EV Problems Part 1: My EV Won't Start!

In this video my EV becomes a rather expensive paperweight as it's totally bricked and refuses to go. What on earth is happening?
I also get to drive a car that I haven't driven before (and tell you all about it). I'll be covering things like checking the battery charge, using a flappy paddle gearbox, stop-go in ICE cars, emissions, what I hate about petrol stations and all sorts of general ramblings that you expect from me on this channel.
This is part 1 of this story. I'll be following up with what happens next in a future video very soon so please make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell so you can be amongst the first to watch.
Thanks for watching, subscribing and liking. And please share this video and channel with your friends as that's what encourages me to make more content.
00:00 Intro
00:58 My EV wouldn't go!
02:37 Will it start now?
06:58 To Go Boldly...!
15:32 Some theories
16:53 Checking the battery
21:10 Off to the car dealership
22:53 They've given me a Juke
26:06 An unexpected update
30:01 How much petrol?
31:24 Don't press the buttons!
32:32 What I really think of the Juke
33:49 Gun metal Ariya
34:06 Reunited at last!
35:58 The Juke again
36:49 The Sound of Silence
37:10 Closing thoughts
38:06 Closing credits

[@decimal1815]

I'd swap the 12v battery with a new one, assuming that's not covered by the warranty (and is permitted on the warranty).. My Leaf refused to start randomly last year on several occasions, and even though the battery voltage looked 'normal', the problem disappeared when the 12v battery was replaced.

[@thathairyguy]

I bought a low mileage second hand EV - 21 plate. I did a lot of checks but foolishly overlooked a 12v battery check. Had the car two weeks and went out one morning and I couldn't even open the car. Managed to get access using the physical key but the car just wouldn't turn on at all after that. One new 12v battery later (good brand) and all is well. 10 months later and no more issues. A dodgy 12v really does bring the whole show to a close.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

It’s really worrying when it happens. The problem hasn’t happened to me again, thankfully. I don’t know about you, it hasn’t put me off my EV at all 😀👍🏻

[@thathairyguy]

@@TheRamblyChannel Not a chance, I would never go back :) I had a LEAF for 3 years from new, lovely car - no bother at all. Had an Ioniq electric for about a year now and that's great too. Few niggles (like the 12v!) but it's been a very efficient EV. 5 to 6 miles per kWh is normal for it, for this time of year. It only has a 38 kWh battery but I'm getting 220 (realistic) miles out of it at the moment. Sorry for the ramble, loving the channel. I'm a relatively new subscriber but really like the videos. The Ariya really interests me as I don't know much about it so have been loving the content!!

[@NissanEVOwnersUK]

Hi Andy, nice video. I think you're worrying too much about minor things, the cameras and the unusual warning - almost always down to one of two things. Dirty sensors or - wait for it - a poorly 12v battery. I''d put good money on the latter. As you described, many of the car's systems rely on the 12v and fantastically weird stuff happens when that gets weak. You tested the 12v with an accessory meter - I've got one too, but as you noted, they only work when the car is on. The acid test of a 12v is when the car is off and has been sitting for a while. 12.4 is the threshold, as you rightly say. I bet if you test the battery when the car is off, with a proper multimeter, you'll find it's in need of replacement. One more thing - you mention multiple short journeys being bad for the 12v. This is true for ICE cars but it doesn't apply for EVs. Here's why; When you start an ICE car, the energy for cranking the engine - and it's a LOT - comes out of the 12v battery and it takes some time of running engine for the alternator to put that back into the 12v. Some say it's as much as 20 minutes, I think it's less, but it can depend on the ambient temperature, the health of the 12v and what other things are using the 12v during the recharge period. I say minor things - yes, the car not starting isn't minor, but it hasn't happened again since. Nissan were unable to find anything wrong. I'd take their comments about the 12v with a pinch of salt. Personally, I'd get it replaced, good ones are a hundred quid. Nissan are going to fuss about it - I wouldn't even trouble the warranty for that. Get your local chap to do it. Job done.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Thanks for this post - such interesting information! I need to find those leads for my multimeter. If the battery is having issues I’d at least try to get Nissan to fix it before sorting it out myself.

[@NissanEVOwnersUK]

You're most welcome mate. 🙏

[@JJJJJ269]

It might be worth checking if your dashcam is on when you’re not in the car. This can drain the 12V battery. It’s probably unrelated but worth a check.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Thanks for the thought - a very good point. I had my dashcam wired in to the ignition so it turns off when the car isn't switched on. I had it installed like that specifically because of 12 volt concerns. However it's worth highlighting in case anyone else reads this and hasn't done likewise. Thanks for watching.

[@MrEV]

4:33 "Cancel invoice recognition". Yes, Nissan. I wish I could. Sorry to hear you've been having all these issues. The joys of being an EV trailblazer!

[@TheRamblyChannel]

It hasn't dampened my unwavering enthusiam for the technology. In the grand scheme of things it's nothing really, and provided Nissan do the right thing I'm perfectly happy. I've had issues with ICE cars during the dark times so this is nothing more than click bait really :)

[@donaldmaclean9121]

I've had my Ariya since November 23 and have had a number of issues including the b mode in gear selector not working the EV system saying I had a fault and wouldn't start up(but it did) a bit like your own issue, my electric glove box not working on delivery,.. and worst of all a clicking from what sounds like a relay or a switch when I go over any kind of uneven surface,. none of this inspires any confidence as you have said.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

I'm sorry to hear that Donald. I've only ever owned one Nissan previously and that was about 30 years ago - a Nissan Sunny! It was one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned, but the Ariya has had some issues for sure. I remain an EV enthusiast as these issues are very much Nissan's fault and nothing to do with EVs as such. Provided they sort things out and keep improving I'll stick with it. Look out out for part 2 coming next month!

[@Tianablue1]

I hope it has nothing to do with the Dashcam you got hardwired in? 😕 I know absolutely nothing about these things, but just a thought! Thanks for all these videos, my wife test drove an Ariya last week and is close to deciding to go for it, so your videos have been very useful for us as it’ll be our first ever EV. 👍🏻

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Thanks for your feedback. I still love the car and have no regrets about buying it. ICE cars have teething problems too so it's just one of those things. I would've thought a newer Ariya wouldn't have some of these faults - mine was an early one so it's almost inevitable there will be issues. Great point about the Dashcam. I had it wired to "ignition on" because I'd heard that permanent wiring could drain the battery so it shouldn't be causing these issues. I do have theories and will be covering more about this in my follow up video coming out next month! Thanks for watching and do let me know if your wife goes for Ariya and what she thinks of it.

[@TimBorg]

do you just have a flat 12v battery this happens all the time with LEAFs

[@NissanEVOwnersUK]

I'm pretty sure that's the problem here.

[@TimGillott]

I had a similar problem with my Outlander PHEV towards the end of last year. The car had been left for 3 days. Got in and the vehicle would not power up. A brief message on screen about EV Fault and the screen went blank. Looking around there was not energy to light up the courtesy lights so I was thinking 12v failure - which was annoying as it was only 9 months old, having replaced the cars original 12v. The 12v is under the boot floor and the rear hatch won’t happen if the 12v goes down. There is a manual release, from the inside! Battery exposed and multimeter showed about 4v. Battery to supplier who kept it in for testing, and I ordered a replacement anyway. A couple of days later with 2 fully charged batteries I replaced one and as I was screwing the boot floor back in the battery started to discharge rapidly - the giveaway was the car alarm starting to bleep. By the time I’d got the battery exposed and the multimeter on it was down to about 8v. A bad bout of COVID prevented me from doing much physical fault finding, it I’ve done a fair bit of forum trawling. No one has been able to give a me an answer but I had some hints and I suspect the electric tailgate to be the problem. I’ve turned it off and the problem has not reappeared. Today, I read that Hyundai replaced loads of 12v batteries under warranty on their Kona. The actual problem turned out to be the car thinking the tailgate had not closed properly, and continually trying to close it, resulting in the 12v dying. I picked up a similar issue on a Kia EV6 page, involving a tailgate. Whether these faults can retrospectively be picked up on a diagnosis I don’t know. Illness and availability stopped me from booking the car in so I’m working on the proviso that I’ve fixed the problem - it’s no hardship as the electric tailgate was soooo slow! I do now carry a 12v power pack now as I can jump start the car from attachment points under the bonnet, without having to accessi the battery and I’d recommend purchasing if you haven’t already. I’ve not watched Part 2 of the video yet so there may be an update I’m not aware of yet.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Hi Tim. Very interesting to hear your experiences. Thanks for sharing them. You've reminded me that I do intend to get a 12v power pack for these kinds of issues but haven't got round to it. You'd think after my experiences I'd have rushed out to get one...! Thanks for watching.

[@ashb8572]

This reminds me of day one with an MG4. Near daily random glitches, warnings, and errors. Sometimes, they'd reset, and sometimes we lose a funtion until it starts working again. Having had 6 EVs so far our 2014 Nissan Leaf has been the only EV without these random faults so long as you top up the 12v battery with a trickle charger every couple months. I'm glad I've gone back to a reliable Toyota Prius PHEV as our main car and kept our trusted Leaf as our 2nd car. The takeaway over the last 8 years of EV ownership is, the newer/current EVs have issues and similar negative experiences. It doesn't make a difference if you have an Ioniq 5, Audi Etron, or a Porchse Taycan or a Tesla..... EVs are being sold as unfinished products compared to the older generation or ICE counterparts. Considering their price, its an absolute joke

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Interesting feedback. Despite this I wouldn’t own another ICE car or Hybrid in 2024. It’s time for us all to move to full electric ⚡️

[@trumpetscall8910]

I have not had a problem with the remote heater in my Ariya, i had basto heater on my 3 latest ice fords. But they would have a 12v problem, when in daily use.

[@dougabbott8261]

Sorry that you have had a few glitches with your Ariya. I would have thought the problems would have logged for the Nissan Techs but.... We are coming up to our 1 year anniversary in February and have only had it in for the Inverter Recall. Inverter recall takes a few hours on its own. When you are charging the dash light flashes blue when the main battery is charging the 12 volt battery it flashes green.Thanks for video.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Hi Doug. That's interesting about the flashing colours. I'd noticed the blue flash but hadn't twigged the green. I'll look for that the next time I charge up. Do you know if it'll only go to "flashing green mode" once the big battery gets to 100%? If so, that means my 12v will hardly ever get charged as I almost always don't go above 80%.

[@dougabbott8261]

Hello, you do not need to be charging to have the flashing green. I was out and about today and noticed the green flashing a couple of times as we parked. We are at 75% . When I start my Ariya I depress the brake and than push the start button. I noticed you kind of do a two step process of first powering up your Ariya than once it is powered up you depress brake pedal than the start button. Just wondering if that was how you normally start your Ariya.Regards.@@TheRamblyChannel

[@TheRamblyChannel]

@@dougabbott8261 Hi Doug. I normally do the same as you and have a one step starting process. Every now and then I probably do it a bit too soon after getting in the car and it seems not to register it first time (perhaps I take my food off the pedal a bit quick or something?). Fair question though!

[@TimBorg]

if the power in 12v car battery gets low it will refuse to go into gear and report EV error this just happened to me with my LEAF after I turned it on to accessory mode only for too long with air con on full blast which drained the small battery plug it into a car battery charger

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Thanks Tim. The feedback I'm getting from most people is around the 12v battery and it seems like the most likely source of this issue. I'll be discussing this further in part 2.

[@petersz98]

Traditional auto companies are not software companies! An EV is basically a computer on wheels. A pure EV manufacturer like Tesla is basically a software company in that they have as many if not more software engineers than mechanical engineers. Legacy companies are the opposite they have decades of experience with mechanical engineering but virtually none with software engineering, hence the problem!

[@TheRamblyChannel]

You’re not wrong Peter. Also, legacy makers tend to outsource their software and then have to get those separate systems to play nicely with other. It’s no surprise that those who do it all in-house will be better placed in the future. Thanks for watching! 😁👍🏻

[@ViewBothSides]

So true... also Germany and Japan are both outliers as large economies significantly under-represented in global software developments of the past 2 decades, so the car industry is in a unique situation.

[@cam_934]

You release a video showing you have zero confidence in getting home in your EV and Nissan won't act on random bugs unless they can reproduce it even though you would think the onboard computer should have an error code for it. I'm SOLD, where can I buy two as I also need this extra stress and grief in my life.

[@geert5811]

Beginning of the month we had to bring the car to the dealership, just for an overall planned review after 6 months. When I went to pick it up I was very surprised to hear that they did a software upgrade. I replied that I thought it normally would do an "over the air" update and they said that some updates only can be done at the dealership. That made me loose some of my confidence in Nissan over all ... g.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

I don't think it's that unusual - if the update is a large one then doing it OTA isn't ideal and that will be the case for all manufacturers and vehicles, not just Nissan and the Ariya. That said, Nissan have (to my knowledge) only issued on OTA update since launch over 18 months ago and that made no noticeable differences so I do take your point.

[@nickearnell1599]

I had this it was the steering wheel fault . Once the new wheel was fitted the problems went away fully!

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Thanks Nick. Without giving too much away, part 2 of this short series won’t come as a huge surprise to you 😉 Thanks for watching! 😃

[@trumpetscall8910]

Its usually the 12v battery, the long travel from Japan to Europe is not good for it.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

I would agree with you, however I’d owned my car for several months before this happened 🤷‍♂️

[@valleysofneptune]

The grey colour is called ceramic grey, it’s a pearlescent paint, and I love it . Audi do it for the qrs and I had a similar colour with a Honda civic … I love it , don’t like dark coloured cars as they’re a nightmare to keep clean….so I ordered Ceramic grey as the two tone white I liked was £1,295 option! Ridiculous when that paint used to be a £700 option

[@TheRamblyChannel]

I understand your feelings. I’m not a fan of the ceramic grey myself but each to their own, that’s why there are lots of colours to choose from! I used to think the same about dark coloured cars and would avoid them, however that hasn’t been the case with my Aurora Green Ariya. Perhaps it’s the fact it’s not black, it’s a mix of all sorts of colours - can look green and even shades of purple at times! It was the ridiculous cost of the paint options that made me stick with the Aurora Green and I’m so pleased I did - it looks great and saved me a load of cash! 😂

[@aifangwei8440]

Next they will be putting flintstone panels in the floor that will flap down so you can use your feet to move the EV if your 12 volt battery goes flat!!

[@RockyRacoon66]

Thanks! I now know I don’t need anything EV or Nissan in my life. If I had an expensive car with just 5200 miles use giving this much hassle I think I would push it off a cliff.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

ICE cars have problems too. I've had just as many issues with ICE cars in the past so this isn't an EV thing at all. Nissan, perhaps, need to take a long hard look at themselves but they're doing better than some in their part of the world. (Not mentioning any names but looking vaguely in the direction of Honda and very much in the direction of Toyota.)

[@jmilleronaire]

I have a new 2023 Bolt EUV that recently had a drivetrain issue that limited me to 30mph (65 celcius) that has me concerned. However, your rant about the engine stop/start is old-fashioned, as research from the American Automobile Association found that stop-start technology resulted in a 5% to 7% improvement in fuel economy. Not a huge amount but they're trying to find anything to hang onto their old-fashioned polluting technologies.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Thanks for your feedback. I remain unconvinced about the stop/start but it's interesting what you say. Sorry to hear about your drivetrain issues. The key thing is that all cars can have issues regardless of how they're powered.

[@jmilleronaire]

Oh yes, the issues we're having with our cars has more to do with them being designed and manufactured by humans, and less to do with their source of propulsion. I'm not completely convinced of the efficacy of the stop/start either, to be honest, but a lot of studies have shown they do (slightly) reduce overall emissions (remember, fuel injected cars are different than carburated ones, that's where the "takes more fuel to start than run at idle" thing starts to fall apart)

[@honesty_-no9he]

You don't drive it enough!! I know you only have the entry version but POLE TO POLE drove their Ariya from the North Pole all the way zig-zagging across North America then down through Central America then a massive journey covering massive South America then into Antarctica. EVs need love. Timid drivers have MORE ISSUES than owners who drive their cars like they stole it!

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Ummmm. Er. OK?! 🧐

[@honesty_-no9he]

@@TheRamblyChannel Bonus is if you are going to F! it up then F! it up under warranty!!

[@aifangwei8440]

Take it back and demand an ICE vehicle!!

[@keithwilson1554]

I saw a German Reviewer say they changed the Pronunciation of Ariya to Areea as Ariya is similar sounding to the German Aryan the race Hitler love to be a part of.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Really? Interesting. My car is back at the dealers in early February. I’ll ask them about it 👍🏻

[@Lewis_Standing]

My guess before watching a second is the 12v Let's see what the real cause is!

[@TheRamblyChannel]

Interesting...! No spoilers from me...

[@michaelgoode9555]

When we got our used ID.3 in March 2023 it had a 12v battery problem. We got intermittent odd warnings but I had diagnosed a 12v battery issue and got it replaced under warranty. I suspect that it is a 12v issue on your car because when you started up the reading was less than 12v. The reading went up because the car has equipment to top up the 12v battery once the car is "started". There will be error codes in the car for them to read using their test equipment. As I post this you are driving the horrible ICE car...

[@michaelgoode9555]

Your anus my arse ! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Lewis_Standing]

All the gadgets are 12v powered, still my bet

[@TheRamblyChannel]

@@Lewis_Standing It does seem like the most likely reason. I have a part 2 coming up next month… 😁

[@yuricopperhooves]

Lol new cars are such cucks, back in the days I have a car, it get a little bit on fire, some of the sparkplug connectors melted off but it still took me home. Nowadays: Oh no the belt isn't buckled in, I'm sorry but I can't let you drive.

[@BenMitro]

Manufacturers are building nanny cars and stupidly we are buying them - its not just EV's either.

[@gingernutpreacher]

Nanny?

[@BenMitro]

@@gingernutpreacher referring to "Nanny State" where the government introduces legislation in an attempt to overcome human stupidity.

[@se62hy]

The n word 😂😂

[@simonhogxl8928]

thanks for the advice not to buy a pile of crap ev i will stick to my desiel it has never failed me in 15 years i will stick with it cheers

[@TheRamblyChannel]

No problem. Really we should all go back to the horse and carriage, I can’t understand why people like me are so obsessed with moving forward all the time and making things better for everyone. It’s madness isn’t it?

[@simonhogxl8928]

@@TheRamblyChannel true and ev not many think about the damaged to the plannet before they done one mile and the child slaves that are involed in the making of them then the is the coal that is burnt to fuel them if there was no child labour amd it was 100% green that fuels them i think they would have took off amd made ice a thing of the past

[@peterwalkerden6778]

EV's don't "start" they turn on.

[@TheRamblyChannel]

But only if you push the right buttons. 🤪

[@aifangwei8440]

So its not only range anxiety that affects EV owners , its car starting anxiety and tech issues!!

[@honesty_-no9he]

There is no range anxiety.

[@glitter_fart]

Disabling views from embed's on other sites means your channel can't grow

[@TheRamblyChannel]

I'm slightly supicious of that setting which is why I turn it off, but I've turned it on now. Let's see what happens...!

[@newblackdog7827]

So, in summary, the car is crap 💩! I wouldn’t touch an EV with a barge pole. I’ll stick with my nice, simple, analogue 1995 Volvo 940, and you that travelling piece of plastic 🤣

[@ExertGames]

Electric cars are shit

[@Lewis_Standing]

Shit hot