[Histlepops]

Hi all, new to this having recently bought our first phev, a 2019 Mini Countryman. Had a few charging woes, wondered if it’s my misunderstanding of things or whether the car has a fault? Basically in some public chargers (one Pod-Point at my place of work and an ecotricity) the cars charger port flashed red and refused to charge. It works fine on every other one I’ve tried. The only common denominator of the two that I had no joy with was that they were of the type with a cable attached to the machine, not a socket that we would use our own cable with.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance for help and support

 

[80698]

Isn't the countryman a PHEV with no ability to rapid charge? In which case you shouldn't be trying to connect it to a rapid charger with a tethered cable anyways.

 

[Histlepops]

That’ll be why then! Thank you. Strange that the satnav shows where these chargers are if they’re not suitable.

 

[80698]

That's not to say that it won't work. But it's very poor practice to hog a rapid charger with a car that's not capable of doing so. It should still charge, but slowly.

Try plugging into a handful of different 3kW or 7kW AC posts using your own cable over the coming days and ensure you can charge at all of them without any problems.

If you can, don't worry about it. But if you get the same red light it's probably worth asking the dealer to investigate and check for a fault.

Oh, and don't trust your sat nav. Plenty of non-Tesla EVs like to guide people to Tesla Superchargers which they can't use. They also like to tell drivers where all the fuel stations are. Something that's totally useless in a full electric vehicle! It may be worth downloading Zap Map, if you don't already have it. You can see in detail what's around you and if they are working or not. Look for the yellow or blue markers on the map. They're your regular AC posts that are better suited to a PHEV.