[JerryP]

It's not the cheapest way to escape, but if no one had been there, this would have let you out. Every car should have one in case you land in a pond or a creek and can't get out any other way. Still, the inside handle should work without power. The outside one does. That needs to be a safety law.

Getting stuck like that had to be mighty scary.

By the way, next time you want to check the odometer, there's no need to start the car to check it. I just open the driver's door and look at the odometer. It pops up in just a few seconds. Far faster and easier.

 

[JerryP]

Having recently taken off my door panels, I know for sure my US-market Ioniq 5 has mechanical linkages from the interior handles to the latches. That's what the green sleeved cable in the photo is.
View attachment 58887

Based on OP's story, perhaps this is a difference between markets? But if so, it is a truly baffling design decision from Hyundai.

That's what I expected. I've had several doors with power locks apart. They all had a cable or rod. Perhaps that's why I couldn't get Google to answer my question about getting out of a car with a dead 12V. No matter how I tried to phrase and filter, it was alwasy about how to get IN.

I have some free time today. Gonna open the driver's window, lock the doors, take the fob in the house, disconnect the 12V and make sure it actually does work as it should.

 

[JerryP]

Well, that was easy. Here are more details than anyone needs, step by step.

2024 Ioniq 5 RWD LR SEL. US model.

1. I got in the car and put it in READY.
2. I opened the driver's window. I shut off the car.
3. I released the hood.
4. I got out and closed the door.
5. I reached in and locked the doors with the button on the driver's armrest.
6. I took my fob inside, just for insurance although I was sure it wouldn't be a factor.
7. I lifted the hood and popped the cover off the battery.
8. I disconnected the negative clamp from the battery post and moved it away from the post.
9. I reached in the open driver's window and pulled the inside driver's door handle
10. One ping pull only, Vasily. One pull only, please.
11. The door opened.
12. I closed the door.
13. The outside handles all stayed in the retracted position.
14. I opened it again using the inside handle.
15. Again, the outside handles stayed in the locked position.
16. Worked every time. You can feel and hear the mechanism moving.
17. I put it all back together.

There is no logic in making it so the door ONLY opens electrically when that makes it so obviously unsafe.

 

[JerryP]

I accidently locked myself in the back seat once with the child lock on.

I was always locking people in the back seat. Every time I adjusted the mirrors, it toggled the child lock on or off. The '25 Ioniq 5 had the button recessed a little. I had some extra vertical blind strips laying around so I cut off a piece of one and made a D-shaped cover for that button. I has a hole so I can see the light. I masked off all of the bottom side of the cover except the outer rim and sprayed it with aerosol adhesive. I removed that tape and stuck it over the button. Works GREAT. Just flexible enough to operate the button when I want to but no longer getting accidentally toggled. What a dumb place to put that button.

The cover is a a prototype and is a little rough around the edges. I need to make a nicer one when I get the chance.

 

[JerryP]

And since ICE cars are far more likely to catch fire than EVs, the window breaking and seatbelt cutting tool is even more important for them. One example from last month:

An hour after I passed the exact spot where that Tesla sits in the picture below, an Infinity driver traveling at ridiculous speed couldn't hold the gentle curve. Went airborne and upside down over the median, and killed the Tesla driver. People who don't appreciate how easy it is to ignite the liquid that ignites in their engines expect the much less ignitable batteries to catch fire. Nope. Tesla's shredded and driver dead. Infinity incinerated and driver hospitalized. (Road closed for hours.)

 

[JerryP]

When I first got the car I climbed into the rear seat to check it out. I was shocked to find the door locked with no release to get out. I eventually climbed over the front seat and reached the unlock button. I complained to the dealer that I was trapped in the car. They just shrugged their shoulders. This is a real safety issue.

I agree with @srs5694. I was always toggling the child lock whenever I adjusted the side mirrors.

Till I made this. It's a prototype. Works great but I need to find time to make a more polished one. I made it from a piece of vertical blind that was laying around.

 

[JerryP]

Nope. The car is designed to maintain the 12v battery both when being driven or shut down (as long as HV battery SOC is > 10%)

It maintains the 12V when off ... after a fashion. The graph from my BM2 gets pretty low sometimes before the car's charger kicks in.

 

[JerryP]

JerryP, what do you think about one of these?

Amazon.com: Auto Battery Monitor BM2 Bluetooth 4.0 12V Device Car Battery Tester : Automotive

Buy Auto Battery Monitor BM2 Bluetooth 4.0 12V Device Car Battery Tester: Battery Testers - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Looks just like the two I have. Works great.

 

[JerryP]

It maintains the 12v when off exactly as designed. Never had a problem.

Nor have I, but others have and I've had one dead battery and one close call in one year of ownership. There are tons of discussions on that topic around here. Imho, it's usually because either the 12V is failing and the charging system isn't keeping up, or there's some extra load on the 12V that shouldn't be there.

The car waits a long time before charging the 12V and doesn't always charge long enough to bring it back up to anything close to full charge. But when being driven, it keeps a continuous eye on the 12V and tops it off almost continuously. When charging the HV battery, it maintains a steady charge on the 12V.

 

[JerryP]

Not me, Jerry had the issue in his first week with the car.

Yep. That was me. It really had me concerned for a while and I think I made quite a bit of noise around here when it happened as I tried to sort out what was going on. When I installed my BM2 a few days later, I noticed that the positive battery terminal clamp was loose.

BTW, yesterday was the one year anniversary of buying the car. The incident happened almost exactly a week after I got it.

Then about three weeks later we were on our way home from Iowa. It was plugged in to L1 at an Air B&B overnight. I don't remember what caught my attention the next morning, but I checked and it was down to 12V. It started up just fine.

I have not had any events since then, but the battery voltage does fade more quickly than I'd like, so I'll be getting an AGM before we take our big summer road trip.

So we're dealing with two issues. One being a combination of using a junky wet battery rather than AGM and also having less than optimal but usually adequate 12V charge state maintenance. The other scarier issue is that apparently Hyundai has deleted the mechanical linkage for the door latches in the UK and possibly some other places for all we know, which should not be legal. [Edited to fix omission of UK being the only place we know of so far with the deletion plus a BUNCH of typos.]