Melbourne Australia…so I blew up my EVSE ("charging cable")

[suz]

Hi folks!

I’m probably clutching at straws…but here goes…

I picked up my ZS EV last week and have been driving around very happily. Today I plugged it in to a standard power point at work…and the PowerPoint basically blew up. This has left me with a charger cable with a plug with black, bent, slightly melted pins The charging cable that came with the car is only thing I have to charge the car at home as my big wall charger hasn’t arrived yet.

Have been in touch with MG and they are trying to find me a new charger cable but I’m not sure that there are any available immediately.

I’m dealing with the cause of the problem separately, but in the meantime may have no charger so that’s my primary issue.

Is there anybody in Melbourne who happens to have a cable that I could buy or borrow for a week or two in the event that MG can’t rustle one up for me? Will pay cash, slab, wine, or all of the above ?

What a debacle!

 

[Coulomb]

Today I plugged it in to a standard power point at work…and the PowerPoint basically blew up.

Wow. Was this a bang type of blow up, or a melted over time thing?

You didn't make clear if the problem was the 3-pin plug that goes into the wall, or the type 2 plug that goes into the car.

If it's the former, it's just a standard 3-pin plug, any electrician can fix that for you. IF you know what you're doing, you could even buy a plug from Bunnings or the like, chop off the old one, and wire it carefully yourself. Not legal, but would get you out of trouble.

If it's the type 2 plug that's damaged, then that's a whole different matter. You should still be able to use public charging, both AC ad DC. Unless the car has been damaged, but that seems very unlikely. My guess is that the 3-pin outlet at work is old and/or weather worn, and overheated from a continuous 8 A load over many hours.

 

[suz]

Wow. Was this a bang type of blow up, or a melted over time thing?

You didn't make clear if the problem was the 3-pin plug that goes into the wall, or the type 2 plug that goes into the car.

If it's the former, it's just a standard 3-pin plug, any electrician can fix that for you. IF you know what you're doing, you could even buy a plug from Bunnings or the like, chop off the old one, and wire it carefully yourself. Not legal, but would get you out of trouble.

If it's the type 2 plug that's damaged, then that's a whole different matter. You should still be able to use public charging, both AC ad DC. Unless the car has been damaged, but that seems very unlikely. My guess is that the 3-pin outlet at work is old and/or weather worn, and overheated from a continuous 8 A load over many hours.

It was a “Big Bang” and was the 3-pin plug that goes in to the wall - pushed plug in and there was a big flash of light and I fell over backwards but can’t quite remember how. All quite alarming! The pins are a bit the worse for wear and there’s damage further up the cable as well. The building got an electrician out and there was something rather wrong with the power point.

Didn’t feel comfortable getting it repaired so my partner went and bought a replacement as there was one in stock, so all worked out OK but rather expensive day ?

 

[Coulomb]

It was a “Big Bang” and was the 3-pin plug that goes in to the wall - pushed plug in and there was a big flash of light and I fell over backwards but can’t quite remember how.

Yikes! Glad you're OK.

there’s damage further up the cable as well. The building got an electrician out and there was something rather wrong with the power point.

That sounds like there was a fault with the short cable between the plug and the EVSE ("charger") itself, or possibly something inside the EVSE. From the chunk out of the earth pin, I'd guess a live to earth short circuit. I've never heard of such a problem with an EVSE. I guess it was just a freak manufacturing defect that somehow happened after factory testing.

Didn’t feel comfortable getting it repaired so my partner went and bought a replacement as there was one in stock.

That seems wise. Though it seems to me that you should have gotten a free warranty replacement. I don't think that there can have been anything wrong with the outlet to cause that problem, at least no problem before you plugged in the "charger".

Maybe you can get your money back for it eventually. I get that for now, you just want to be able to charge the car.

Edit: so by the way, that's a facelift model? We've recently gotten an emails saying that the facelift models are in stock in Australia.

 

[suz]

I guess it was just a freak manufacturing defect that somehow happened after factory testing.

I’ve used it a bunch of times with no issue, so I’m not sure

Maybe you can get your money back for it eventually. I get that for now, you just want to be able to charge the car.

We just figured we would get the replacement and sort the rest out later!

Edit: so by the way, that's a facelift model? We've recently gotten an emails saying that the facelift models are in stock in Australia.

I’m not sure what a facelift model is? but the newest model available to us has just started to arrive - there are two versions with about a $4k price difference between the base model and the version with about a dozen extras. One is called the “essence” and one called the “excite” but I can never remember which is which! I got the one with the extras so have sunroof and a few other things.