Hyundai slapped with another US lawsuit after “insufficient” EV plug fix

Hyundai Motor Group is being sued in the United States for providing an “insufficient” fix to its EV customers experiencing charge plug failure and providing misleading advertised charge times.

The Drive reports law firm Hagens Berman are in the process of filing a class action law suit against Hyundai Motor Group on behalf of customers who own a Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, Genesis GV60, or Kia EV6.

According to the law firms website, the complaint was filed earlier this month and state affected vehicles are equipped with “a defective charging port, which is prone to overheating”.

It’s understood customers also reported “repeated charging failure at charging rates as low as 23 amps.”

Hagens Berman claim that thousands of vehicles have been affected by the defect which originally caused chargers to stop charging all together at very high temperatures.

The law firm claims Hyundai offers an update that “fixes” the issues however in “reality the update slows down the charging even further, and makes it impossible for car owners to use their 48-amp chargers.”

The website explains the defect is due to the charging port’s design which causes overheating.

“When the port reaches a certain temperature, the vehicle terminates the charging session but does not restart the session once the port has reached an acceptable temperature,” the law firm’s filing states.

Hagens Berman state that as a result of the defect, customers may constantly be required to check on their respective charge ports throughout a charging session to ensure the cable doesn’t overheat, and avoid an empty battery.

The filing also states this fault can occur within 30 minutes of connecting a charging port.

According to the law firm, some affected customers had charging sessions fail daily after 45 minutes, requiring customers to restart the charging process six to eight times before the vehicle was fully charged.

In the filing, Hagens Berman claims the automaker hasn’t provided a “sufficient solution to this serious defect in vehicle design”.

Hyundai and Kia advertise their vehicles can charged at rates of 48 amps which Hagens Berman claim is not “even close to what was advertised”, based on the revised 23 amps of power the charger will default to once it overheats.

“Kia EV6 owners already are finding out that [the software fix] is only a bandaid. Charging is automatically decreased when it heats up and stays that way for the duration of the charge,” one owner wrote.

“…first charge after TSB [technical service bulletin] went fine. Not today! Charged from around 25% to 80% and it charged at ~11kw for 2 hours then bumped down to ~7kw for the rest of the way to 80%. Bummer,” said another.

“Hyundai, you need to figure this one out. This is clearly a design problem with the car. You can’t advertise this car as charging at 48 amps anymore because it doesn’t.”

This isn’t the first time the law firm has presented a case against Hyundai Motor Group.

Hagens Berman reached a settlement value of US$300 million (A$449 million) for its class action lawsuit over defective hydraulic electronic control units which were prone to causing fires, as well as its lawsuit which led to the viral “Kia Boys” challenge.

At this stage the law firm is seeking additional customers who experience this defect in the United States to come forward. The complaint was filed on July 26, 2023.

MORE: Everything Hyundai Ioniq 5 • Hyundai Ioniq 6 • Genesis GV60 • Kia EV6