Check Kona Electric / Niro EV battery health from your iPhone
The battery's own state of health, read from its management system — the number that matters most when buying or keeping a used EV.
An electric car's battery loses capacity slowly as it ages. The car knows exactly how much: its battery management system (BMS) keeps a state of health (SoH) figure — how much of its original capacity the pack still has — but the Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia Niro EV don't show it anywhere on the dashboard. An OBD-II adapter and a phone can ask for it.
Which cars
The Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia Niro EV (e-Niro) built on the 64 kWh platform, from 2018 to 2023. The two share a battery management system, so the same requests read both.
What you can read
| Reading | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Battery health (SoH) | How much of its original capacity the pack still has, as a percentage. New packs read around 100%; most cars a few years old are still in the 90s. |
| Battery charge | The charge as the dashboard shows it, from the BMS itself. |
| Pack voltage | The traction battery's voltage: a few hundred volts, rising with charge. |
| Warmest and coolest cell temperature | A wide gap between them, or a hot pack after gentle driving, is worth asking about. |
How to read it
- Get a Bluetooth Low Energy OBD-II adapter — see which adapters work with iPhone.
- Plug it into the port under the dashboard on the driver's side, and switch the car on (Ready, or at least ignition on).
- Open OBDTrip. It reads the VIN, recognises a Kona Electric or Niro EV, and asks the battery management system for these readings by itself.
- Battery health appears on the vehicle's page and in its readings; charge, voltage and temperatures can go on the dashboard, CarPlay and the Lock Screen while you drive.
What's a good SoH?
Both makers warrant the battery for a number of years and miles against its health falling below a set level, commonly 70% — check the terms for your car and country. Most cars stay well above that: a few percent lost in the first years is normal, after which it changes slowly. A car noticeably below its peers of the same age and mileage has probably had a hard life — a lot of rapid charging, or long periods kept at 100%.
Buying a used one? Read SoH with the car warm and after it's been driven, and ask for the battery's history. Combined with the used-car fault-code check, it covers the two things a test drive can't show you.
Free to connect and see your car live; recording, fault codes and the used-car check are part of an OBDTrip subscription.
Is it safe to read?
Yes. The readings are requested with the standard read-only "read data by identifier" service, on the same addresses the car's diagnostics use. Nothing is written, no settings change, and no security access is needed. The definitions OBDTrip uses are published openly by the EV community.
Watch your EV's battery health over time
OBDTrip reads Kona Electric and Niro EV battery health, charge, pack voltage and cell temperatures automatically, keeps them with every drive so you can see how health changes over time, alongside the car's fault codes.
