Home » Elderly Couple Gets Trapped For 10 Hours After An EV Charging Station Welds Itself To Their Car

Elderly Couple Gets Trapped For 10 Hours After An EV Charging Station Welds Itself To Their Car

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In a lot of ways, an electric car seems an ideal choice for people who have been in the being alive business for a long time. Maintenance is less complex, the cars are quiet and easy to drive, and they can be charged right at home. EVs and older people seem like a great match, and generally they are. That’s part of why the choice of a Volkswagen ID.4 seems great for the Martins, a couple in their 70s who recently made a road trip in their EV to take 79-year-old Mr.Martin to a hospital for some medical appointments. Along the way, they stopped at an Electrify America (EA) charging station, and that was the start of a long ordeal that revealed a significant problem with EV charging.

The Electrify America charging station was in Athens, Alabama, the only one in that town of 30,000 or so, and was situated, as many of these charging stations are, behind a Walmart. The station was about 165 miles from where the Martins started, and they still had a way to go to get to their hotel near the hospital. They pulled into the charging station about 10:30 in the morning, planning on staying there the 30 to 45 minutes or so it would take to charge up their car using one of the station’s three “ultra” or “hyper-fast” DC chargers.

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Things seemed to go wrong pretty much from the very start. As Javene Martin told me, when they plugged in the charging cable, the charging status light on her ID.4 “went from green to red right after we plugged it in,” and charging stopped pretty much before it could even start. Realizing something was amiss, Javene called Electrify America support, who rebooted the charger, but to no avail.

Javene decided to try a different charger, so she attempted to unplug the cable from her car, but it wouldn’t release.

“I found the emergency release in the back of the car,” she told me, “but it wouldn’t budge. I thought maybe because I was a 73-year-old woman and just not able to pull it hard enough, but it just wouldn’t release.” Javene told me she tried “pulling, prying, and cussing” but could not get the charger out of the socket.

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The issue wasn’t Javene’s pulling ability. That cable was well and truly stuck. She kept calling Electrify America support for help, eventually calling them every hour on the hour (“Bless their little hearts,” she added) but they proved to be of little actual help, despite cycling power on the charger remotely. She reached out to the Volkswagen dealership she got the car from, but they proved to be no help at all, saying the issue was with the charger and it wasn’t their problem. While they may be technically correct, Javene did note that “a little sympathy would have gone a long way.”

A shocking amount of time had passed with the Martins’ car stuck to this cable. Electrify America eventually escalated their support to reach out to a technician to go there in person, but the only one they could get on a Saturday was about four hours away in Knoxville, Tennessee. Mrs. Matin told me EA gave them an estimate of 5 pm for the tech’s arrival – seven hours since this all began – but he didn’t actually arrive until around 8 pm because of issues getting a proper work order number from EA, without which, the tech could not get paid, again according to Javene’s talk with the tech.

Mr. Martin took an Uber to the hotel, as he was not in a condition to remain waiting with the car. Javene stayed to wait for the technician, who finally arrived about 9 pm, and she told me that the tech solved the problem with a very sophisticated, high-tech tool: a crowbar.

Crowbar

Yes, that’s the solution to how to deal with these cutting-edge electric car and fast-charging DC charger issues: you crowbar the crap out of them. Once the cable was finally freed from the car, what happened was pretty visually evident, as you can see here:

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Welded Cable

The charger had welded itself to the car.

And yes, that’s literally welded, as in arc welded, where an arc of electricity melts metals together. In this case, it looks like the heavy DC+ pin was welded into its corresponding socket, which makes sense as the DC pins are the ones that carry all the current on a fast DC charger.

Charger Pinout

Based on Javene’s description of events, this likely happened almost immediately upon plugging the charger in, when that light went from green to red. Something happened that caused the pin and socket to arc and get so hot they literally melted together, which is also why the emergency release did nothing: the cable and connector were welded together.

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Interestingly, the damage to the ID.4’s charging and electrical systems seem to be limited to the physical damage at the charging port; once freed, the car was able to be driven to a slower Level 2 charger at a hotel, which uses AC power and a different set of pins, so it was able to charge. Eventually, the Martins got the car to their son in Chattanooga, who was able to charge it alongside his own VW ID.4.

Id4 Charging

So, the big question here is how does this happen, and why, and why aren’t there better safeguards in place to prevent this? Checking EV forums, it becomes clear that this wasn’t an isolated incident; similar situations of cables welding themselves to ports have definitely occurred before. There are forum posts of a Ford Mach-e owner who had their car get welded via the DC+ pin, just like the Martins.

Stranded and cannot unplug
byu/hshfkrjwjjwkritjfi inMachE

In the case of the Mach-e, there was some telltale smoke, which the Martins didn’t encounter. There’s another post about a Mercedes-Benz EQS 450 at an Electrify America charger that, while it wasn’t stuck as such, had their charging port ruined from melted metal slag left on the pins. Here’s another similar example with a Volvo XC40 and an Electrify America charger, again on the DC+ pin. Here’s yet another incident with an Electrify America charger, this time melting the pins on a Kia EV9.

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So what is going on here? Don’t these cables and ports have ways of checking if things are actually melting together?

There actually are a number of safeguards that are designed to protect this. I reached out to Jonathan Hair, an electric vehicle powertrain systems engineer for Ford, and he told me about some of the safeguards:

The PP (proximity) pin on the J1772 is supposed to be “last to make, first to break” in connection. It makes sure the connector is fully seated. if that breaks it should stop charging immediately to prevent an arc.

Also, there is a reason most cars have little flappy doors to protect the DCFC contacts. They want to keep them clean. some high impedance connection, that forms over time, will make it hot and could drive a failure like this.

Jonathan also mentioned that many automakers use thermistors in their pins to monitor the temperature, and if it goes higher than is safe, derate the power draw. I reached out to Volkswagen to see if they use such thermistors, and was told that yes, VWs have two thermistors, one for each DC pin, and it was noted that both the car and the charger are monitoring temperature and will stop the charging session if an overtemperature situation is occurring or if the temperature differential between the DC pins is too great.

Volkswagen is looking into this as we speak, and Electrify America is in the loop as well. So far, VW nor EA has a final answer, but I do have this statement from Volkswagen:

“We are fully committed to the safety of our customers. We are continuing to investigate the details of this incident.”

For what it’s worth, this does seem more like a charging/Electrify America issue than a Volkswagen issue specifically, especially because there are a number of reports of extremely similar events happening at EA stations with other makes of car.

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Whatever is happening here, this is a big deal, and the Martins’ situation really couldn’t have made that more clear. A couple in their 70s, in the process of taking one of them to a hospital for medical appointments, is trapped at a charger for over 10 hours with no way to get their car free? That’s just not acceptable in any context. This isn’t even an EV issue, really; if a gas station pump trapped a combustion car for 10 hours, that’d be just as big a deal.

EV chargers take a lot of abuse and are subject to challenging conditions of weather and use. DC fast chargers are pumping a hell of a lot of energy through those cables, and wear and tear on those plugs and cables can have some pretty severe consequences, as we see here.

This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. There’s not always a crowbar around to save the day, after all.

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Matt T
Matt T
4 minutes ago

I got stuck for 20 minutes once because the diesel fuel nozzle was stuck in my truck. I had no idea what happened but it was something with one of the flaps catching on something on the nozzle. I can understand how they felt because that is a frustrating and helpless feeling experience.

Scott Wangler
Scott Wangler
9 minutes ago

If you have ever seen the level of abuse a simple air chuck on a public air compressor takes you can imagine the level of abuse these charging plugs experience. Seems like regular inspection and maintenance(i.e. Time and money) are in order. Looks like the cost of charging is gonna go up.

Jeffrey Johnson
Jeffrey Johnson
56 minutes ago

The Martin’s had a Mercedes Streeter kind of day.

Arrest-me Red
Member
Arrest-me Red
57 minutes ago

Two thoughts came to me.

Add a crowbar to my cars.

I saw PP and turned into a 3rd grader.

KevFC
KevFC
2 hours ago

Nthing “trapped” is inappropriate in the headline – certainly not comporting with the nuanced (ie twisted) understanding of the language we expect from Torch. Prob an intern on the loose.

Weston
Weston
13 hours ago

This is one of the advantages of inductive chargers. These pin and sleeve type plugs are easily damaged. Insufficient connection pressure results in high resistance, high heat and permanent damage. Debris in the plug or socket can also cause this. The designers have to think of all the stupid things people do to try and avoid these kinds of problem.

Jakob Johansen
Jakob Johansen
7 hours ago
Reply to  Weston

These pin and sleeve type plugs are easily damaged.

40+ million cars are charged using this method every day.
The odds of this happening is so low that you will have been killed 7 times by a shark, in a desert, before this occurs 🙂

Inductive chargers however, first of all do not do 350 kw, and secondly, requires very precise parking to work at all.

TheDrunkenWrench
TheDrunkenWrench
3 hours ago
Reply to  Jakob Johansen

Correct on the speed (unless you’re a commercial vehicle, they can accommodate up to 500kW as they can fit larger coils), incorrect on the “very precise”.
If you can park in a parking space, that is accurate enough. The SAE J2954 standard lays it all out, and real-world testing has shown up to 94% grid-to-battery efficiency with 10″ of clearance between the pad and charger. (I had to go dig through my notes for specifics, I recently completed my EV Technician certificate).

My Give-A-Damn is Broken
My Give-A-Damn is Broken
14 hours ago

Thank you Jason for how you presented this story. This happened to my parents and was quite frustrating for everyone involved.

I sent a message to the tip line and got an unexpectedly quick response from Jason. I have been following the work of the Autopian staff since the days of the old lighting site and am happy that they picked it up.

My parents love their ID.4 as it fits their needs well. The majority of their trips are short so being able to charge at home is a huge plus. Hopefully VW and Electrify America can work together to fix their car. Yes, EA is owned by VW but you couldn’t tell from the experience they have had since the issue happened.

10001010
Member
10001010
13 hours ago

Sorry that happened to your parents and I hope your dad is doing ok. Make sure to keep us posted on if VW or EA step up and cover any of the repair expenses!

My Give-A-Damn is Broken
My Give-A-Damn is Broken
13 hours ago
Reply to  10001010

I will respond with any updates. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Harvey Davidson
Member
Harvey Davidson
12 hours ago

Are your mom and dad OK? Sounds like mom was a trooper.

My Give-A-Damn is Broken
My Give-A-Damn is Broken
12 hours ago

Thank you for asking, they are doing great. It will take a lot more than this to get them down ????

Harvey Davidson
Member
Harvey Davidson
12 hours ago

“Bless their little hearts” tells me she was PISSED.

10001010
Member
10001010
14 hours ago

At a bare minimum these chargers should be inspected and serviced at least once a day. If it takes EA’s field service 5 hours to get there then clearly they don’t have enough technicians in the field. VW’s rollout of EA can only be described as disappointing, they obviously didn’t put enough capital behind this project.

Harvey Davidson
Member
Harvey Davidson
12 hours ago
Reply to  10001010

They weren’t forced firmly enough. I don’t expect a company to show much zeal on a punishment. Somebody should have kept them accountable, e.g. with exponentially increasing fines if they fail to meet specific performance targets for reliability and coverage.

Last edited 12 hours ago by Harvey Davidson
10001010
Member
10001010
11 hours ago

Unfortunately that was too many administrations ago.

TheDrunkenWrench
TheDrunkenWrench
3 hours ago
Reply to  10001010

Once a day is probably excessive, but a monthly to weekly schedule based on usage frequency would make sense. Likely better than the “never unless it’s broken” they’re likely currently getting.

10001010
Member
10001010
38 minutes ago

I don’t think they need full servicing every day but I still think a daily inspection is not unreasonable. Something as little as grabbing the handle and looking inside it for obstructions or damage and taking it offline would have prevented this couple from being handcuffed to a charger for 10 hours.

TheDrunkenWrench
TheDrunkenWrench
28 minutes ago
Reply to  10001010

They’re not manned like gas pumps, so you’d have to be paying techs to just constantly drive in a loop checking chargers.

10001010
Member
10001010
21 minutes ago

It wouldn’t need to be a full tech, an entry level position that rides around and inspects them, bagging any and alerting the full techs about which ones have issues would do it. I’m not asking for a tech at every charging station just sitting there 24/7 like the Maytag man but one step above “wait until our customers alert us” is the bare minimum EA should be doing. It would go a long way towards improving their reputation.

RadarEngineer
RadarEngineer
14 hours ago

Jason, a bit disappointed in your title for this article. “Trapped”? Not quite. Couldn’t drive away? Yep, that’s a bit closer to the truth. When I opened this article to read it, I was expecting a “I couldn’t get the door open because the charger bricked my vehicle and I had no idea there was a backup mechanical method to open the door” story, followed by yet another diatribe on how stupid electronic door handles are. But no, it was simply that the plug got stuck in the socket. Not quite “trapped”. But, bet it got a lot more clicks because of that. 🙂

FJ Bruiser
Member
FJ Bruiser
13 hours ago
Reply to  RadarEngineer

Technically… If the operator is not physically capable of unplugging the charger cable because it got welded to the cars plug, it’s not going anywhere til the tech with the crowbar shows up…

Headline seems reasonable to me given the context, and this is coming from a 2 EV household evangelist.

Scoutdude
Scoutdude
12 hours ago
Reply to  RadarEngineer

I’m with you they were not trapped, their car was stuck and in fact one of them did make it to the destination while the other waited with the car.

TheDrunkenWrench
TheDrunkenWrench
3 hours ago
Reply to  RadarEngineer

Normally people use the term “trapped” when their car gets stuck in a spot outside of their doing. Like parking garages, “some asshole parked on an angle and trapped me for 6 hours!”

I find the headline is perfectly cromulent. The expectation window got shifted on EVs specifically thanks to Vinfast and Tesla with their stupid door release mechanisms.

Balloondoggle
Member
Balloondoggle
2 hours ago
Reply to  RadarEngineer

I’d have gone with stranded. I agree that trapped sounds like they couldn’t get out of the car at all.

Michael Beranek
Michael Beranek
14 hours ago

If it’s an Tesla, you might need a crowbar anyway, to get the doors open.

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