What 119 owners told NHTSA about the 2025 Kia Carnival Hybrid Hev

The vehicle's battery drain after turning off and cannot restart. It can cause to stall the vehicle on road. Kia Connect sent "Our backend team has determined that a TSB ELE341 (Network Reset) is needed to refresh your vehicle’s connection to the Kia Connect servers. To resolve this, please contact your preferred official Kia dealership to schedule an appointment and mention TSB ELE341 for the network reset." Took the vehicle to a Kia dealer's service; they reset, but problem remains. I just received from Kia"Dear [XXX] , This is nothing that we can troubleshoot. You will have to wait for your appointment to have them handle the issue. Thank you Sincerely, Kia America INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11648181

One night while driving all lights went out even panel radio too and in a couple of seconds came back to normal..a few weeks after that while driving a loud warning sound came on and the info panel turned Red when I felt a breeze my door was opened by inself

NHTSA ODI 11648010

While driving at highway speeds the exterior and interior lighting/electrial system shut down completely. My headlights shut off, as well as all electrical/lighting inside the vehicle for approximately 1 minute before turning back on as if I had turned the car off and restarted it. I have a low tire pressure warning that comes on when the car is started, and it came on again as if my car had just started, while I was still driving. This poses a safety risk to myself and other drivers depending on the headlights for visibility. The incident did not cause my vehicle to stop driving although I did break due to the sudden loss of all electrical components.

NHTSA ODI 11627633

Brand new car and the battery is draining. Leaving the vehicle unable to start.

NHTSA ODI 11625838

Battery went dead. Been at dealer 2 weeks. They are waiting to hear from Kia but nothing is being done.

NHTSA ODI 11625430

The battery has died twice within 3 months. I couldn’t leave my house to collect my kids. The problem has been commented on by a dealership. No.

NHTSA ODI 11625614

There seems to be a very common problem of the 2025 Kia Carnival having a battery drain issue, leaving people stranded. I had a dead battery today with only one month and 300 miles of use. Thousands have had the same experience and have discussed this on various forums.

NHTSA ODI 11623696

12V Vehicle battery drained. Unable to start Vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11623423

I'm getting an alert in the car app that says low battery and will not perform any lock/unlock/start, etc features. It says the battery level is under 40%.

NHTSA ODI 11623349

I purchased brand new 2025 Kia Carnival SX less than 2 months ago and it is back at the dealership for service for the second time. First time it had an airbag light stay on the dash and the battery kept reading low voltage and would not allow us to use any features on Kia Access app such as remote start and 360 view. The dealership fixed the airbag light but did not find any electrical issues with battery after testing. The car is driven daily and after sitting for approximately 16 hours the car battery is completely dead. Tried to do a quick jump and would not crank over. I am convinced it has a parasitic draw. It is currently at second service center in hopes of a resolution. So far Kia has not been very supportive.

NHTSA ODI 11611009

Purchased brand new, went home to put car seats in and that's when we discovered the rear sliding door did not lock. Took the vehicle in on the 7th, took until the 23rd for it to be "fixed". Picked up the vehicle came home and the car now does not lock again. Kia customer care team has been little to no help and it was suppose to be escalated to the Kia escalation team but we have yet to hear from them.

NHTSA ODI 11610666

Started about a couple weeks ago. Just bought my car and my battery drained 3 nights in a row. Had to jump start it Found out some fan run, when car is off, hours after it has been parked.

NHTSA ODI 11610563

The battery on this car drains despite standard operation. Battery replacements do not work and it must be jumped. Some programming aspect clearly is wrong and drains the battery when not in use. It needs to be fixed asap for safety and to avoid stranding.

NHTSA ODI 11610202

After day or two purchasing the car, I started getting notifications at the car battery was low eventually after two weeks it completely died, and I was locked out with no way to enter the car because they no longer provide a manual key in the key fob. Multiple chargers and charging with another car for hours with no luck to get the car back up once I finally did get the car open. Seems like the dealerships themselves are aware of this issue and they have no way of fixing it. They keep playing games and making circles about how they’re escalating they’re doing they’re doing that and they have not provided me with a loaner.

NHTSA ODI 11610104

My bran new 2025 with 3,000 miles has a completely dead battery. The Kia roadside assistance person was unable to jump start it.

NHTSA ODI 11609018

Battery inexplicably drains to death. I purchased the vehicle new and, within 5 days, had battery failure. The first sign of the issue is the inability to utilize remote commands via the Kia app, receiving a message that the vehicle's battery is at a low charge of <40%. Without intervention, the battery will then drain to death.

NHTSA ODI 11608729

Battery drain which results in vehicle not starting. There have been a series of events that ended in my Carnival not starting. Purchased new on July 6, 2024. Picked up from to Dealership July 8, 2024 and drove home. The below events started Aug 2, 2024 1. Side mirrors didn’t “wake up” when I approached with key fob 2. Truck wouldn’t close (had to manually pull shut) 3. Received app notification when attempting to lock doors through app that battery was less than 40% 4. Received dashboard warning when attempting to start 5. Lights remained on for a few seconds after attempting to start 6. Vehicle wouldn’t start 7. Turn signal - Action required via app 8. Towed to Dealership 8/5/2025 a vehicle would not start

NHTSA ODI 11608173

Battery randomly died in the car overnight

NHTSA ODI 11608271

Brand New 2025 KIA Carnival SX model - experiencing major electrical failure within the first month (around 800 miles). There's a battery negative draw issue, and the car battery will die completely within 3 days, if not driven. Had to jump-start the car 4 times within the first month. One of the incidents had me stuck right in the middle of the road - When the battery is low, turning on the AC will result electrical system flickering, and then shutting the car down entirely. The dealership acknowledges the issue but stated no solution has been found yet.

NHTSA ODI 11608327

I've owned my new car for less than two weeks and already my car has a dead battery. I did not leave any lights on or doors opened.

NHTSA ODI 11608049

As noted my many drivers in the Kia forum, I bought a 2025 Kia Carnival SX prestige only have a dead battery 2 week into ownership.

NHTSA ODI 11608117

Battery drain and dead battery when parked overnight.

NHTSA ODI 11607773

Vehicle sat in my garage in for 2 days and when I went to go drive, I found the vehicle was dead and had to be jumped. The vehicle currently has 370 miles on it and when I started the vehicle, it returned an error stating that the electrical system drained the battery.

NHTSA ODI 11607684

Battery died after owning the car for 4 days. Kia service could not determine a cause. Parasitic drain of the battery caused car to be dead.

NHTSA ODI 11607685

New 2025 Carnival SXP that has been taken back to the dealer on 2 separate occasions in the first 2 weeks of owning the vehicle. The battery has died 4 times with no obvious reason for the parasitic draw. The dealer recharged the battery once but the issue again come back just a few days later. After the second trip to the dealer, they replaced the battery, but are unable to find any other reason for the problem to have occurred.

NHTSA ODI 11607702