This is the third time a similar incident happens with different EVs at an Electrify America station.
The vehicle will need to receive a new battery and a new charge port.
The cause of all three incidents has yet to be determined.
A Rivian R1T will need to receive a new battery pack and a new charge port after an incident that happened at an Electrify America fast-charging station in California.
According to the owner, Anson Wong (@snkrticians on Twitter), the electric pickup had been plugged-in for only about a minute when a loud boom came out of the charging station and numerous warning messages started to appear on his vehicle’s gauge cluster.
Burned Rivian R1T charge port | Photo: @snkrticians (Twitter)
The Rivian Service Center has now informed him that his vehicle will need a new battery and battery management system since both were “fried” during the incident.
In addition, the charging station’s connector welded itself to the Rivian’s, which will also need to be changed before M. Wong can get his truck back. This seems to corroborate the theory that the charger sent too much power into the battery.
hey @ElectrifyAm i just plugged in my @Rivian r1t and 1 minute later i hear a loud boom and now i have a bunch of error codes and i can’t even unplug my car…. took you guys 7 hours to get a guy out and that even wasn’t help. what’s the deal???? now my car is fried too… 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6I7RsmZG0S
— Anson (@snkrticians) January 29, 2023
This is not the first time something similar happens at an Electrify America station either, since a Ford F-150 Lightning had to be towed away from the fast chargers in Oregon last November, and a Chevrolet Bolt EV became undrivable after a short charging session in Florida only about a week ago.
In the first case, the events are very similar since the driver of the F-150 Lightning plugged the cable into the vehicle and a loud boom was heard a few minutes later, after which the truck and the charger both went dark.
The owner (@Eric_L_Roe on Twitter) says his truck was repaired by Ford but can now no longer charge over 88% of indicated battery state.
My @Ford being towed away from an @ElectrifyAm charging station after the EA charger fried my truck. pic.twitter.com/V7tFWPWSoi
— Eric Roe (@Eric_L_Roe) November 27, 2022
In the second case, the driver of a Chevrolet Bolt EV (@Burn_This_App on Twitter) stopped at an Electrify America charging station next to a Wal-Mart when his car’s battery was at 28%.
After about 15 minutes, customers entering the store began complaining that sparks were coming out of the electrical cabinet that provides power to the chargers.
When the owner got back into his Bolt, the car only showed a 4% state of charge and would no longer shift out of Park.
After having examined the vehicle, Chevrolet determined that the entire high-voltage electrical system has been damaged and will need to be replaced, at a cost of over $20,000 USD.
As long as the actual cause has not been determined, it is impossible to put the entire blame on Electrify America, but at the moment, the company seems to be the only common link between those three very similar incidents.
Same exact thing happened to my @chevrolet bolt at an @ElectrifyAm charger in Chipley Florida. Plugged in, charged normal for 15 min. Then customers coming n2 Walmart complained of sparking and smoke from grey charging station and “pop” went out dispenser.
— Malicious Compliance (@Burn_This_App) January 29, 2023
Source: Carscoops
