First EVGo quick charge experience (failure)

I have had my Leaf for about a week, decided to stop by the EVGo quick charge station at Beltline and the Tollway in Dallas. Pulled up, waved the key fob, hooked it up, watched "communicating with vehicle", the blue dashboard lights do a little dance, some clicks, the word "Charging" appear on the screen, then "clunk", big red error message on the screen, telling me charging failed and to put the charger back on the station.

Tried again. Same thing.

Called the support number, technicians were there in 15 minutes. Tested with their briefcase car simulator. Worked fine.

EVGo rep showed up 15 minutes later. Plugged in his Leaf, worked fine.

So the conclusion is some new software incompatibility with my just purchased leaf, or a hardware problem with the quick charge port on my leaf.

They did scroll through some error messages to the effect of "Voltage = 0, expected > 50" or something like that.

Anyway, it sounded like logs were being collected, Nissan was being contacted, etc. We'll see what happens.

I didn't need the charge and picked up a few miles of range on the level 2 charger while I was there.

I will say the support was impressive. They got there fast, were friendly, and the troubleshooting was sound in my opinion.

Since the dealers don't even have quick chargers, I wonder how they would troubleshoot/repair this issue. Anyone else had a bad quick charge port?

I have not tried it yet, because I do not have an EVGo account. They are the only provider in DFW.

Interesting, how can I check in Oklahoma, we still waiting for first official delivery here. Wonder if dealer have any way to test QC port without charger?

I have used that charger about once a month since I got my car in Nov 2011. The last time after it said 'Connecting with car' it went to error. I called the support number and was going to leave, when the person on the phone said 'let me reboot it'. He did, and it worked after that.

I only really needed it one time after going to the airport. Passed LBW and the GOM showed 4 miles when I pulled in.

I don't think anyone should panic. It is likely a problem with my car.

They did reboot the charging station and tested with another car and their test kit so it seems to be an issue unique to my car.

EVGo and Aerovironment is all over it, have had several phone conversations with them today, and I have a service appointment with Nissan scheduled for Friday so they can extract what ever info and do what ever QC port diagnostics they can there. I'm sure they will get to the bottom of it and I have only been mildly inconvenienced. Heck I like troubleshooting stuff like this. Reminds me of when WFAA was doing their first HDTV broadcasts and had me on the phone to make sure the 5.1 channel assignment was correct (it wasn't, dialog was coming from the left rear speaker).

Cheezmo said:

I have had my Leaf for about a week, decided to stop by the EVGo quick charge station at Beltline and the Tollway in Dallas. Pulled up, waved the key fob, hooked it up, watched "communicating with vehicle", the blue dashboard lights do a little dance, some clicks, the word "Charging" appear on the screen, then "clunk", big red error message on the screen, telling me charging failed and to put the charger back on the station.

Tried again. Same thing.

Click to expand...

Dumb question maybe, but you did turn the car off ?
I have turned the car on while QCing before, so I could get some heat and run the radio. Works well. But this particular QC would only run for 20 minutes at a time, so after 20 minutes I had to restart. It did not work, got an error screen. After some fumbling I found out that I hadn't turned the car off again. Did that and all was well. After QC has started the car can be turned on again with no issues.

Yes, we made sure it was in park, then turned off.

I have probably used that QC @ beltline maybe 20+ times. The only issue I have had was with the fob not wanting to work right (only happened once), a couple of times the session wouldn't end (i.e. the charger didn't dock correctly, happened when I tried to dock it or pulling up and someone didn't dock it correctly and didn't end their session). The original software (which has been upgraded) was extremely finicky on the order you did things, i.e. if you tried to start it before you put the plug in, etc. But the new software is 10 times better and haven't had one issue since.

Yeah, they said it has been pretty trouble free the last 4 months. Dealer is going to take a look at my car Friday.

leafwing said:

I have not tried it yet, because I do not have an EVGo account. They are the only provider in DFW.

Click to expand...

They may be the only provider with a QC station, but definitely not the only provider in Dallas.

If you have an "unlimited use" account, could you try a friend's LEAF?

Or, test the QC port/function of all the LEAFs in your area?

An EVGo rep was there within 30 minutes with a 2011 Leaf which did charge successfully.

Update, Nissan is flying down technicians from Detroit to look at my Leaf on Friday. Should be interesting. I was concerned the dealer might not have the resources to troubleshoot the quick charge port, I guess now they will.

adric22 said:

leafwing said:

I have not tried it yet, because I do not have an EVGo account. They are the only provider in DFW.

Click to expand...

They may be the only provider with a QC station, but definitely not the only provider in Dallas.

Click to expand...

I don't know if there is another provider or even another location.

I am aware of ChargePoint and Blink having chargers around. The only QC is the evGo one at Beltline and the Tollway. Although when I was hanging out with the electricians and evGo rep on Monday, they were talking about one going live in DeSoto this week and another one in Arlington I believe close behind.

I've been watching the EVGO QC going in Desoto, Just around the corner. It looks very nearly ready but wasn't powered up when I stopped by on Monday. It seems to be a good location at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant on I35E at Wintergreen. Very convenient to I20.

I hope they checked this for you but when I experienced the same symptoms you described I was really concerned that my Leaf was broken. It turned out that my EVGO account was messed up. When they remote-activated the unit or another fob was used the car charged fine. They eventually figured that out and fixed my account.

I've had a few other hiccups there but rebooting the station always cured them. I agree that EVGO support has been great and very fast!

We tried my car with the evGo rep's fob, same problem.

It got through all the activation and talki g to car stuff but only failed right when the display switched to "charging".

Kind of fun tracking your car while it is in for service with Carwings.

Based on the mileage of the first trip after I dropped it off today, it looks like they drove it to the evGo Quick Charge station. Then there were several stop charge text messages from Carwings so they were trying to charge it, but the charge level has stayed the same, so no success yet...

Wonder if they realize I am spying on them. (I guess they will when they read this!).

Cheez; thanks for the post. this is interesting information and i 2nd the comment of VERY impressive customer service. (most posters seemed to have missed that)

do let us know what Nissan finds out. i have QC and its never been used. i hope to try it soon one day.