Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Owners Can Claim $10 a Day for Battery Delays

• Owners and lessees of 2016 to 2019 Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrids whose high-voltage battery repair left the car waiting 60 days or longer under warranty can file for a Days Down Payment.
• The payment is $10 for each day Hyundai’s own records show the car waiting, so the 60-day minimum is worth $600, and the rate can climb to $15 a day.
• Claims must be filed online or postmarked by Dec. 28, 2026, and anyone who stays in the class without filing gets no money and gives up the right to sue Hyundai over the same claims.

If Your Sonata Sat Two Months Waiting for a Battery, a Claim Starts at $600

A federal court in Maryland is deciding whether to give final approval to a settlement that pays Sonata Plug-In Hybrid owners for the days their cars sat idle waiting on a high-voltage battery. Hyundai Motor America agreed to pay $10 for each day of delay logged in its repair records. A car that waited the 60-day minimum is worth $600. One that waited 150 days is worth $1,500. If the total of all claims lands below $250,000, the daily rate rises to as much as $15, which turns the 60-day floor into $900 and 150 days into $2,250.

Magistrate Judge Gina L. Simms presides over the case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, filed as Kline et al. v. Hyundai Motor America, Inc., number 23-cv-00245-GLS. Seven named plaintiffs brought it, among them Samuel and Lauren Kline. They allege Hyundai failed to live up to the high-voltage battery warranty on these cars: failed batteries could not be repaired or replaced for extended periods, and owners went without full use of the car. Most of the idle time fell between late 2021 and the summer of 2023.

Hyundai denies any wrongdoing and denies that the cars or their batteries are defective. The company says the delays came from supply chain disruptions in the COVID-19 pandemic and from third-party supplier delays. The court has not decided who is right. A mediator, Jed Melnick of JAMS, helped the sides reach the deal, and the settlement is an agreement to end the case, not a finding against Hyundai.

The date that counts for you is Dec. 28. That is the last day to submit a claim online or to mail one with a postmark. From today, Nov. 8, that leaves 50 days.

Who Qualifies, and Who Is Shut Out

The class covers residents of the United States and the District of Columbia, not U.S. territories, who bought or leased a 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019 model year Hyundai Sonata Plug-In Hybrid and owned or leased it while it needed a battery repair. Current and former owners both count. The battery work must have fallen inside the express warranty period, repair parts must have been unavailable, and the car must have been unrepairable for at least 60 days.

Hyundai’s own records decide whether a car is in the class. The agreement counts a car only if the company’s files show it sat unrepaired for 60 days or more. A standard gas Sonata, a Sonata Hybrid without the plug, or any other Hyundai model does not count under the definition.

Several groups are excluded:

• Hyundai and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors and employees
• Insurers of the cars and anyone claiming through an insurer’s rights
• Providers of extended warranties or extended service contracts
• Owners whose car was declared a total loss (salvage)
• People who earlier released their claims against Hyundai Motor America over these issues
• Fleet buyers and lessees, meaning rental and company vehicles
• Dealerships that owned the cars
• The judges on the case and their immediate family
• Anyone who excluded themselves by the Oct. 29 deadline, which has passed

The settlement does not cover personal injury, wrongful death or damage to other property.

How Hyundai Counts the Days and What the Money Looks Like

The formula is simple. The Days Down Payment equals the days a car was awaiting its battery repair, as logged in Hyundai’s records, multiplied by $10. You do not supply the day count; the company’s log sets it. Hyundai sets aside a non-reversionary fund with an initial deposit of $250,000. Money for notice and claims administration comes out of that deposit.

If total claims come in under $250,000, the rate goes up pro rata, to a ceiling of $15 a day. Any money left after that adjustment goes to a charity, Hyundai Hope on Wheels. If claims run above $250,000, Hyundai tops up the fund after the claims deadline, up to the cap below. At $600 for a 60-day car, fewer than 416 minimum claims would use up the first $250,000 at the $10 rate, and notice and administration costs come out of the same deposit.

Hyundai’s total bill is capped at $1,430,000. That number covers claim payments, court-approved attorneys’ fees and expenses, service awards for the named plaintiffs, and the cost of notice and administration. Class counsel can ask for up to $375,000 in fees and expenses and up to $7,500 for each of the seven class representatives, with joint owners of one car counting as a single award. At most, that is $375,000 plus $52,500 (seven awards of $7,500), or $427,500, which would leave at least $1,002,500 under the cap for claims, notice and administration. The judge can award less than counsel asks. Class members are not billed for the lawyers: Thomas Minton of Goldman & Minton, P.C. in Baltimore and David Tompkins of Lewis and Tompkins PC in Silver Spring were appointed class counsel.

Nobody is paid yet. Approved claims are paid 60 days after the settlement takes effect, which needs final approval and the end of any appeals. Checks must be cashed within 90 days of issue, and an expired check can be reissued on request.

How to File Before Dec. 28

Start at the official site, hvbatteryrepairsettlement.com, and use the Submit Claim button. The administrator is Angeion Group, and the toll-free line is 1-866-964-4271. The claim form is signed under penalty of perjury. A paper form is available from the site or by writing or emailing the administrator. The notice prints the administrator’s address as PO Box 129, East Brunswick, NJ 08816-9998, but it prints a different Philadelphia box for exclusions and objections, so confirm the claim mailing address on the site or on the toll-free line before you post anything. Mailed claims need a postmark on or before Dec. 28.

The court ordered notice by postcard or email to go out by Sept. 29. The addresses came from Hyundai’s records and from R. L. Polk, which works with state DMVs to find the last known owner or lessee of each class car. Missing the notice does not remove you from the class; the deadline still applies. Keep the 17-character VIN and any papers tying you to the car close at hand.

Proof is light by design. Ownership documents, such as a registration or insurance record, are required only when your ownership at the time of the repair is disputed or unclear. If the administrator finds a claim incomplete, it must explain what is missing, and the claimant gets 30 days to cure the gap. If a claim is finally denied, class counsel and Hyundai’s lawyers first try to settle the dispute. After that, the claimant can take it to a neutral at JAMS, decided on written briefs without a trial.

Use only the official site and the numbers printed on the court notice. Neither the notice nor the agreement charges class members a fee to file or to receive a payment. Other auto settlements follow the same pattern of a claim form and a hard deadline, as with the Kia power window repair refund that closes Nov. 23.

What You Give Up, and the Dates That Still Matter

A claim carries a price. If you stay in the class, which every member did who missed the Oct. 29 exclusion deadline, you give up the right to sue Hyundai over the Battery Repair claims in this case, whether or not you collect. The release in Appendix A to the notice covers claims tied to the battery repair, plus any claim that could have been raised in the case. It leaves personal injury claims, other property damage claims and subrogation claims alone.

Doing nothing brings no payment and the same release. Stellantis owners faced a cutoff of their own with the Jeep engine warranty payout that closed on Oct. 12. Anyone who excluded themselves keeps the right to sue but cannot claim money, and any separate lawsuit faces its own statute of limitations and other time limits.

Three dates remain:

• Nov. 30: objections to the settlement, to the fee request or to the service awards must be filed electronically with the court or mailed to both the Clerk of the Court in Greenbelt and the settlement administrator by this date. The same day is the deadline to file a Notice of Intention to Appear. You cannot both exclude yourself and object.
• Dec. 21: the final approval hearing is at 10:00 a.m. at the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, 6500 Cherrywood Lane. Class members do not have to attend. The judge reviews the settlement, the fee request and the service awards, and hears any objections.
• Dec. 28: the claim deadline, one week after the hearing.

Those dates can move, and the official site posts changes. The site’s home page currently lists older and newer dates side by side, so the court order of Aug. 19, 2026 and the notice are the safer guide. Skip calls and letters to the court or the clerk; the notice sends class members to the website or the 1-866 number, or to class counsel at (410) 783-7575.

If Your Own Battery Repair Is Stalling Now

This settlement pays for repairs that dragged on in the past. The case itself took years: the idle time ran from late 2021 to the summer of 2023, and the lawsuit carries a 2023 case number. The lesson for anyone facing a long repair wait today is to keep the paper trail from the first day, and battery trouble across the Hyundai group also drives recalls, such as the Hyundai and Kia battery cell recall.

Write down the date the car went into the shop and the date the shop said parts were unavailable. Keep every repair order, text message and email about the parts delay, and any rental or loaner records. Photograph the odometer at drop-off. Ask for the delay in writing. Hyundai’s settlement formula relies on days logged in its own system, so a separate record in your hands is the only check you hold on that count.

Read your warranty booklet for the battery coverage term that applies to your car and your ownership status. The settlement does not set those terms, and the warranty coverage question is outside what the court decides. Any separate claim faces its own deadlines, so a short talk with a consumer attorney is the way to find out how long you have. The settlement notice says class counsel will talk to class members for free.

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Sources

• HV Battery Repair Settlement: Kline et al. v. Hyundai Motor America, Inc. official website
• HV Battery Repair Settlement: Long Form Notice
• U.S. District Court, District of Maryland: Order Granting Joint Motion to Extend, No. 8:23-cv-00245 GLS
• HV Battery Repair Settlement: Settlement Agreement, ECF No. 37-2

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar