ID.4 burned down courtesy of my local Walmart charger

[ricojm]

Saw this today at my local Walmart, Tracy Ca…

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[CompilerBreak]

Battery failure or vandalism (or cargo I suppose)? Seems odd that'd it'd be so localized to the back of the car.

 

[RickMachE]

So is that charger available? ?

 

[bdonpwn]

So is that charger available? ?

Idle fees must be insane…

 

[ricojm]

Battery failure or vandalism (or cargo I suppose)? Seems odd that'd it'd be so localized to the back of the car.

It looks like a VW ID4 to me, but not entirely sure…

 

[Keeperofthe7keys]

That doesn't appear to be battery since it's centered on the back and the rest looks fine... so some competent or wiring around the charger intake? or was it cargo and unrelated to being an EV? ?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Yeah that's an ID.4

 

[Mach-Lee]

Took a week for this to finally hit the news: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...g-at-an-electrify-america-station-212338.html

It appears the fire originated in the charge port, likely due to a bad connection that overheated one or more pins.

Here is another ID.4 port fire that happened one week prior:

I recommend inspecting pubic charger connectors before plugging them into your car in case they are damaged. There is not robust enough monitoring and repair by the charging companies to take bad cables out of service before they damage vehicles.

 

[SWO]

I feel like I've read about several ID4s with melted charge ports.

 

[mikeinet]

I wonder if EA has any fault monitoring? I’d assume it’d have seen voltage spikes or variation before it actually caught fire?

Has this only been happening at EAs?

 

[Mach-Lee]

I wonder if EA has any fault monitoring? I’d assume it’d have seen voltage spikes or variation before it actually caught fire?

Has this only been happening at EAs?

Hard to say, a bad connection will just heat up and can fail quickly. But there should be warning signs with voltage drop and overtemp alarms before it gets bad enough to catch a fire. When an overheating cable is detected several times in row, the charging station should automatically mark it as offline so it can't be used and dispatch a technician to inspect the cable and cooling system. The technician should complete a visual inspection, and a pin fitment test on the cable to verify the connection is okay. Last he should test the cable by charging and monitor if the cable temps are within specs. If any anomalies are found, the connector or cable should be replaced.

In this case, someone said the affected handle wasn't working correctly for at least a week before the incident. It seems like that cable had a fault which would cause a shutdown after only a few seconds of charging. This was likely because the handle was rapidly overheating due to an extremely bad connection. Since it happened multiple times, that cable should have been flagged and taken offline.

I feel the blame here is on EA for failing to ensure a damaged cable was detected and taken out of service, which created a dangerous situation resulting in a vehicle fire. I have no idea if EA has fault monitoring or how robust it is, but THEY SHOULD.

If a cable overheats in less than 10 seconds, something is very wrong and it should not be used again until inspected.

 

[Logal727]

Yeah that's an ID.4

Great I’m sure this won’t be used for anti-EV clickbait at all.

 

[Maquis]

I feel like I've read about several ID4s with melted charge ports.

Has this only been happening at EAs?

Remember that new ID4s come with unlimited free charging at EA. This has some ID4 drivers exclusively fast charging and always at EA.

Perhaps this contributes to these apparent trends.

 

[scoopman]

Yikes!

One thing to point out is that the ID.4 doesn't have an attached cover over its DC pins like the MME -- on the ID4 the DC pin cover can be removed easily, it's on a tether. Presumably that cover is important to keep the pins clean...

Probably great maintenance by EA. That's one of their latest units too. I've stopped at that EA station and it was clogged up from heavy usage at the time.

 

[SWO]

Remember that new ID4s come with unlimited free charging at EA. This has some ID4 drivers exclusively fast charging and always at EA.

Perhaps this contributes to these apparent trends.

That's a good point, but they've only sold 32k ID4s in the US, and it's still a new car.

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