Source: ChargeFox
Two electric car charging stations at Euroa in the Australian state of Victoria have been affected by a global shutdown of 150kW+ charging sites that use liquid-cooled charging cables made by Huber+Suhner.
The charging cable maker issued a statement on Saturday 26th January, confirming that a short-circuit occurred in a first-generation prototype at a test site in Germany.
The short circuit occurred inside the CSS plug attached to the cable, and the “cooling circuit with the synthetic, non-conductive coolant can be ruled out as the cause,” Huber+Suhner said in the statement.
“Safety in the application of the products has the highest priority for Huber+Suhner.
“Although the products supplied comply with the required standards, Huber+Suhner checks the exact operating conditions of the high-power charging systems together with customers.
“With that the company wants to ensure that the further developed series products fully meet the requirements,” the company said in the statement.
No-one was injured, but the cablemaker is taking no chances – until further notice, all car chargers using the company’s liquid-cooled cables are offline until further notice.
In Australia, this includes two 350kW charging dispensers located in the Victorian town of Euroa that were launched by Aussie charging infrastructure company ChargeFox in October 2018.
“Our two Euroa ABB stations have been powered off on advice from ABB as a precaution. The two Tritium 50kW units are online and operational,” ChargeFox co-founder Tim Washington told The Driven.
As yet there is no news on when the Euroa site will reopen.
“Safety is paramount to us and we’ve taken a proactive approach in coordination with our suppliers,” Washington says.
The shutdown has also affected parts of the European Ionity network that Australian EV charging company Tritium supply to.
“Customer safety is paramount,” Dr Michael Hajesch, CEO of Ionity said in a statement.
“We were shutting down stations that use the Huber+Suhner high-powered cables while we confirm that they can be operated safely. We are cooperating with our partners and suppliers to enable normal operation as soon as possible.”
It is unclear at this time if Tritium chargers in the Ionity network have been affected – we have contacted Tritium for confirmation and will update when more information is known.
Update: Tritium issued a statement to the press on Tuesday assuring that Tritium chargers are not affected by the issue.
“Tritium’s high power Electric Vehicle chargers are safe and operational. Following news of possible issues with charging stations that use Huber + Suhner liquid-cooled, high-powered charging cables, we want to confirm to our customers, drivers and business partners that Tritium high power EV chargers use Phoenix Contact glycol liquid cooled cables, and there are no safety issues with these cables,” says Tritium CEO and co-founder David Finn.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.
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