Obviously, I am just a random person on the Internet so my qualifications to answer this are non-existent.

That said, it looks like a protective cover got damaged rather than the battery itself. I would go with what you local dealer told you and not sweat it. But. . . I might also check to see if the protective cover by itself can be replaced.

 

I agree with Fan, just see what a replacement cover costs. While the cover is off you can see what, if any, damage is behind it. Given that it’s basically a scrape I doubt there’s any further damage.
(My qualifications and opinions are similarly non-professional)

 

Another non-professional opinion here: That looks like its just damage to the protection cover. Its the outermost shell of the system. It should be possible to just replace that fiberglass sheet and if there is no damage to the pack under it you should be fine.

 

I would take you your insurance company and let the run the assessment.

 

- Deleted, ignore this post

 

I would think that if a minor scrape like that caused actual damage to the battery, then EVs are not yet ready for public roads.

I'd check occasionally with Car Scanner to see if there are any errors or voltage issues. Which is something I do anyway.

And it wouldn't hurt to replace the cover and broken bolts.

 

If that were my car, I would not lose any sleep over it.

 

I say get the cover replaced by Hyundai (obviously one that says "it's all cool"). Once it is off, they can actually look at the battery pack to see IF there are any damages.
I would not leave it as-is just because this could become the cause for warranty refusal later down the line IF there actually are any issues with battery since they can simply point at this damage as cause even if it probably isn't.

 

Cosmetic damage, underneath, no one can see it. I see a few cracks. Are they surface only? If not, they might propagate over time. Fill the missing bolt hole with caulking?

Replace the panel if cost is reasonable. Otherwise DIY to beautify it. Or just leave it.

 

Like everyone else here, my vote is "the shielding did its job and protected the battery", don't sweat it and look into replace the sheild
I wonder if the 1st dealership was playing on your conscience, thinking if they put fear into you, you would use your car as a trade-in to get a new vehicle?

 

I am not an expert either but I would definitely extract the sheered off bolt if possible and replace it. I would replace the cover as well.

 

Depending on the cost to replace, it may be worth your time to drill, extract and replace the bolt, and repair the shield with some epoxy resin and fiberglass...like you would repair a surfboard.

 

I don't know if that shield is meant to be waterproof, but if that is one of its functions, that's probably degraded, so I wouldn't want to leave it as-is; I'd want to either have the shield repaired by somebody I thought was competent or have it replaced.

 

There are big holes on the shield, so it's not waterproof. But I would replace it anyway for reason that have already been stated.

 

Even if you're able to fix this quickly without any trouble, please report that stupid quote to Hyundai corporate. They've been trying to rein in ridiculous dealerships because quotes like that rightly kill them from a PR perspective. See, e.g.

It's gone now for some reason, but @Corbin ran a statement from Hyundai after the Motormouth videos basically saying that that's not the real price and they're trying to get dealerships in line.

 

Thanks all! I think my next step will to be to try and get in touch with Hyundai themselves and get their take on it. I'll post any updates here as I get them. In the meantime, I've been driving the car with no issues. I've got an OBD reader installed semi-permanently and will keep my eyes on any codes that come up, although there were no relevant codes last time I checked. My main concern would be moisture penetration into the guts of the battery. Here in the Pacific NW, it doesn't rain pretty much at all during the Summer, but that changes drastically come October when it rains for 8 months straight.

 

My main concern would be moisture penetration into the guts of the battery.

That plastic shield does little to keep out water. It has several round holes in it, but it is glued down iirc from the Munro & Associates video. It's the battery case itself that really sealed with friction welds all the way around.

But, as with any car, that doesn't mean you want to drive through deep water. Normal wet roads won't be an issue.

 

This story reminds me of my own experience 30 years ago.

I was travelling down a hiway on a foggy Alberta night and I entered a curve too fast (it was sudden and a surprise).

I over-steered and slid off the road. After doing a few doughnuts on the side of the road in the wet grass, the car came to a stop. I jumped out and there appeared to be no damage. I limped home but noticed that the steering was a bit off.

I brought the car into a local garage and they explained that the frame was "twisted" and it would be a very costly repair. I balked at that assessment and sought out a second opinon.

Turns out that I only needed to have an alignment done. I had that done and I drove that car for another 16 years with no issues. Go figure.

 

Some expert assessments may be due to liability concerns, the best report is the worse case.
Don't bother replace it, not easy!

 

The answer to this problem, as in many in life, is duct tape. What could be simpler.....

 

Bubble gum and bailing wire has proven itself for over a century.

 

Ahh..but MacGyver could repair it with
A pack of Alka Seltzer
5 Rubber bands
2 nickles
and the moons gravitational pull

 

One more "don't bother doing anything about it" opinion over here. That is a purely defensive shield to prevent road debris from cutting open the cooling channels behind it. It looks like it did its job, and it looks like it's in plenty fine shape to keep doing its job, and if you haven't gotten any temperature errors or lost any coolant, I think it's safe to say whatever damage it's covering up is too minor to worry about.

If you held a gun to my head and said "fix it for less than 50 grand" I'd probably just put a little patch of new fiberglass over that area so it wouldn't fray anymore or get snow/salt ingress. In fact, if this were my car, I'd strongly consider adding a little duct tape, just to keep the damp out (or maybe a tape a little more durable than duct tape but you get the idea).

 

I would probably remove the shield from the car so that it can be worked on properly indoors, and use fibreglass mat and paste to repair it. Then paint the entire shield so that any casual observer under there would not focus on that small area.

At the end of the day it's just like a motorcycle helmet that has been scratched in a minor spill. In that case you would replace the lid not the brain inside it.

 

The battery shield, made of glass fibre and resin, has a certain amount of flexibility as all materials do. Yours has clearly exceeded its flexibility limit by the force of the impact it received., The question in my mind is, at the moment of its breaking how much of that force was transferred to the HV battery. How much damage was caused? .A little? A lot? None at all? I would want to remove the shield to determine just how the battery was affected before jumping to the conclusion that all is fine with the battery.

 

OP has to decide on the risk. The best action is the worse case, replace it. Otherwise, use some common sense...

• Look at the construction of the battery chassis in the tear down in post #20. Coolant circulates at the bottom. There is no leak and no sign of battery/charge issue.
• The damage is at the edge. If the impact is beyond the shield, it would be on the battery chassis edge which seems to be the strongest from the tear down video.
• Remove and patch the shield is not trivial due to size, adhesive remove+cleanup+reapply. Might end up breaking the shield at another area 😆 due to the adhesive.

Posts are from people with different level of education, experience, profession. Drive it for a few more weeks to monitor for abnormalities. If none, then duct tape or go under to improve the condition with fibreglass replace kit or do nothing.

 

I assume you were driving when the damage happened. Why arent you filing an auto insurance claim?

 

That'd be a fair question if it was definitely-for-sure necessary to replace the battery, but at this point this whole thread amounts to "I got a rock chip in the hood. One shop says my car is going to catch fire and it'll cost me $50k to fix, the other shop says buy a $10 paint pen."

If you had a paint chip, would you pay a $1000 deductible and bump your insurance rates to fix it?

 

I would certainly turn over the decision to my insurance company and ask for a written statement about whether it needs to be repaired, replaced, or does not need repair. That should be free, right? I dont know if you own or lease your vehicle. If leased, it would be a bummer if they charged you 30,000 to return a car with a residual of 20,000. If owned, you couldn't sell it because potential owners have it inspected and pass because of the "risk". Again, getting your insurance company to take a look, doesn't mean you have to do anything.