Eurotunnel Nightmare Charge!!!! and a quick question!

[thingaby]

Hello @Coulomb this is a French DBT QuickCharger 50kW. DBT is a French manufacturer. This model has been widely installed in France, especially for Nissan's network.

That's the sort that bricked me at the Channel Tunnel Uk side.

 

[Coulomb]

Interesting. So that's two different charger models on either side of the tunnel. The common factor is the tunnel.

I wonder if it could be related to power surges from powerful electric locomotives accelerating or regenerating at the start or end of a journey. You would think that's the charger's problem to deal with, but maybe the charger has to back off power suddenly or do some other uncommon thing that confuses or panics the cars' firmware. Or at least puts it into a rarely activated region of the code that's not tested thoroughly.

Pure speculation, of course.

 

[Yellowsebmarine]

This is the charger we connected to at Euro Tunnel Calais, following which the fault in our car appeared. I am not a charger or car technition and have no access to diagnostic data, so there is no way I can say that it was the charger that caused the fault in the car. It is possible that the fault with our car would have occured when we had next tried to charge, irrespective of any particular charger we had used.

View attachment 7093

Hello @Padaung I see that your car is parked on the side of the CCS2. Silly question: can you confirm that you used the CCS2 connector?

 

[Padaung]

Hello @Padaung I see that your car is parked on the side of the CCS2. Silly question: can you confirm that you used the CCS2 connector?

Yes, we used the CCS plug.

 

[PluginHybrid]

Hi All,

First of all Happy Christmas.
Now for the warning.... BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE THINKING OF USING THE FREE RAPID CHARGER AT EUROTUNNEL
I live in France and my wife and I decided to come back to the UK for the holidays. I am the proud owner of a 6 month old MG ZS EV and I have previously done a number of long trips in the car, so I was quite confident in where to stop etc.
Setting off at 5 in the morning I came across my first situation of the windscreen icing on the inside (yes the inside). Obviously I needed to use the a/c to keep the screen clear. This leads me to a quick question!!!!!
Can I use just the fan on the heating system or can I disable/ isolate the a/c side of the system???
Anyway, after a few more than planed stops, we made it to Calais Eurotunnel terminal. We arrived with time to do a rapid charge (as it was free) before getting onto the train. They have installed a new charger so I was optimistic it would be working. How wrong I was!!
I plugged the car in and waved my card in front of the machine and it excepted it. OK so far, then I received the message on the dash 'Connected but not charging' which as we know always comes up just before the charge starts. So I waited and waited and waited but no further messages came up. So I checked the machine and it showed there was power trying to go in but it wasn't charging? So I thought not a problem I'll wait and charge the other side, so I stopped the charge and got in the car to move it away from the machine as the Chademo might work and I'm considerate like that.
This is when the messages did start to come up on my dash... first 'System Fault' and then 'HV Battery Shut Off'. OH *****.
I've read about similar situations so I locked the car and left it for 10 mins and tried again.. NOPE.
I disconnected the battery (with the 10mm spanner I knew to keep in the glove-box) but.... NOPE.
So out of ideas, I asked a member of staff for help. From this point on it all got very stressful (and tearful, none from me I will add) but the members of staff at Eurotunnel and the recovery truck driver and the insurance people we have been dealing with and the car hire company and the staff at the hotel we had to stay at and the taxi drivers who collected us, have all been very very understanding an helpful and sympathetic.
So in conclusion 'Don't charge at the new charger at Eurotunnel' (maybe I should have just put this at the start and left it at that!!
If you made it this far through my rant, thank you and any comment or ideas of what the problem may have been or an answer to my other question would be much appreciated.
Simon

Why you need to wave the card if the rapid chargers are free of charge? Eurotunnel website say At our Folkestone Terminal Energie electric car chargers are programmed to work without cards – just turn up and charge your vehicle. TESLA chargers are also available and normal charges apply.

 

[smoked]

i used the Uk side charger in 2022 and it charged fine.

on the way back i was planning to use the french charger but we got late so we jumped on the train. i did however need charging - so i tweeted out to eurotunnel if i could use the uk side charger and they said i could - just speak to someone on the uk side and they'll tell me to wait in a specific location and then i'd be guided to the spot where the uk charger was

and thats what happened. got off the train - drove to the security booth where i waited for the manager to lead me to the charger and i charged it to full

just something to keep in mind for users if the french side doesnt work they do allow you to charge on the uk side