Yahoo Autos Charging Station Goes Boom, EV Won't Work: What Happens Next
It may be every electric-car driver's nightmare: on a road trip—taking the kids to see Grandma, say—you plug your EV into a DC fast-charging station along the way. You hear a loud bang, perhaps see some sparks. Then your car won't power up. You're stuck. Yes, it happens.
One of the great advantages of EVs is that they can be recharged at home, overnight, and most EV owners are set up to do just that. But for longer trips, North America has a quickly expanding network of DC fast-charging stations. These can recharge most EVs to 80 percent of their battery capacity in 20 to 45 minutes. The Tesla Supercharger network is viewed as best for its ubiquity and reliability—even though, until quite recently, it had served only Tesla's own EVs—but there are others.
Drivers of non-Tesla EVs sooner or later find that the locations and reliability of on-road public charging are variable at best. But the idea that a charging station might "blow up your EV" feels even more disturbing.
Not only is the driver or family stranded, but they fear their vehicle may be totaled, ruining not just their trip but their car as well. Will their new-car warranty cover whatever damages occurred, they wonder? (The short answer is that it depends on the circumstances, and on the carmaker.)
Trip Ended, EV Totaled? Three Real-Life Mishaps
This scenario is extremely rare, but it's not entirely hypothetical. Since November, at least three drivers who charged three different models of EV at Electrify America stations heard a loud bang, after which charging stopped and the car wouldn't start.
The vehicles in question were a Ford F-150 Lightning on November 27, a Chevrolet Bolt EV on January 22, and a Rivian R1T on January 29. Each incident received considerable attention on social media, but the outcomes have varied.
Car and Driver reached out to Electrify America and the three carmakers to ask for details on each case. EA provided statements on each incident but declined to let us speak with network engineers about details. Carmaker replies varied from "no comment" to more substantive responses. We've pieced together the stories from the EV owners, the statements we received, and off-the-record chats with several sources who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the topic.
EVs Have Circuit Breakers Too
The most important thing for EV owners to know is that every electric vehicle has a high-voltage circuit breaker connected to the battery wiring. It operates just as circuit breakers in your home do: if too much current flows through the circuit, the breaker trips, which interrupts the circuit and protects everything downstream from potential damage.
Electrify America explained that when a loud noise preceded loss of charging power, "The 'boom' is most likely the sound of the breakers tripping. It can be in the charging equipment, the vehicle, or both, since there are redundant failsafe systems."
Indeed, this is exactly what happened in the F-150 Lightning case on Nov 27. It was caused by "an isolated event while DC fast-charging," according to a statement issued jointly by Electrify America and Ford several weeks later. "This activated charging system failsafes and triggered safety features in the vehicle," it continued.
The statement's most important sentence is this: "Ford replaced the onboard circuit breaker and returned the vehicle to the customer." In other words, the breaker tripped to protect the battery, as it was designed to do. Owner Eric Roe wrote later that one module in the battery had to be replaced. He was not charged for that work.
Asked whether Ford's EV warranty routinely covered resetting the high-voltage circuit breaker, the company responded: "It depends on what triggers the breaker. If a vehicle fault triggers it, that's absolutely covered under warranty." However, "If something else trips it, and the vehicle behaves as it should, that's not covered by warranty." But, Ford added, "For the incident in question, Ford did cover the cost as it was seen as an isolated incident."
