2025 KIA CARNIVAL Complaints

The vehicle(2025 Kia Carnival HEV) is brand new, just over one month old. We parked it in the garage, and after just 4 days of not driving, the battery was totally dead. We were not able to start the van. The battery was 4.5v when measured with a digital volt meter.

Being a new vehicle the 2nd row seats do not easily slide forward and back. My wife was attempting to move the 2nd row seat forward using the mechanism on the outside of the seat. The back of the seat and the seat moved forward suddenly, striking her in the forehead. The mechanism that holds the 2nd row seat belt is made of a very hard plastic. This hard plastic is what made contact with my wife's forehead, knocked her glasses off and left a swollen lump. The seat belt mechanism and/or plastic material needs to be re-engineered. This could result in a serious injury to a young child or elderly person.

The vehicle is brand new. We drove it home from the dealership and parked it in the garage, and after just a few days, the battery was totally dead and unresponsive.

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.

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.

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

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.

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)

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.