Last weekend I made a trip to the area south of Munich. As I passed a gas station near the autobahn exit of Irschenberg, I noticed a sign advertising a charging station for electric cars. I turned round and drove to the gas station to make a test charge.
There was a charging station from the power suplier e.on similar to the one I used in Starnberg. But it was a newer version with the new standard power plugs that I need for 32A charging.
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| Charging station at a OMV gas station at Wendling/Irschenberg. |
After identification via the card the flaps unlocked, I plugged in and the car started to charge.
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| MINI E #014 charging. |
I took a coffee at the shop to give the car a couple of minutes to get some energy. Suddenly I remembered that there was a sticker on the charging stations power plug that said: max. 16A. And I reminded that the charging selector of the MINI E was set to 32A!
So, as I returned to the car the charging had stopped. Even worse, as I tried to end the charging operation by using the identification card once again the charging station aborted the ending procedure.It looked like the system software crashed. No reaction. This really means trouble because the Mennekes plug on the one side of the car's charging cord was still mechanically locked to the charging station and so the charging cord could not be removed. I remembered a former incident at a different charging station where I had to leave the cord at the station.
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| Locked charging cord plug. The symbol above on the flap illustrates an IEC 62196-2 Type II plug. |
Fortunately an employee and the owner of the gas station came by to have a look on the MINI E. I explained the situation (and the MINI E) and after some more failed attempts with the card the owner opened the station with his key.
The circuit breaker of the power plug I connected the car was turned off. After the circuit breaker was turned on again the system still didn't release the charging cord. So the charging station needed a complete shut down via the main switch to restart the system software. Finally the locking mechanism released the plug.
In the meantime I set the charging rate of the MINI to 13A to make another try. The system software still was so confused that it did not recognize the identification card properly. So we tried a different card from the shop and then all worked well.
The problem was that the charging station was converted to the new IEC 62196-2 Type II plugs, but an additional module to detect the power connectors pilot contact was not installed immediately and planned to be done later. IEC 62196-1 regulates that a plug without pilot contact is limited to 16A. So with the missing module to detect the pilot contact there was a gap of #014's demand on 32A and the allowed 16A. As a result the circuit breaker got in action and the system software could not handle this incident.
At the gas station manned 24h a day this is not a big problem, but at a charging station located anywhere an unreleaseable charging cord would cause serious trouble.
In summary it was an informative experience. I had a pleasant conversation with the owner of the gas station. A few electric cars already had used the station (once a Tesla Roadster spent an overnight charge). With the station located at a distance of 50km from Munich at an Autobahn exit it is an opportunity when going to the south by an EV.
Stefan
ReplyDeleteSounds like they have not done much testing yet, have they?
On the other hand, I had forgotten how much trouble it is that the Mini E does not conform to the SAE J1772 protocol to automatically set the available charging current.
Our new Th!nk EV does conform to J1772, but the maximum charging rate is quite low. I do miss the 12 kw capacity of the Mini E.
Stefan,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you have to bring the cable to the charge station. Is that only because the MINI-E has the non-standard ODU connector? It seems that you plugged your cable into the charge station and that there isn't a hard-wired cable connected to it anywhere
Jim,
ReplyDeleteif the setting of the charging rate is ok, the system will work fine. But even with the additional module installed and the MINI E set to the 50amp mode, this error may occur. I do not dare to try this at another station. Leaving your cable at a charging station because there is no way to unlock it, is an absolute "no go". In future public charging stations must be able to deal with those errors caused by the users.
Tom,
in Germany the public charging stations do not have any charging cord, just a connector to plug in an external cable. This is due especially to the fear of vandalism and to reduce cost and maintenance of the station.
So you have to carry the big and bulky cable capable of charging with high currents in your car in case you want to have the possibility to charge. Even charging at a domestic wall socket affords the big cable with an additional adapter, because it's the only cable we have to charge the MINI E.
The wall boxes in our private garages do not have a hard wired cable too. So we have to handle the cord every time we want to charge.
In future I think you will have a hard wired solution for your private use or a second charging cord (one in the garage and one in the car).
But for public places the solution without a charging cord establishes.
Anyone know a Public Charging Stations Behind the Scenes
ReplyDeletein the Germany? Or he could give me the names of other companies