[sgturner]

Woke up this morning and went to go take my daughter to the airport. The XC60 was completely dead. Remote did not work, no response from the Volvo app.

Called VOC (1st time) and they sent a tow truck around within 30min. Lucky I had had a remote with cold/dead battery issue on my wife's XC90 a month or so ago while skiing and so the instructions on how to gain entry to the car using the manual key encased inside the remote were still fresh in my mind. This allowed me to get the hood open so the tow truck driver could try and jump start it. That seemed to bring the beast back to life. Letthe ICE run for 30min and all seems normal except I get a "Service required" alert everytime I start it up.

Have an appointment this week with the local dealer to see what the heck is up.

My question is why would a less than 5 month old T8 suddenly have its 12V battery die?. I had not used the car for 5 days and it had rained 1/2 an inch last night (1st rain here in Orange County since Christmas!!). No biggie, right?. Very weird.

 

[dubs]

Happened to me about two weeks ago on my 22 XC60. Parked the car and hadn't used it in about two weeks beforehand. It was plugged in and charging at the wall outlet as well. Went to turn on the car and NOTHING. Had to use the manual key to open the door to even get in.

Wound up having to jump it from a battery pack and the whole thing came back to life. Had to turn on battery charging to kick the engine on so the car wouldn't die, even though the internal hybrid battery pack was coming back as full charge. Best part is you can't even release the charging cable while the car is dead, so you have to manage to be able to lock and unlock the car again under power to release the charging cable. It's all sorts of ****ed up and I really don't think Volvo thought this one through or there's a bigger issue at hand.

 

[cometguy]

Not something that pleases me to hear as I wait for my special-order 2022.5 ER XC60... Part of the reason that I chose the ER XC60 over the Cayenne E-Hybrid is that the E-Hybrid has had these exact-same issues (as have so many BEVs in their first year or two of issuance) -- a 12-volt battery dying despite a large traction battery having lots of charge in it. Seems like a lot of bad design all around. One problem with some cars having this problem is the remote-start/remote-lock features: keeping your key fob far away (out of range) seems to be the solution to some cars' problems, but not all; in such cases, if a key fob is within range (like in a house next to the garage where the car is parked), signals are constantly going back and forth between the car and the key fob. There's something clearly that is causing the battery drain, and that's what needs assessing... Having a phone app regularly accessing the car's computer could also be a source of 12-volt battery drain. But the 12-volt battery should be charged automatically by the traction battery if it gets below a certain threshold.

 

[hugies]

I was reading an article about whether I could leave a hybrid car plugged in for an extended period of time and it suggested that doing so could cause the 12V battery to go flat. Not very authoritative, I know, and it seems very counterintuitive that a car that is plugged in can go dead. But when dubs said his car hadn't been moved in a couple of weeks of being plugged in it made me think there might be something to that article. I don't know what you're supposed to do if you're going to be away for several weeks.

 

[sgturner]

I was reading an article about whether I could leave a hybrid car plugged in for an extended period of time and it suggested that doing so could cause the 12V battery to go flat

Do you have a link to that?. I'd like to show Volvo this info tomorrow when they look at things.
thanks

 

[sgturner]

The only other thing I can think of is that I use my car 95% in Pure mode. Can the 12V battery ONLY be charged by the ICE?. If so then that's A VERY BAD THING.

 

[dubs]

The only other thing I can think of is that I use my car 95% in Pure mode. Can the 12V battery ONLY be charged by the ICE?. If so then that's A VERY BAD THING.

I believe so as the car immediately shut off when mine died until I set it to hybrid battery charge mode which kicked the engine on. Otherwise it’d have been able to start up from the full hybrid battery if that could charge the 12V one. It’s incredibly stupid.

 

[hugies]

Do you have a link to that?. I'd like to show Volvo this info tomorrow when they look at things.
thanks

I think I found it:
“According to an owner’s forum at mynissanleaf.com, some folks have disclosed that while you are away on vacation, that leaving your Leaf plugged in could drain the car’s other battery—the one running the 12-volt accessory circuits. After returning from vacation, owners have described their Leafs as being unresponsive, often not unlocking.”

could this be a thing?
link to article :

Can You Leave an Electric Car Plugged In? | EV Car Tips

So you are now the proud owner of an electric car. There are many things to take into consideration upon purchasing an electric car. Recently,…

evcartips.com

 

[cometguy]

The only other thing I can think of is that I use my car 95% in Pure mode. Can the 12V battery ONLY be charged by the ICE?. If so then that's A VERY BAD THING.

We have a RAV4 Prime that we drive only in all-electric mode most (95%) days, because it has a traction-battery range of 50 miles and we normally drive under 50 miles most of the time (out-of-town longer trips once every month or two). It's driven daily. Never a problem in 1.5 years and 16k miles so far with the 12-volt battery. Also, the car was left undriven last year when we were out of town for several weeks, and no problem starting it up right away. We have had numerous cases in which the ICE never came on in our RAV4 Prime for 1-3 weeks straight (driven or not). I would think that other Volvo T8 owners would have noticed this problem if it's a universal problem in Volvo PHEVs... It would be good to get together all the similarities in the two cases presented so far in this thread where the 12-volt battery has died, and hope that other Volvo PHEV owners with the same problem might also chip in (I don't know if non-XC60 Volvo PHEV owners read these XC60 threads much)...

 

[AvocadoFarm]

@sgturner please let us know what you find out about the cause. Thanks!

 

[XCOLY]

Ugh...I am not enjoying these posts as I wait for our ER to be delivered. And we're new to hybrid, plug-in, and I had to look up PHEV and ICE to understand the lingo for what I'm getting myself into. A newbie having to track what to not do with a $70K vehicle...not the confidence I was hoping to find. And we're trading in a 4Runner that you can't kill...lol

 

[Ilyas]

Ugh...I am not enjoying these posts as I wait for our ER to be delivered. And we're new to hybrid, plug-in, and I had to look up PHEV and ICE to understand the lingo for what I'm getting myself into. A newbie having to track what to not do with a $70K vehicle...not the confidence I was hoping to find. And we're trading in a 4Runner that you can't kill...lol

I am also a newbee with the PHEV world. I think there are many many cases where things works just fine!
(Now that I said that I hope tomorrow morning mine won't be dead 😂😂😂)

It is straightforward, I hope you'll just enjoy when you get it.

 

[AvocadoFarm]

I am also a newbee with the PHEV world. I think there are many many cases where things works just fine!
(Now that I said that I hope tomorrow morning mine won't be dead 😂😂😂)

It is straightforward, I hope you'll just enjoy when you get it.

XCOLY I've had my XC60 Recharge for six months and have been following this forum for a year and I haven't seen any other instances of this dead battery situation. I've had zero problems with my car except for the annoying occasional bugs in the infotainment which are widely discussed here. But nothing with the car itself, and we love it. Bet you will, too. No buyer's remorse here!

 

[XCOLY]

XCOLY I've had my XC60 Recharge for six months and have been following this forum for a year and I haven't seen any other instances of this dead battery situation. I've had zero problems with my car except for the annoying occasional bugs in the infotainment which are widely discussed here. But nothing with the car itself, and we love it. Bet you will, too. No buyer's remorse here!

This is great to hear and I expected as much. We had a 2021 T6 Inscription and loved it! Long story about why we got rid of it, but I am redeeming myself with my wife with this T8! We have no idea how to plug this thing in so this forum and the manual should serve us well!

 

[hugies]

This is great to hear and I expected as much. We had a 2021 T6 Inscription and loved it! Long story about why we got rid of it, but I am redeeming myself with my wife with this T8! We have no idea how to plug this thing in so this forum and the manual should serve us well!

Same here! That’s why I was reading articles about how to charge a PHEV! I have to think that if this was a widespread problem it would be all over this forum. Here’s hoping for a good experience!

 

[genndy]

Since December 2021 i didn't have any problem with starting battery. The user manual says what is possible and how to avoid it.
xc60 2022 manual

 

[sgturner]

Just talked to the dealer. They said that they discovered that the "TCAM battery was discharged". They recharged it and now all is good. We of course all is NOT GOOD. As I explained to the rep over the phone, "something happened here that caused this battery to discharge, so SOMETHING needs to be fixed. Recharging the battery is not a fix".

They also "fixed" the TCAN antenna cover. 💡 Could this have been the problem?. It did rain pretty good the night before. Is this the ISSUE?

Active Service Campaign : A10140 Antenna Cover : Model Year 2021 and 2022 90 Series, XC60 and XC40

 

[dubs]

Just talked to the dealer. They said that they discovered that the "TCAM battery was discharged". They recharged it and now all is good. We of course all is NOT GOOD. As I explained to the rep over the phone, "something happened here that caused this battery to discharge, so SOMETHING needs to be fixed. Recharging the battery is not a fix".

They also "fixed" the TCAN antenna cover. 💡 Could this have been the problem?. It did rain pretty good the night before. Is this the ISSUE?

Active Service Campaign : A10140 Antenna Cover : Model Year 2021 and 2022 90 Series, XC60 and XC40

I had the TCAM TJ completed back in late January. Didn’t prevent this from happening at all.

My car also sits in a garage, so no water intrusion would have caused it in that case either.

Also, the TCAM battery is its own AA-sized unit and has nothing to do with an entire 12V primary battery completely discharging on a brand new vehicle that’s plugged in to the wall.

 

[hugies]

Seems like this is a thing based on the manual. I'm going to plan to get a trickle charger for the 12V battery for when the car won't be driven for more than a week. It's not often. And it doesn't seem like a Volvo-specific issue either, since the article I referenced was talking about a Nissan Leaf forum.

 

[dubs]

Seems like this is a thing based on the manual. I'm going to plan to get a trickle charger for the 12V battery for when the car won't be driven for more than a week. It's not often. And it doesn't seem like a Volvo-specific issue either, since the article I referenced was talking about a Nissan Leaf forum.

I shouldn't have to worry about forgetting to unplug my car for two weeks while I'm away and I come back to a dead car that's LITERALLY CONNECTED TO A POWER SOURCE. that's the definition of insanity.