Charging in the Rain

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Today I got to experience something new, to me, and exciting. I got to charge an EV in the rain. In theory you should avoid doing this because you don’t want moisture to get into the connectors of the car, as well as the rubber plugs. You also don’t want to get moisture into the plug of the EV station adaptor. I was not electrocuted, and from what I saw everything remained dry.

Having said this, if I had planned to charge in the rain today, rather than underground, I would have taken a towel or even kept some kitchen paper in the car. I would use it to dry anything that needs drying, to avoid corrosion.

Experimentation

The reason for which I did not charge underground as planned is that I was experimenting with the app. I plugged in the car, I went to tell it to start charging, and it protested. I then tried with the TCS card and it said Card Invalid so I gave up. I suspect that it blocked to the right account, but due to being underground the go ahead signal was not received. That’s why I wanted an RFID card. I might try again on Monday. I think I know what my mistake was.

The Not So Fast Fast Charger

That’s when I went to the fast charger. I have noticed that the fast charger is not that reliable. Three times now I have noticed that it slows down so as to take hours to charge, rather than minutes when I open the door from within the car. I don’t know whether this is a "safety feature" or a bug. The result is that I was unable to charge to 100 percent at two chargers today.

And Finally

The reason for which it would have been fun to have a full charge for tomorrow is that I will be driving up the Jura. I prefer to have a full battery. The distance is just 40 kilometres and I have a theoretical range of 200 kilometres. This means that I should have no problem getting there, and getting home. The journey home is downhill so I should be able to charge part of the way down.

Weather Conditions

Due to it snowing overnight and because of the temperature going down to -3°c I should use the petrol car anyway. It’s wiser, and safer.