The EV Charging Safety Issue Nobody Is Talking About

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[barrywalker]

I experienced this issue on the first day I picked up my Model 3. I was loving everything about the car, I had taken my parents out for a drive and needed to charge by late afternoon. I don’t have the ability to charge at home as I live in an apartment and it was the weekend so I couldn’t charge at work.

The local charger nearest to me wouldn’t work, so had to I re-route to one about 10 miles away, and by the time I got there it was just getting dark. I sat in the car at the back of a retail car park with only a McDonald’s open nearby. It had lights and cameras watching, but I did not even think about how much of a target I was.

As I was charging, playing with the car’s entertainment features for the first time, a group of yobs strolled on past and were whistling at me and my car, I thought they were just appreciating the car, but they started to throw stuff at my car and were surrounding me, I felt beyond vulnerable and there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t drive and I didn’t want to get out and say something otherwise they may have thrown worse or done more damage.

I wish there was something I could’ve done to get out of the situation quickly, but I had to just sit and watch. I won’t ever be charging at night in a public car park now, it’s just too risky. Some kind of quick release mechanism would be a great safety feature, though I also think chargers should be placed in much better places. I think we need more electric charging forecourts with 24 hour staff, just like what Gridserve is doing.

[the_red_key]

This is something many have had concerns, including myself. They install some of them, especially the EA stations, in Walmart parking lots, sometimes in very shady areas. Driving into these, in a nice car like a Taycan, Audi, BMW, Lucid and it tends to draw folks attention anyway. Now at night, when the stores are closed or about to close, it can make people feel unsafe. I’m not saying ANYTHING that people who go to Walmarts or anything are bad people at all! It just definitely feels unsafe. I’m a 200+ pound black man from Brooklyn and when I pull up to those EA stations sometimes in my Taycan at night, my head is totally on a swivel and I’m on my guard. Better lighting, being put closer to the store entrance instead of way over on the side or the back of the lots might help. I never liked going to shady gas stations either, so it would be nice if I could have more choice where I charge. If the place looks or feels unsafe, i should be able to go somewhere else to charge, but often on a road trip, you get what you get or try the next charger 50-100 miles away if you can make it. You are a sitting duck out there and cant get away quickly and can be where there are just not a lot of people around. It makes for a bad scenario. Stay safe folks!

[ourstate]

Zac and Jessie from Now you know have already gotten some of their viewers to make prototype designs that quickly disconnect the cable quite successfully. Unfortunately it seems to just work well for Tesla‘s right now because of the smaller connector and better integration to the car to unlock the charge port.

[robertwadeexpertkidsdentist]

Bc of the typically remote location of charger my wife will only charge during the day and prefers to charge only at home.
She loves her model Y but would never take it on a trip where she would have to charge.
Btw, you are not giving bad guys any ideas. They look for situations like this. Thanks for putting this video up. Please keep the conversation going and sutions will follow!

[dennislyon]

Bjorn Nyland recently had an experiment performed to compare wired charging vs sitting on a remote charging pad. In that test, the method which charged without a cable connected to the car wasted less power than using a wired connection. That should warrant more research for a few reasons:
1 - This eliminates power cord/connector cooling and maintenance
2 - This could save a bunch of energy
3 - safety implications, as noted in this video. Just drive away if you sense mischief approaching.

The downsides are added expenses likely for each car to have a receiver attached to the belly somewhere. Same goes for the charger, but cable maintenance disappears, so long term cost should be less.

[LBrisk]

I think a great idea would be including an “eject adaptor” with the car when you purchase it. You can use it when you feel like you’re in a sketchy place or by yourself and it’ll attach to the Supercharger/DCFC, maybe designed to be small and simple like the J1772 to Tesla adaptor owners currently receive. Then when you’re in your car and are in a real situation where you need to use it, you can eject and drive away. The benefit of this solution though, vs having the charger build in the ejection system, is that people wouldn’t be doing this all willy nilly and leaving chargers on the ground. Since its your adaptor, you’d have incentive to not be ejecting it and leaving it behind every time you charge.

[colinnich]

This thought has occurred to me several times. The only solution I see is not to locate chargers in secluded areas - they have to be in a busy area / at an open store. Probably not workable though.

[domg]

This concern is legit. I've thought about it often as well. Have had some semi-panicky situations in the middle of the night. There needs to be a way to disengage the charger for emergencies from within the vehicle.

[jeffmelodia]

Thank you for finally bringing this up. It is the primary reason my wife will not get an EV. Sitting alone in a dark alley or wall mart parking lot for an hour is scary enough without being tethered and trapped. In Los angels and other big cities most crime goes unanswered. What good is safety while driving if you get hurt charging up

[AG-yhhi]

Really valid concern. In my case, where literally 95% of my driving is just around town, I’d just charge at home overnight and not deal with overcrowded charging stations or the safety issues. Then just take the ICE car for road trips. Then down the road, after these issues have possibly worked their way out, use the EV for everything.

[brady]

When on long trips, in unfamiliar areas, I've always made a point to leave the car. Go into the store or public place. Leave the car locked up. Then it's just another car in the parking lot.

[patrickharper]

Fire trucks and ambulances have had plug kickers for years, When the truck is in the station it is plugged in to shore power to run the HVAC and charge all those wonderful battery-operated life saving devices. The cord drops down from the ceiling and is plugged into a shorter cord around a foot long called a "pig tail". The short cord is there just in case the plug ejector fails and prevents damaging the station drop cord. The pig tail is plugged into the plug ejector. When the operator starts the truck the cord is ejected and swings away from the truck. Noise and mayhem ensues!

[brandenflasch]

There is not a magic solution, and I might be a bit biased, but I think this is where convenience store / fueling station charging locations shine.

[rodjpr]

The best optimum solution would be wireless charging. That should be the future charging standard. Also, to deter a possible assault or robbery, a quick siren alarm button or voice command "Help Siren" and flash all the lights.

[scraig]

When I was on a trip once in a Bolt and the EA chargers were broke, I had to get to a level 2. It was in a town that was decaying with lots of closed businesses and it was a weekend behind a library and city offices that felt like a back street alley. I felt like I had a bullseye on me, but I was so glad it was daytime...yet still felt like a ghost town.

[jakelee]

1. develop and improving Magnetic connect charging system which is not physically connect to the car. under emergency, you can drive away without damage your car or connector.
2. connect to cellphone app for your car charging status. you can monitoring and gets alarm if charging conditions has changed in real-time.

[ashtinhill]

Wow! I believe I almost got robbed a few weeks ago charging in the back corner of a Walmart parking lot at 3AM. I am a police officer and I still felt the danger around this. A car was circling the parking lot and was clearly looking at me, the driver got out and started walking towards me. At that moment the only thing I wanted was that "ejecto" button because I realized I would have to get out and unplug it myself. Called the local police where I was and floored it out of the lot. My solution, I feel much safer at DC fast chargers at places like Sheetz or eat in gas stations where there is staff and other people around. So lets build them in places that aren't simply an empty parking lot. Also lets make it so you have to own an EV in order to see what chargers are being used so people cannot target a single car being charged. Also get some "personal protection" as Kyle said...if you're comfortable with that.

[doeworksun]

We bought a model s at the end of 2016. Back then I interrogated the web and couldn’t find any incidents, but I’m sure that has changed . Here in Arizona we are allowed to carry firearms, so there’s that. Here is another scheme ONLY WORKS WITH TWO PEOPLE : Driver is seated in the customary position . Passenger is standing with the back door open, and their hand at the ready position to disengage charging plug . Last step is to dive into the backseat “ Mannix style “. Of course this probably would not be employed at lunchtime with lots of fellow drivers . It would be considered for middle of the night, low activity kind of thing.

[dansanger]

I've thought about this a lot, but only felt personally concerned one time when charging at a lonely parking lot at night when a guy in a kind of beat up ICE vehicle pulled into the parking lot and proceeded to drive around the parking lot in circles over and over again. I felt a little safer when somebody in an EV pulled up next to me to charge. But the ICE guy continued to drive around in circles over and over again. He had been doing this for about half an hour when the other EV driver stopped charging and left. I unplugged and left immediately after that because I felt really uncomfortable.

[kyleyork]

I have thought about this very issue, and I'm so thankful you're bringing awareness to the issue! I've been on roadtrips a handful of times where I had no choice but to stop in a not so great part of town, and felt like I had to constantly scan the area while charging. I've thought about some sort of breakaway cord, that's easily reattachable? But I like your eject option, just not sure how that could be retrofitted to current cars on the market?