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Charging incident in Norway Jan 8, 2016

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Matias

Active Member
Apr 2, 2014
3,986
5,836
Finland
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TeslaOwnersClubNorway/permalink/971988979550202/


Google translation

"Charged today early Lier Northbound whereupon charging socket, and parts of the cap has melted / decayed while the vehicle charged. The fuse on the SC went, thankfully, and charging halt. Some others who have experienced this and who knows what could be causing this? Now running around in Swedish borrow tanks while I wait for that Tesla will repair the damage"
 
Hopefully earlier fire and this are related. Now Tesla has better changes to find the cause.

Unlikely.

First, the incidents are different - fire due to an unknown cause vs. proper operation of the SC protection equipment in reaction to what seem to be a damaged connector.

Second, in the case of fire police ruled out malfunctioning Supercharger. So if the cause of fire in the first case is similar to this incident, there would be similar proper operation of the protection device (fuse). So if the protection device would've operated properly, it would've prevented fire, which obviously not what happened. On another hand, we can't conclude that protection device did not operate, because of the police investigation eliminated Supercharger malfunctioning.
 
This is probably completely unrelated to the fire. But it may be that Tesla needs to decrease the interval between each inspection/service of the superchargers.

I assume Tesla has set the interval based on experiences in California. That means they might get a surprise in Norway. The plastic becomes more brittle at lower temperatures, and materials shrink leading to issues with mechanical tolerances. Thus it wouldn't at all surprise me if the Superchargers are subjected to significantly more wear and tear here in Norway. (And Canada, etc.)
 
If everyone would take care of properly hanging back the Supercharger-cable, instead of dropping it on the ground, that would already make a difference. I've seen a lot of damaged ones already.
Sounds like an opportunity for an entrepreneur. Since the car and supercharger communicate (charge port door opens on car), why can't someone design a protective sleeve for the charger plug that retracts as it's inserted into the car?

That way it can protect the connector plug if it's dropped when removed. It could even warm up the plug in extreme cold weather to keep it from premature wear and tear.
 
This is probably completely unrelated to the fire. But it may be that Tesla needs to decrease the interval between each inspection/service of the superchargers.

I assume Tesla has set the interval based on experiences in California. That means they might get a surprise in Norway. The plastic becomes more brittle at lower temperatures, and materials shrink leading to issues with mechanical tolerances. Thus it wouldn't at all surprise me if the Superchargers are subjected to significantly more wear and tear here in Norway. (And Canada, etc.)

I am from California, and I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT, because I have also lived in NYC, Iowa, Oregon, and Puerto Rico, where the weather is VERY different. Plus, I like the idea of something resilient enough to be shot into space. Obviously, Elon's other ventures understand extreme temperature operations. So, if indeed this failure type is a bunch of gun-ho California engineers who are blindingly stupid about other locations' weather, I would be very pissed off at me sitting at home not having a job today while a bunch of overpaid idiots over there in Palo Alto and Fremont are sipping their drinks and costing their company untold amounts by being dumb about a bit of normally cold weather in a few nontropical climates.

Having said all that, if it's a problem as simple as lack of attention to weather, that means a rather simple amount of weather-appropriate engineering can commence and the situation resolved. I almost hope it's so dumb I hate it, since it would be relatively simple to remedy.
 
Sounds like an opportunity for an entrepreneur. Since the car and supercharger communicate (charge port door opens on car), why can't someone design a protective sleeve for the charger plug that retracts as it's inserted into the car?

That way it can protect the connector plug if it's dropped when removed. It could even warm up the plug in extreme cold weather to keep it from premature wear and tear.

Very good idea. It would also help in my situation today where the temperature dropped drastically and the rain turned to freezing rain and iced up my HPWC connector and the charge port door area. Had to clear the ice and manually push the door closed.
 
Is it possible the Tesla owner intentionally damaged their Tesla in a way that prevented safety features from working? There are a lot of facts about the incident that don't make sense, or sound fishy.

Where is the owner? Are there any comments from the owner? Someone on here commented that the person took drivers 2-3 days before the incident.
 
Last edited:
This is a duplicate thread, and the police have already cleared the Supercharger as no being at fault.

No, this is a thread about an another incident that happened one week after the fire.

- - - Updated - - -

Where is the owner? Are there any comments from the owner? Someone on here commented that the person took drivers 2-3 days before the incident.

Wrong thread. This thread is not about the fire on 1. jan. 2016.
 
Just wondering: is there a kind of interlock/switch/sensor available to see if the plug is completely in the socket while supercharging? Can you remove the plug while supercharging is busy?

I've seen 380V plugs failing because of this (spectacular sparks/smoke/...) because operators removed the plugs while a machine was still drawing power.
16a_380v_3p+e_Ip44_Industrial_Plug_Male_Plug.jpg
 
The plugs (for Supercharger or UMC/HPWC) are locked in to the charge port by the car while in use. In order to remove it, you have to press the "unlock" button (or via phone/console), which also stops the power draw.

There is no practical way to remove a supercharger cable while current is flowing.