “I just got this alert and now my car is dead on the side of the road. Anyone ever see this before? Please tell me it was an easy fix…” The poster includes a screenshot of the message everyone else seems to be getting on their gauge cluster when their ICCU fails.
Here are a few responses in that thread:
- “Ugh another! this is unbelievable.” -goldenist
- “Sign of death. Mine happened 2 wks ago. 1 yr and 1 wk after delivery. My dealership tried to act like I didn’t know what I was talking about and that they didn’t see it on my dash. My car is now a big block of metal “waiting” – waiting for the time to run down so I can request a buyback.” -Lighter02
- “So many of these… And the dealer just called me to tell me my reserved Limited is available. I think I’m going to cancel. I need a reliable car, not a ticking time bomb. Hyundai needs to get ahead of this and issue a recall to restore some confidence in the car. Look at how Chevy was able to turn the Bolt around…” -tenaku
- “13 months and 6k miles and the ICCU bricked me last month, no indicators but rather randomly. I charge mostly at home. From how easily and quickly Hyundai initiated the buyback, it’s certainly something they’re very aware of. Buyback immediately triggers am NDA which is likely why we don’t see more owners posting. Just call Hyundai customer service and they start a buyback claim within minutes on affected cars.” -Remarkable_Mine_9022
- “I got my Ioniq5 on April 14.2022 and it sopped in the middle of the road on Feb.23.2023 with just over 10k miles. It happened on right after 10 months. 2022 IONIQ5 SEL RWD. Still in the dealership. The dealership gave me the loaner right away.” -Middle-Employment61
A few things to note: First, we’ve seen a few similar-looking complaints by alleged Kia EV6 and Genesis GV60 owners, but seemingly not as many. Second, Hyundai is repairing the vehicles free of charge, so that’s great. And third, some of the above complaints could be duplicates (for example, someone who posted a complaint on a forum might also have done so on NHTSA’s website). In fact, Reddit user nedlinin posted a thread titled “ICCU, 12V, or other battery issue? This is your thread,” which includes this spreadsheet of owners who have had apparent ICCU failures:
The spreadsheet includes 26 complaints. Compare that to the approximately 30,000 Ioniq 5s sold so far in the U.S. per data from Inside EVs, and it’s worth mentioning Reddit user screwycurves’s response to the aforementioned person who posted about buyer’s remorse:
Beware what you read here. Negative posts get most of the attention. I’ve owned my AWD SEL for 13 months and driven 25k. I don’t remember a car that’s brought me so much joy.
Additional reporting by Rob Spiteri
Hyundai seems to be having a LOT of serious problems with their cars recently. Both their gas powered and electric cars.
This is unfortunate. But I can’t say I’m THAT surprised. It’s an all-new vehicle on an all-new platform. There will be the odd bug/defect they will have to work out… the same way Tesla has had to do over the years.
(looking at you irrational Tesla haters who falsely claim that legacy car makers don’t have the issues Tesla has had to work out).
And as a sidenote, given how Hyundai has cut corners with things over the years with things like engine immobilizers as well as engine defects in the early 2010s, it makes me even less surprised that an all-new Hyundai design has some issues/defects.
Making cars is hard.
As long as Hyundai stands behind their products and as long as the fixed version is reliable enough for me if/when I buy one used, that’s all that matters to me.
I love detailed coverage like this. Keep it up.
God damn, shame on me for thinking “if it doesn’t have a 4 cylinder engine, maybe Hyundai will get it right”.
And shit, Hyundai service is bad enough. I can’t imagine dealing with them on new tech like this. Must be absolutely brutal.
Wow, not just another “leave you stranded” issue but another security flaw! Under most circumstances stealing your wi-fi is less worse than stealing your actual, physical car – until the car stops being a car hundreds of miles from home.
Can you charge the 12V battery in the IONIQ with a simple charger like in old ICE cars? That way just charge it up and your short trips should still be doable? Or are the battery contacts not accessible?
Or maybe swap out a charged 12V battery in a pinch.
I’ve owned my EV6 for a little over 1 year, and have been following all these reports (no one wants to be stranded). Quite a few suggest a failure of the 12V battery itself (a 60Ah “regular” battery).
In reading the complaints, and suggestions, I’ve started carrying a Li-ion booster pack – just like I do in my ICE’s.
Wow, I feel famous, advarkcal here, feel free to use my photo of the ioniq 5 in the snow! Reader since the start of this site, but first time commenting!
The car is still at the dealership in Reno, while I’m driving a rental in San Francisco. Hyundai corporate has been doing a crap job assisting me and keeping me updated so far, but I have escalated the situation and should be getting a call on Monday with the latest update. Might end up doing a lemon law buyback if they can not fix this soon.
“This isn’t the same old Hyundai, you know!”
“This is not the Hyundai from
30 years20 years10 years5years2 yearsago!!”So if you are leasing, and it takes 60 days to fix a bricked car, do you eat two months lease, do they eat two months, do you get an extension, something else?
Fixed for free by itself doesn’t sound like a very good deal
I realize this isn’t a Hyundai specific question, but I’ve never leased or had a loan on a car preferring to pay with cash, so I have no idea.
You just eat it. You can take it up with the dealership or even with your region of corporate, but I wouldn’t count on much. Hyundai/Kia in particular are still rather rather well known for their 1990s-esque sales tactics and customer experience at a fair number of dealerships.
This is why you pursue a Lemon Law buyback. At least in California anyway, the repurchase calculation will not expect a lessee to be responsible for lease payments beyond the point when the vehicle became down/waiting on parts. You might need to pay those lease payments in the meantime, but when the repurchase is complete those lease payments will be part of the settlement.
California’s Lemon Law is better towards buyers than many other US states, but note that there’s a lot of situations where you’d not be able to take advantage of it.
California’s Lemon Law applies when a “reasonable” number of repair attempts have been made. This is called the Lemon Law Presumption.
The Lemon Law Presumption applies if all the following are true:
And if any one of the following is also true:
So that’s four primary requirements and at least one secondary. Again, this is more generous than other states. There’s a lot of situations where you’re just SOL and have no recourse outside of what a dealership or corporate might offer.=
when i had issue with my cars that had to be fixed under warranty the dealer provided me a loaner, if the car was out overnight.
Hyundai/Kia doin what they do best.
I love all the people that get a variation of a “pull over and stop now” warning and keep driving. Then they can’t figure out why the car dies in inconvenient places. Reminds me of the guy at work that ran a truck for 4 hours with the red stop engine light on.
Any news if the EV6 is also affected? Inquiring minds want to know if this is a hardware only issue or Ioniq 5 programming issue.
It’s likely the whole platform.
David, this should surprise absolutely no one. Hyundai/Kia’s problems with the theta II engines and the way it has been handled is a shining example of how they handle things.
I am sure the Chaebol is quite pleased to keep this issue quiet, too.
I always thought Hyundai/Kia were so quick to transition to EVs just because they realized after decades of trying that they can’t make a reliable gasoline engine, so electric will be their out. Turns out their problem is with making cars in general.
Has anyone considered the possibility that the commonality in all of these cases is that the owner was listening to Private Eyes by Hall and Oates and the car chose to disable itself rather than be subjected to that?
Never mind, I’ll show myself out.
Love Hall and Oates all my homies love Hall and Oates
That’s a good song! You must be a Maneater and Out Of Touch…
Out Of Touch is one of their best songs. What the hell Rob…
Noooo- I wasn’t dissing it. You need some Adult Education on reading comments! (See what I did there?)
Can’t believe I misread your OG comment. It’s been a rough couple of weeks to be honest…brain ain’t firing on all cylinders and it’s not like I have cylinders to spare anyway
What he needs is adult education
Oops, didn’t realize that song was already referenced. I’m always too late to these things.
Woke up with one H&O song going through my head, now I have three.
Are you sure it was Hall & Oats and not a K-Pop group?
Me: “ICCU won’t work.”
Hyundai: “No need to rub it in.”
BEVs don’t have to be liquid cooled. Active air cooling is plenty enough cooling.
Cars don’t need infotainment systems either, but because seemingly every current automotive interior designer is a technophile they just dump unnecessary tech into a car and noone at the company who built the car seems to care about how high the parasitic draw on the 12v battery is.
In my experience the less draw of spicy magic you have the longer the 12v spicy magic provider will last, and with modern cars you can’t just bump start them to create infinite spicy magic and it’s still an issue that jump starting can cause computer controlled cars to throw codes.
I’m obscenely close to just buying a 2CV van and making that my daily driver. In my short 24 years of life I’ve dealt with way too many dead batteries and electrical gremlins and I’m sick of it.
Amen man….I have a 2009 Hyundai Accent which has been dead reliable mechanically other than some high-mileage maintenance items. It’s got no power anything and a manual transmission and I love it for that. I think modern cars are getting WAY too overcomplicated. If somebody could just make me a cheap, uncomplicated BEV like my Accent, that is all I would need.
We need Citroen to produce their latest Oli concept and sell it over here…
“BEVs don’t have to be liquid cooled. Active air cooling is plenty enough cooling.”
Plenty of Nissan Leaf owners and their prematurely failed batteries would disagree.
I have a feeling this is a modern car issue across the board, but especially with EVs. One thing goes bad and the car bricks and is useless. Now if your mechanic could order up a replacement part it wouldn’t be a big deal, but imagine paying car payments and not getting your car back for MONTHS. When our Kia Soul EV battery got warrantied Kia would not give us a loaner or a rental. They said “rent a car and we’ll reimburse you”. I don’t know about most people, but paying $$$mo for a rental that you *may* get back eventually, is not an option for people. It seems like critical parts are in short supply for repairs.
The worst part is Hyundai’s response to a significant problem on what should be a landmark product line: weeks to diagnose problems; no firm ETA on parts; no or reluctant loaner cars.
Hyundai could – but won’t – learn a lot from how Lexus handled the first recall on the LS400. From https://www.gminsidenews.com/threads/how-a-recall-earned-lexus-a-top-reputation.29122/ :
I can see Genesis do that.. but no way Hyundai / Kia with their franchised stealerships.
No, you could absolutely not see Genesis doing that. A friend just took his less than 1-month-old G70 to Genesis to have the bogus paint protection the dealer sold him applied. Not only did the Genesis dealer not have a loaner, they had him get in an uber to go about a mile away to Enterprise, where he was given a 3 year old Altima as rental (nevermind the fact that Enterprise is known for delivering cars).
Then a few hours later, he got a text with a photo showing his drivers side front quarter panel dented from a porter who backed a freshly purchased Ioniq 5 into it.
When he showed up to assess the damage, the dealer managed to find a brand new G80 for him to take as a loaner while they kept his car for repairs.
Also see Chrysler’s handling of the multiple Pacifica Hybrid issues for how not to do it..
“I absolutely love the car, and there’s nothing else out there I’d want in it’s place, but I simply don’t know how much to trust the car moving forward”
Nothing changes how you love a car and want something in its place like not being able to trust it.
David Tracy, Electric Horseman.
A few things:
1). Tiny numbers or not it’s mind blowing how good Hyundai/Kia/Genesis are at shooting themselves in the dick repeatedly. Whether fair or not this stuff spreads like wildfire and so many people have the KOREAN CAR BAD stereotype drilled into them so it continues to tarnish the reputation of the brand. They’ve built up a huge amount of goodwill by producing objectively cool and forward thinking cars over the last several years but every couple of weeks some horror story about them hits the press, another recall gets issued, one of their engine families starts blowing up, etc.
They’re never going to shake the bargain basement reputation that they earned in the 90s and early 2000s if they don’t get their damn manufacturing under control. But they’re seemingly incapable of it, whether it’s errors/bad parts triggering recalls, or child labor being found at one of their factories, or their cars being stolen by literal kids with a phone app and USB cable, they’re still building cars like they’re a bargain basement company. It’s time to benchmark a couple of Hondas and Toyotas and take some notes, ya’ll.
2). Speaking of which, all of this exposed your bargain basement dealerships. The next time I hear a positive story about someone going to a Hyundai service department it will be the first. While I had an okay time buying my Kona N a few weeks earlier I was literally verbally accosted by a Hyundai sales manager for telling him I wouldn’t pay an unadvertised markup on an Elantra N. I don’t exactly go into car dealerships expecting to work with a bunch of choir boys but I’d rather not be outright insulted by salespeople.
3).That being said, the Ioniq 5s are early adapter products that are going to come with early adapter headaches. I’m…not sure why folks are surprised when they buy a first gen EV and find that it has some issues. You’re essentially signing up to be a beta tester for these products. I get that the Tesla cult is all over the internet screaming about how EVs never need maintenance or repairs but like…come on. People do realize that that’s a bunch of hogwash, right?
Come on Hyundai/Kia/Genesis. You’ve already got the hardest part (making appealing vehicles) figured out. You have a lot of enthusiasts and automotive journalists pulling for you. Clean some of this nonsense up and more people will take you seriously.
I agree. It’s completely unacceptable for a 2021 model to not have an IMMOBILIZER of all things
Wasn’t the no immobilizer thing only an issue in the US? I know they all have it here in Canada…? It’s the law here.
????
all true.. tho I had a pretty good experience at my local dealer when they fixed a recall for me on my veloster… so there are some good ones maybe?
With the disclaimer that I’m both in Canada and referring to a dealer in a smaller center:
My dealership experience with Hyundai was overall pretty great, arguably one of the better ones in the town. Right now I’m becoming intrigued by the upcoming Prius and finding that the Toyota dealer here is kind of a nightmare by comparison – at least on the sales end of the spectrum.
All dealerships who sell to the working class have shitty people on their payroll.
In the same regard, I’m sure you can find a couple decent people in any dealership as well.
Tesla cult here.
First of all, how dare you!
Honestly tho, I hope more and more people realize the truth you speak here, that Tesla reliability is all “hogwash,” and that this realization finally drives the goddamned used prices down so I can own one.
To the downtrodden owners (victims) of Tesla, I am here to pick up the pieces.
Guess we need to go back to cars with spring-based motors and big wind-up keys on the trunk.
This is a novel way to solve the USB cable thefts – just brick the car.
Can’t steal the car if the car won’t start! I learned that with my Audi. lol
I still want one.
I’m also very interested in these. Please keep on this DT!
This is all lies!! I refuse to believe it! Tesla and it’s stans told me that EVs have less parts and are completely reliable. Neither coolant issues, nor electrical issues were on their list, so this is obviously just misinformation. We all know that EVs travel infinity miles, hauling infinity mass, with no human mechanics required.
/s
I love the “no maintenance” story line. We’ve been an EV family since 2017 and yes, we’ve saved a ton of money by avoiding oil changes and gas purchases. However….
My daughter rolled over a curb in her ’17 Leaf and destroyed a tire. The tow truck driver had questions about EVs which I happily answered as honestly as I could. Then he said he was worried about them because it would cost him his job if they never break. Then I pointed out that we were having this conversation because an EV broke.
Just because it has fewer moving parts doesn’t mean it’s more reliable. It just means different things will break and repairs /maintenance will be different. They still have the same tires, suspension, body panels, idiot in control. “Tow truck driver” is a job category that won’t go away.
“Then he said he was worried about them because it would cost him his job if they never break. Then I pointed out that we were having this conversation because an EV broke.”
That is pretty hilarious. Did the driver understand the irony you had pointed out to him?
I don’t really think crashing a car falls under the category of maintenance or reliability.