Hyundai and Kia recall 170,000 EVs in Korea over software glitch, is the US next?
Hyundai and Kia will recall around 170,000 EVs in Korea, the largest since they launched. The recall is over a software issue impacting Hyundai’s IONIQ, Genesis, and Kia EVs. Meanwhile, there’s an open NHTSA investigation in the US.
Hyundai and Kia recall 170,000 electric vehicles
The South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced the recall on Thursday. Twelve models from Hyundai, Kia, Stellantis Korea, and Tesla Korea were found to have defects.
Hyundai and Kia accounted for most of the recall, with around 170,000 EVs impacted. Of them, 113,916 Hyundai models, including the IONIQ 5, IONIQ 6, Genesis GV60, GV70, and Electrified G80.
Kia is recalling 56,016 EV6 models, while 136 Tesla Model 3’s will be updated due to pedestrian warning sounds. Meanwhile, several hundred Jeep Cherokee and Wranglers were also recalled.
The Hyundai and Kia EVs were found to have a software glitch in the ICCU that could affect power to the battery. This can cause charging issues or possibly a loss of power while driving.
Hyundai and Kia will issue a software update once they receive the recalled models. If there’s still a faulty code, they will replace the ICCU.
In the US, the NHTSA opened an investigation on June 8, 2023, over several reports of loss of ICCU power in NY 2022-2023 Hyundai IONIQ 5 models. The 2022 Kia EV6 is also being investigated over loss of power complaints.
Although the 2023 IONIQ 6 is not being investigated, several complaints have been filed with the NHTSA due to charging issues.
Hyundai Motor Group said in a statement (via Reuters), “Hyundai Motor and Kia will take prompt actions to prevent customer inconvenience and will continue to prioritize the safety of our customers and their vehicles.” The recall in Korea is set to begin on March 18.
The news comes after Hyundai introduced a new trade-in program in its home market, offering new discounts to encourage drivers to switch to electric vehicles.
Electrek’s Take
Despite the significant recall, Hyundai is plowing ahead in the EV market. Last year, Hyundai was the fourth best-selling EV brand in the US. Including Kia, Hyundai Motor topped Ford and GM for second place in the US EV market, trailing only Tesla.
Hyundai is one of many automakers with software issues. For example, GM just lifted the Chevy Blazer EV stop-sale this week after nearly three months over a software quality issue.
After a two-year delay over software, Porsche finally unveiled its all-electric Macan EV in January.
Hyundai is expected to launch its first three-row electric SUV, the IONIQ 9, later this year, which could help boost sales in the US, its largest market.
South Korea also introduced a new EV subsidy plan that benefits domestic automakers like Hyundai and Kia while penalizing cheaper batteries from China.
Hyundai aims to be a top-three EV maker by 2030, but it will need to get back on track as the recall could derail its momentum this year. The automaker is planning to open its first EV and battery plant in the US by the end of 2024, which is expected to enable vehicles built at the facility to qualify for the $7,500 EV tax credit.
Source: The Korean Economic Daily
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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