MG4 not charging

I live in New Zealand so no idea about that charging chain but my experience so far is that certain charging machine types (not necessarily related to the operator) have their own bugs. It’s not always the fault of the MG4.

From time to time some machines fail. Did you try another charging bay at the same place? Sometimes even on the same charger the second or third outlet works when one is borked.
 
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kiwi said:
I live in New Zealand so no idea about that charging chain but my experience so far is that certain charging machine types (not necessarily related to the operator) have their own bugs. It’s not always thevfault of the MG4.

From time to time some machines fail. Did you try another charging bay at the same place? Sometimes even on the same charger the second or third outlet works when one is borked.
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Thanks, I’m charging through a podpoint at home, pod point have said there are outage peaks that are causing the pod point to stop, has anyone else had this problem?
 
I guess then it is like ripple controlled water heating, when the wholesale price of electricity is high suppliers on thin margins need to cut supply to avoid making a loss. You can do that with non essential loads like charging or hot water.

I would think it would be just for an hour or so.
 
Susieg said:
pod point have said there are outage peaks that are causing the pod point to stop
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sounds odd to me - did they explain what they mean by "outage peaks"?

I assume you have not had any household power outages?
 
Susieg said:
pod point have said there are outage peaks that are causing the pod point to stop
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I suspect this is the same problem as I experienced in the very early days with my Rolec EVSE.

To cut a rather long story short... After several return visits from the installer (when the unit kept tripping out and had to be manually reset) he discovered that the incoming voltage to the house (which legally has to be in the range 216 to 253 volts) was actually occasionally hitting 258 or 259. Such an overvoltage caused the PEN safety system to activate and disconnect the unit.

The solution was that my DNO (local electricity supplier) had to be "told" to limit the voltage being supplied to my house, which they did, quite quickly, by regulating the output of my local substation.

@Susieg if yours is the same problem only your DNO can fix it, I believe. Your Podpoint installer can formally require your DNO to make this change since, if yours is the same problem, the voltage they are supplying to you is, technically, illegal.
 
emmrecs said:
I suspect this is the same problem as I experienced in the very early days with my Rolec EVSE.

To cut a rather long story short... After several return visits from the installer (when the unit kept tripping out and had to be manually reset) he discovered that the incoming voltage to the house (which legally has to be in the range 216 to 253 volts) was actually occasionally hitting 258 or 259. Such an overvoltage caused the PEN safety system to activate and disconnect the unit.

The solution was that my DNO (local electricity supplier) had to be "told" to limit the voltage being supplied to my house, which they did, quite quickly, by regulating the output of my local substation.

@Susieg if yours is the same problem only your DNO can fix it, I believe. Your Podpoint installer can formally require your DNO to make this change since, if yours is the same problem, the voltage they are supplying to you is, technically, illegal.
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Yes, the graph supplied by podpoint is showing over voltage above legal levels, we are waiting for an engineer from North West electricity.

Susieg said:
Yes, the graph supplied by podpoint is showing over voltage above legal levels, we are waiting for an engineer from North West electricity.
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I am trying to charge the car now & it is charging but only 3.3kw is that ok?
 
Note that Pod Point say that they do participate in peak shaving with at least BG subs. This means that when there is a high demand for electricity nationwide and wholesale prices spike they can reduce EV charging even if your house supply is still on.

On top of that there is the scheduled charging feature if your DNO has time of use charging.
 
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It seems a very common problem. Ours is the same, at night mains input is around 253V which causes the charger to fault with an over voltage error.
On our street, out of the 4 other EV chargers, mine is the only one having an issue :rolleyes:
 
Walks with Enzo said:
On our street, out of the 4 other EV chargers, mine is the only one having an issue
Click to expand...

Very annoying!

BUT, given the legal requirement on your DNO to not exceed 253 volts to your house, perhaps yours has the "best" fault protection? I wonder at what level your neighbours units would trip? (Assuming they actually would!!!) :censored::censored:

Or are your neighbours not actually seeing such "high" voltages?
 
253 is "legal"; 254 is not. Or, are you saying that yours trips at or below 253? If so, I think you need to have your EVSE checked by a qualified electrician/installer. What make is it?

I think 253v in the middle of the day is not at all unlikely, especially if you have a number of properties close to you who have solar panels that may well be exporting their excess generation.
 
It's an Eon Vestel EVC04 charger. Eon Tech support told me it goes into fault mode above 253V
I was up in the night last week (old mans bladder!), I checked out charger and it had gone into fault mode.
My socket tester was reading 250-253V, I reset the charger and manually started the charge. Mains dropped to 245V. I have tried putting load on the house by charger the house battery but still faulted.
The Vestel data sheet shows nominal input to be 230V +10%
 
Walks with Enzo said:
On our street, out of the 4 other EV chargers, mine is the only one having an issue :rolleyes:
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It is possible that the other chargers are connected to a different phase than yours and may not have quite as high voltage if that phase has more active loads at that time of day.

Walks with Enzo said:
I've checked one other house and they were 253V in the middle of the day!
emmrecs said:
253 is "legal"; 254 is not.
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True, but if a random test measured 253V, it is likely that the peaks will be above that. Early pm, especially at weekends and at overnight are the common time for peaks.

Either way, the high voltage issue should be reported to your DNO. They are under obligation to keep the voltage within the 216.2V to 253V range under ESQCR 2002 legislation, which you should quote to them if they are being sluggish to respond.

See The Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002

IME, the DNO are likely to install a monitoring device on your incoming line which will measure voltage over a week or two. If it is very high, they may just agree to resolve it - this could be measured by an engineer on-site or, in the case of voltages over 258V, from alerts sent by smart meters. The common fix will be to reduce the voltage on your nearest LV transformer by a tap or two - that will drop the voltage 2.5 or 5%. The DNO may require a new LV transformer to be installed if the one serving your line is very old.
 
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Backing up to the original question, another novice here. What am I doing wrong? I plug the cable into the Podpoint after locating the station on my Podpoint app. I plug it into the car. I confirm I want to charge and it begins charging. ( why do my parking lights and tail lights stay on even after I’ve locked the car?) and away it goes. When I walk away maybe after 30 mins or maybe 5% charging increase, it just stops. Very annoying and time consuming esp when it’s a public charger about a ten minute walk away. I don’t have the option of a home charger. The green light on the Podpoint is on but somehow it just stops randomly. Any help from a very cold frustrated novice.
 
docmjl said:
Backing up to the original question, another novice here. What am I doing wrong? I plug the cable into the Podpoint after locating the station on my Podpoint app. I plug it into the car. I confirm I want to charge and it begins charging. ( why do my parking lights and tail lights stay on even after I’ve locked the car?) and away it goes. When I walk away maybe after 30 mins or maybe 5% charging increase, it just stops. Very annoying and time consuming esp when it’s a public charger about a ten minute walk away. ( I don’t have the option of a home charger. The green light on the Podpoint is on but it just stops randomly. Any help from a very cold frustrated novice.
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Hi, is this a rapid CCS DC charger or AC destination EVSE (charge point)?
 
docmjl said:
Thanks for your quick reply. I’m not sure of the distinction. It’s a commercial Podpoint, 7KW charger which I imagine is DC, correct?
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No 7kW is AC on a type2 cable. Try it on a DC CCS charger. It will be done quicker but probably cost a bit more but you will know if it works fine on a different unit.
 
docmjl said:
( why do my parking lights and tail lights stay on even after I’ve locked the car?)
Click to expand...
Is this the famous 'follow me home' feature?

docmjl said:
When I walk away maybe after 30 mins or maybe 5% charging increase, it just stops. Very annoying and time consuming esp when it’s a public charger about a ten minute walk away. ( I don’t have the option of a home charger. The green light on the Podpoint is on but somehow it just stops randomly. Any help from a very cold frustrated novice.
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Very frustrating!

We have podpoints in our town centre (they are even free, though you only get two hours free parking and I rarely stay more than about 30 mins if I can even get on one of the units).

It sounds like you are doing everything right in terms of approving the session on your app so I can't say for sure. But it is either the car, the charger, or some strange interaction between the two.
  • Do you have any charging timing limits set within the car? I'm struggling to think of any other potential issues from the car side.
  • Do you know anyone else who uses these units without any issue?
  • Have you contacted Podpoint or looked up their user forums to see if this is a common issue with a known resolution?
Looking up Hurley it looks like there are some 22kW Podpoints in the area - Hurleyford farm. Could you try on those? (They are currently reported as one being in use and the other just finished with so perhaps check first as they might be popular).

Also, as suggested, have a try on some DC chargers at some point to make sure the DC charging works as intended.

Hope you can get this sorted!
 

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