Electrify America closes all fast chargers from 150 to 350 kW for safety reasons

The cables seem to have a problem to cope with the high power.

VW's Electrify America is shutting down all of its US fast chargers for security reasons related to charging cables. The news of this is surfacing via an official press release from Electrify America.

The press release states in particular:

On the recommendation of its supplier, HUBER + SUHNER, one of the leading suppliers of high-power charging cable technologies in the sector, Electrify America closes the majority of its high-power chargers (150 kW – 350 kW) from its grid problem. potential safety with its liquid-cooled cables.

This calls into question the overall safety of the CCS load at such high levels. There may still be some issues to resolve before an ultra fast charge up to 350 kW is actually safe and reliable.

All CHAdeMO and L2 chargers from Electrify America sites will remain open. The same goes for CCS chargers with 50 kW of lower power. This judgment only concerns CCS chargers from 150 to 350 kW.

Full press release from Electrify America below:

ELECTRIFY AMERICA PARTIALLY MODIFIED ITS NETWORK ALL ITS GLOBAL SUPPLIER EXAMINES THE SAFETY PROBLEM WITH HIGH-POWER CHARGING CABLE

Reston (January 25, 2019) – On the recommendation of its supplier, HUBER + SUHNER, the leading supplier of high-power charging cable technologies in the sector, Electrify America is closing most of its high-power chargers (150 kW – 350 kW ) of its network to study a potential safety problem with its liquid-cooled cables. The recommendation was addressed to all HUBER + SUHNERS customers using the technology worldwide.

"The safety of our customers is our top priority," said Giovanni Palazzo, President and CEO of Electrify America. "As a precaution, Electrify America is shutting down all of our stations using HUBER + SUHNER high-power cables until we can confirm that they can be operated safely. We are confident that HUBER + SUHNER will investigate and solve this problem as soon as possible. "

Electrify America chargers that are not affected by the high-power cable problem will remain open and available for use. The 50kW CCS chargers, all CHAdeMO connectors and L2 chargers are unaffected.

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