2025 Kia Carnival Complaint Log

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.

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.

12V Vehicle battery drained. Unable to start Vehicle.

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%.

In the general design of the Kia Carnival, among other vehicles from the same manufacture (i.e. Kia Sportage) and different manufacturers (i.e. Chevy Bolt), the false taillight cluster has created a safety issue when signaling. With specific mention of the turn signals being in the lower third of the vehicle height, and not in the taillamp cluster, drivers may not ever see the turn signals from the rear of the Kia Carnival, as most drivers are looking at the large taillamp cluster, not the bottom of the rear bumper for turn signals. The poor visibility is further enhanced when combined with the height or size of other vehicles (trucks with lift-kits, large front end vehicles, or large A-pillars) or poor driving from either the vehicle mentioned, or others. Attached photo taken from the Autopian [XXX] ) as a visual reference. No warning lamps appear, and no failures occurred, as it is normal function. This is a manufacturer-created/designed problem. I believe it was done intentionally by the manufacturers to circumvent other design limitations on signaling lamps not being placed on moving surfaces such as liftgates or trunks, and thus crated a new safety issue with large false taillamp clusters that are just the dim lights for illuminating the vehicle. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Battery randomly died in the car overnight

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.

The first sign of the parasitic battery drainage is typically a warning in the Kia Access app that says the vehicle's 12v battery levels have dropped below 40% and remote functions are halted. The app will not inform you of this issue. It's only when you try to use remote functions will you find out. The more direct way of knowing about the issue is obviously discovering a dead battery which will have to be jump started. For me, this happened around 400 miles after purchasing the vehicle brand new. The vehicle is now at the dealership for servicing.

Vehicle was purchased 7/31. Due to seeing others reporting battery drain, I began testing battery charge. I can report that my vehicle is also affected. Voltage drops significantly after just 12 hours of sitting. There’s a parasitic draw somewhere in the vehicle that is killing the batteries in EX, SX, and SX Prestige trims. I’ve purchased a jump box and I now hook it up to a battery tender every night. So far, this has prevented a dead battery, but this shouldn’t have to be done with a vehicle that isn’t yet a month old.

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.

Battery died after 3 days of not driving it.

Our 2025 SX Prestiege was purchased on a Saturday afternoon and by the following Tuesday morning we had a low battery alert (below 40%). Our local Kia dealers are of no help as this appears to be a common issue that is related to something they are unable to diagnose. I have been placing my battery on a charger every night so we can still use the vehicle but every day the battery is low and requires this charge.

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.

2 weeks after purchase, battery died with no warning. Nothing was left on in the car. Called roadside assistance who inspected the battery and alternator which are in good health. Roadside assistance said most likely a parasitic draw.

We have had the car a little under two weeks with no issues. Drove it yesterday and all was good. Went to start it this morning and it was dead. We grabbed the jump starter and it measured at 5.2V to start. It slowly went up but not back to 12V. There is a battery drain somewhere in the system.

Parasitic battery drain. Battery dead at 244 miles when left in garage for two nights with no explanation of drain.

Battery died without warning. Took 30 minutes to jump start. Nothing was left on, no warnings prior. Took it to the dealership the next day. They ran some tests. Everything appeared fine with the battery.

battery constantly dead. If the vehicle is locked, can't unlock, even with provided manual key. Dies on the highway creating dangerous conditions.

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

Having battery drain issues. Brand new vehicle with less than 2,000 miles. After locking the car at night, the remote start would not work in the morning because it stated battery under 40%. Vehicle started with key no issues. One week later, after one day of not driving the vehicle, battery would not unlock remotely or start. Battery was at 6.25 volt. Jumped battery and vehicle started no problem. No accessories were left on to cause this.

I have a dead brand new car after not driving it for 3 days. And, the dealer is unable to tell me how to get into it because the key fob does not have a physical key in it. This appears to be a slow battery draining issue that is being reported heavily online it appears on Reddit, Facebook and multiple forums related to the 2025 Kia Carnival EX and SXP.

Battery wouldn’t started several times. Car was purchased within a month and within two weeks started having issues

Component: Battery Safety concern: Not yet Dealership feedback: Not reported to the dealership yet Inspection: No such inspection happened yet Warning sign: The warning is on the app, currently impacting only convenience (unable to send remote commands via the app), but I am afraid that it will start impacting other areas soon. Description: I brought the car home only 3 days ago. I already had a low battery notification on the app. I am afraid that this will result in a dead battery soon and I will be stuck on the road. Currently I am not able to send remote commands to the car due to the low battery voltage.

Car battery is diyng after less than 48hrs of standby. Have to keep car on trickle charger all the time

I purchased my 25 Carnival on July 8 and by the third week my battery died overnight. I was able to jumpstart the car but since the incidence, I wake up to a dead battery every morning. A lot of Carnival owners (especially SX and SXP) are experiencing similar parasitic battery drain and dealerships are clueless while KIA has refused to acknowledge the problem exist.

Parasitic battery drain leaves car dead and unusable no matter how many jumps/replacement batteries. It happens overnight. This is WIDESPREAD - there are entire Facebook and Reddit groups with thousands of people with the issue. We need to have a fix so we can drive our cars. Driving it home from the dealership just to have it jumped or towed back to Kia and have it sit for weeks without a solution is UNACCEPTABLE. $60k for a car we can’t drive. Absolutely insane. It’s so unsafe to have a family vehicle - a minivan - have dead batteries with no warning on brand new cars. There were less than 75 miles on my car when it first happened. I had made one trip home from the dealership and one trip to the grocery store. This problem is affecting EVERYONE and Kia is about to be out of service techs and out of loaner cars with everyone in the shop until this is sorted out. Unbelievable. This is going to lead to thousands of new 2025 carnival owners going through lemon law to get cars replaced.

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.

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.

The battery was completely dead after just 300 miles. And then it happened again at 450 miles. The car must be jumped and then the battery has to charge again. This is on a 2025 Kia Carnival (brand new).

The battery is completed dead after overnight parking. Had to manually open the door from the key and kia roadside assistance was requested to jump start the battery. We kept the car running so that the battery would be charged and drove about 10-15 miles and the battery is dead again the next morning. Did some research and figured out many 2025 Carnival SX prestige owners reported the battery parasitic drain and not been able to identify the cause. None of the lights or doors were open and this was confirmed after the jump start.

Battery drain and dead battery when parked overnight.

Battery died within 2 days on purchasing vehicle. Took to the the dealer and they replaced the battery but said to keep key fob away 32 ft at night. I carry around a portable charger with me since so many other people are having this issue if not worse.

After a week of owning the car the battery died over night. Was jumped by roadside and died later that day and jumped again. After the 2nd jump, the AC and air bags didn’t work. Then the check engine light came on. Kia has had my brand new carnival since July 26 with no fix.

07/23/2024 13:48:24 Dealership confirmed battery is fine and did not need to replace it. I'm going to delete the Kia Access app and see if that has any affect on the battery drain. This needs to be fixed ASAP. 07/23/2024 05:25:47 The 2025 Kia Carnival appears to have some parasitic battery drain, leaving vehicles unable to start or use functions/features like remote start, AC and others. This has affected many Carnival owners and no one knows what to do. I know other owners have towed their car to the dealership and they're clueless. It could be the app draining the car's battery, a feature like the climate auto dry... no one knows. It's frustrating to have a new vehicle with constantly dead batteries. There are many posts in the FB group, but I'm probably having issues sharing those links because it's a closed group. [XXX] (Not a solution for me): [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The battery on my new Kia Carnival 2025 SX has repeatedly died within the first few weeks of ownership. There seems to be some issue causing it to drain within 2-3 days. The battery has drained down to 4V and 7V in two of the instances. It does charge back up to full but will resume draining afterward, usually dying in 2-3 days. Kia dealer has replaced the battery but the issue still occurred after and now it is at the dealer for the third time in a month. They confirm the issue but have not been able to identify the cause of the parisitic drain yet.

At around 200 miles, I could no longer gain access to my vehicle via via both keys and the Kia app. My vehicle has been sitting at the dealership for 20 days without a resolution and little communication from Kia

On July 19, 2024, my 2025 Kia Carnival SXP experienced a significant battery drainage issue, rendering the vehicle inoperable. The cause is currently unknown, but it seems to involve a parasitic electrical draw that drained the battery while the car was parked and turned off. This issue occurred despite no prior warning or indication of battery problems. Compounding the situation, the door locks, including the mechanical lock, were disabled, preventing access to the vehicle. Kia roadside assistance sent a locksmith, who had to jump-start the vehicle to restore operation. After the jump-start, I received warnings that multiple systems were inoperable, including critical safety and driver assistance features such as the integrated braking system, motor-driven power steering, and tire pressure monitoring system. These failures raise serious concerns about the vehicle's reliability and safety, as it became inoperable and inaccessible without warning, potentially leaving drivers and passengers stranded in dangerous situations.

We bought the car one month ago. 2 weeks ago the battery completely drained. it happened again a few days later. The car is currently at the dealer as they are trying to figure out what is causing the batter to drain when the car is off. Dealer acknowledged its wide spread but Kia does not have a solution yet.

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.

Battery is continually draining while vehicle (2025 Kia Carnival SX Prestige) is off due to some unknown electrical system failure. I have owned the vehicle for only 24 days. In that time, I have experienced 4 instances where the battery has drained that has required the vehicle to be jump-started to operate. Upon jump starting the vehicle, several vehicle safety systems (automatic emergency breaking, blind spot warning, forward collision warning, lane departure warning etc) indicate a malfunction evidenced by error messages/lights on the dash. The vehicle is a high risk for leaving me stranded and potentially providing unreliable operation while driving. The vehicle has now been with the dealership for service for 8 consecutive days and a timeline for resolution of this issue has not been established.

I purchased my 2025 Kia Carnival SXP on July 10th. Since then, I've encountered significant issues with battery drain and camera errors. I've had to jump-start the car and drive it at least every other day due to these problems. On Monday, July 22nd, I sent my car to the dealer for repairs. Six days later, they informed me it was ready for pick-up. However, when I arrived, I found the car battery had died in the dealership. While they claimed the camera issue was resolved, they admitted they needed to investigate the battery problem further. As of now, my car has been with the dealer for over ten days, which is longer than it has been parked at my house. The battery drain issue is clearly persistent, yet Kia continues to assure owners that the vehicle is fine and denies any widespread problem. Despite over 60 cases being filed internally, Kia Customer Care insists no battery issues exist when contacted. It is unacceptable that a vehicle costing over $50,000 needs to be returned to the dealer within less than ten days and 300 miles of use. Furthermore, there has been no communication from Kia regarding the status of my case, no estimated time for a fix, and my car remains held at the dealership without release. This situation is unacceptable, and I urge the NHTSA to investigate Kia's handling of these battery drain issues.

Brand new 2025 Kia Carnival models are experiencing major electrical failure right off the lot, which is my experience. Kia will not acknowledge the issue but there is parasitic draw issues with the vehicle and mine is rendered unable to drive and dealer service departments won’t accept my vehicle for repair.