In the last 3 months I drove only two times, and short drives. It was also winter so colder and I saw that the red LED from the driver's door that pulses when locked (no alarm installed) didn't pulse anymore.

When I unlocked the car and opened the door the interior light was off - not because of the switch that was off but just the car didn't light it.

After turning on the engine and let it running a bit, the interior light turned itself on, the LED pulses again. But no message about the battery in the dashboard or app.

The car started OK.

Now, the car being from 2023, my question is if someone saw/happened to have a similar situation - is the battery low? Just driving on a longer road will help in this case to charge it - or how much driving is necessary to charge the battery?

Thank you.

It sounds like the battery is very low. You should be able to recharge it for much more useful life but it has been injured a bit and will anyway take a long time to fully recharge which is what it needs.

Modern cars will start the engine even with the battery very low but the battery still needs recharging. Just trying to recharge by driving might take a long time and distance and not get the battery charged enough to retain much for long, much better in your case is to fully recharge the battery using an appropriate battery charger maintainer.

Look in the Owner's Manual for your car for how to recharge using a battery charger and also consult the instructions for the charger maintainer. You would be best to recharge it using an appropriate charger maintainer and one with a low output rather, than higher output, particularly as the drain has been long and slow, say 2, 3 or 4-amps charger maintainer.

As you use the car so little you may have have plenty of time for the long slow recharge to full which, if you want to, may be best done with the battery disconnected from the car particularly if the weather is colder than say below +10c then indoors at a higher temperature, better at +20c. If your charger maintainer has a "winter" setting these usually are for below +5c.

If you want to disconnect the battery to speed things up a little again consult the Owner's Manual about how to disconnect and reconnect the battery and also look up what items might need resetting on the car.

The recharging may take 24+ hours or longer depending on how low you have taken the battery.

With a battery maintainer you could use the maintainer part to keep your battery topped up whilst it is parked up for long periods - or you use the alternative method mentioned in the Owner's Manual.

If you read the Owner's Manual and refer to as it as you required you not only learn a lot about the car and how to use the car and all the facilities it has you also prepare yourself to avoid issues like you have now and can avoid some hassle and expense particular with visits to Dealerships, garages, mechanics and auto-electricians.

VWŠkoda Owner's Manual site. - https://www.skoda-auto.com/apps/manuals/Models

I am surprised a low battery warning has not appeared but I would guess the start/stop function is in active and I am also surprised that other unexpected warnings and issues have not shown up but they might with use of the car perhaps if the battery is not fully recharged.

I hope all that helps but if you need more information do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks, nta16!

Yes, no messages about anything, just that those interior lights didn't light up and the driver's door LED is not pulsing.

At least that's what I saw.

While driving so few kilometers, I drove without Start/Stop activated, so not many starts, but I'm wondering what that means.

In autumn I have to go for the warranty changes of oil/filters, I will ask about this to check the battery/charging - considering that it will not make any problems till then or show any messages about battery.

It's new in my terms for a battery to go low... On a previous Ford I had the original battery for 10+ years with subwoofer installed which took quite some power, and now a car/battery from 2023 in not even two years to see these, weird in my opinion.

I will look again in the manual as you said - and regarding the charging, a bit complicated since the car is parked outside on the street for a taking a cable and charger - but I do have a no name charger that has 'intelligent charging' and so on, might try it though. It's 'Ultimate Speed ULGD 5.0 C1', I don't know how good it is.

Try not to wait for warnings as that is being reactive to a situation that already exists better to be proactive and prevent any situations plus you didn't get a warning this time and had an issue (but it might be a different issue).

But perhaps this is not a battery issue or only partially a battery issue, or sperate issues, if there is more than one, which I don't know but never rule out until the first issue is checked for, found and resolved.

Anything on a car involving electrics, electronics or starting of engine and you want to be sure the battery is in good state of charge (and health) as this will help with diagnosis and the resolve(s) whereas if the battery is in lower state of charge (and health) then this can hinder diagnosis, create incorrect results and/or paths to follow. Or if the battery is too low and gets lowered even more by diagnosis and testing of items it could bring things to a full stop until the battery gets more charge.

Given you put you only drove the car two short journeys in 3 months unless you disconnected the battery or had it on a battery maintainer or recharged it and without other information there is a good likelihood that the battery will be low in charge.

It might be, or not, that it doesn't take too much to fully recharge the battery, with the battery fully recharged you have a good foundation to start from to just use of the car or for finding any faults.

New modern cars have a lot more complex and intertwined computer systems (German marques particularly have had for a good number of years) more so than years 10 ago, and these run on 5v signals so already thin and if the 12v supply gets low they notice it. Plus there are generally more comfort features and driver "aids" and "assists" on the cars that use electric power that the car and driver can use more. Think of it like expenditure, if more has to be spent or is taken out then there needs to be more in the bank to do that or bigger and/or more frequent deposits put in. Some people are thriftier than others or have more activity. VWŠkoda Owner's Manuals used to put something like replace the battery after 5 years, which is good for them and others selling these high cost batteries but should or could be totally unnecessary. Then I believed they dropped it to 4 years with newer vehicles, some owners have changed at 3 years. Many battery replacements can be premature or very premature but it depends on what the owner/driver is prepared to do (which is very little in reality) or prepared to spend.

For a one-off first time you could remove the battery from the car to fully charge it, see my previous post for details.

The Ultimate Speed ULGD 5.0 C1 is common and will be fine to use, check your Owner's Manual and you will see VWŠkoda will approve the use of a 5-amp charger with the battery still fitted to the car for batteries 50 Ah and above. If you don't have the instructions for the charger they are widely available for direct free download or go to Lidl's website as they sell it in the UK at least.

At 5-amp it will take many hours to fully recharge the battery if it is too low but you can do it in sessions, best the sessions follow each other as soon as possible to get to full as soon as possible. Then if the car is to sit unused for weeks you might be best to look into buying a solar trickle charger but they generally are only a maintainer really so the more charge that is in the battery at the start the more the solar charger can maintain.

For decades I've looked after elderly neighbour's cars and the batteries in them as the cars stand basically unused or low or micro annual mileage, keeping on top of the batteries is very easy occasional clean hands tasks and the charger maintainer does the work whilst I do other stuff much better than farting about on cars, which is most things to me.

Prevention is better than cure, as some discover after paying hundreds of pounds having a new battery installed on a car they hardly use.

If the battery is used, abused and/or neglected too much and/or too often then it becomes harder and harder to retrieve it for more useful reliable use and life.

Slowly owners and drivers are learning, or remembering, the importance of the car's 12v battery often because of issues or vehicle breakdown and rescue or the high cost of replacement, it has always been very important but a lot more so now. Even the Dealerships have caught on here apparently and offer an additional battery charging service for £40 but I doubt they give too much effort to this against installing a new battery when they can. And you know the very low cost of your charger maintainer (£15-£20 here). But prevention is better than cure.

Once you have the battery fully or at a reasonable level of charge see how things go from there. Good luck.

Edited 23 March, 20251 yr by nta16
typos

Yep, in a modern car the electronics which are "always on" (or at least on for ages after you turn off the ignition) have controls to try to protect the battery. These controls will progressively turn off electrical systems in the car so that you have the best chance of starting the engine.

Thanks a lot, guys! I will try and do all these things, I will be aware of what is happening and also try to drive the car more - of course.

Hope the battery is ok. :)