Home charging

[Billc]

Took delivery of our EGolf a week ago. Our Schneider EV Link wall charger reports a "fault" (red light turns on) every time eGolf approaches full charge. (Between 65 & 75 mile range) this charger works normally on our other EV and worked ok for 3 years on a GM Volt we leased. Otherwise EGolf performs really well, but having to reset charger at electric panel every time we charge the car is a headache. Anyone else having this problem?

 

[GadgetGav]

I just took delivery of my car this week and I'm considering which (if any) Level 2 charger to get.
I'd been looking at the Schneider one rather than the Bosch that VW are promoting, but if there are issues, maybe I'll stick to the factory approved one. This is my first EV and a lease, so I want to do things by the book.

 

[Billc]

I personally don't like the idea of an EV manufacturer like Volkswagen, (or any manufacturer) recommending one brand of charger over another. Shouldn't all chargers work on all EV's just like the J-1772 plug? Our e-Golf is our 4th EV and both our Tesla and Volt work fine on the Schneider. We were former ActiveE beta testers and that car wouldn't work on the Schneider because of excess spurious radiation (according to Schneider) but GE's $600 charger (online through Home Depot) worked just fine. Bottom line is that we EV owners should not have to buy a new "approved" charger whenever we change makes of our EV's.

 

[GadgetGav]

I personally don't like the idea of an EV manufacturer like Volkswagen, (or any manufacturer) recommending one brand of charger over another. Shouldn't all chargers work on all EV's just like the J-1772 plug? Our e-Golf is our 4th EV and both our Tesla and Volt work fine on the Schneider. We were former ActiveE beta testers and that car wouldn't work on the Schneider because of excess spurious radiation (according to Schneider) but GE's $600 charger (online through Home Depot) worked just fine. Bottom line is that we EV owners should not have to buy a new "approved" charger whenever we change makes of our EV's.

Totally agree. If charger compatibility is added to range anxiety EVs will never take off in the USA. Imagine if Henry Ford had made his cars only run on Standard Oil gasoline...
What's the point in a standard for the connector if it's what's at the other end of the wire that's important..?

 

[cove3]

Nothing VW says indicates Bosch is any better than any other wall unit, nor do they push it. They just want to offer it to e-Golf buyers who don't want to go to the trouble of evaluating boxes and then finding an electrician in the yellow pages to install it. It probably makes buyers feel more secure.

I'll bet however that less than 10% go with Bosch, which from what I've read is more expensive, Most people have an electrician they trust, and ordering a unit from Clipper Creek or Juicebox is nothing. Often there's no sales tax. The Bosch unit costs quite a bit more, as does their electrician from what I've read on the forums

I bought a Clipper Creek hsc-40 and my electrician installs it next week.

Ron

 

[Billc]

I respectfully have to disagree that VW doesn't push Bosch. In July and again in August, 2014, VW and Bosch issued press releases stating: "The e-Golf will go on sale later this year as a 2015 model. Bosch Automotive Service Solutions has been selected as a charging station and installation services partner for the e-Golf." (Simply Google eGolf and Bosch together) As I mentioned before, ALL EV's should charge equally well on ANY "UL approved" home charger. To first-time buyers of an EV, VW pushing the Bosch charger over others makes the transition from ICE to EV appear far more complicated than it really is. It's VW's responsibility to produce a car that runs on any brand of (I dare say) "gasoline"!

 

[GadgetGav]

I respectfully have to disagree that VW doesn't push Bosch. In July and again in August, 2014, VW and Bosch issued press releases stating: "The e-Golf will go on sale later this year as a 2015 model. Bosch Automotive Service Solutions has been selected as a charging station and installation services partner for the e-Golf." (Simply Google eGolf and Bosch together) As I mentioned before, ALL EV's should charge equally well on ANY "UL approved" home charger. To first-time buyers of an EV, VW pushing the Bosch charger over others makes the transition from ICE to EV appear far more complicated than it really is. It's VW's responsibility to produce a car that runs on any brand of (I dare say) "gasoline"!

You're quite right - it's a clear promotional tie-in. My sales person said that they had planned to sell the Bosch unit through the dealership and roll it into the financing, but it was proving more expensive than estimated and so now customers were being directed to Bosch's "white glove" installation for the charger.
In the promotional materials in the dealerships, only the Bosch unit is mentioned. It's clearly pictured in the center spread of the brochure and there's a separate 'Charging Faster: 240V Charging Solutions' flyer that has Bosch branding but a photo of a plugged in e-Golf on the cover. When you open that flyer the two facing pages are 'Why upgrade to 240V charging?' and 'Why Bosch?' and the answer to that second question states "Bosch has been chosen by Volkswagen as the preferred partner to support electric drive home charging". The big e-Golf display unit in the dealership has a Bosch unit attached to it too.

I know most manufacturers have an endorsement from a particular oil company, I've seen advice to only use Castrol oil or Mobil 1 synthetic for instance, but I don't recall ever seeing manufacturers saying that you should only fill up at one brand's gas stations for ICE vehicles.

 

[GadgetGav]

One question Billc: Do you know which version of the Schneider EV Link you got? I've seen references to the '2nd generation' online and Home Depot claims to be selling the "generation 2.5"
Maybe earlier units had issues and there was a fix. May be hard to find out which generation you have though.

 

[Billc]

We originally bought our Schneider home charger for our Volt in Feb, 2012. My notes say it was a EV2430WS. It's worked just fine on the other three EV's we've leased and one we still own.

However, when charging our new eGolf the Schneider turns to "fault" every time the battery nears capacity (65-75 miles). Then, when this happens, we have to go down to our basement and reset the charger at the circuit breaker panel. I emailed our dealer about this issue several weeks ago but still no reply.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Interesting discussion here. Has anyone tried charging an eGolf on the "Voltec" branded 240V wall-mount EVSE by SPX? This is the one that GM promotes for use with a Volt.

I'm not surprised that there are some teething issues with the eGolf and certain EVSEs. Most of the major EVs had compatibility problems in the early days - the issues with Leaf, Volt, and even Teslas were widely known, but eventually resolved.

 

[Billc]

Since my last post I called Schneider Electric and learned the following:

It's not our e-Golf that's causing the "fault" but the fact that our Schneider charger is an early model manufactured when the tolerance for spurious electrical emissions was at 5 milliamps. Today, the industry standard has been relaxed to 20 milliamps. So anyone using an older home charger will encounter this same problem in charging most any EV except Tesla -- the only EV who's spurious emission tolerance remains below 5 milliamps. (no surprise there).

What was even more surprising in my talking to a Schneider technician was that without any hesitation, he immediately offered to send me a new home charger overnight without charge and that new charger arrived the next morning. The new charger's now installed,works great, "problem solved". (Schneider didn't even want the old unit returned -- said to discard it. So I couldn't recommend a Schneider EV Link more highly in terms of quality, technical and warranty support.)

 

[GadgetGav]

That's good to hear..!
I took a gamble on buying the Schneider unit because it explicitly said 'generation 2.5' in the listing and you said you'd had yours a while. I was hoping the reason for the revisions was some problem they'd found.
I've had mine installed nearly a week and it seems to be working just fine. Good to know their customer service is responsive though if I do run into issues.

 

[vetaldj]

Have exec same thing happen always at my work charger...

Damn it, need to make sure I take my car earlier than this happen as it took them up to the month to fix it...