Does the charge point have a tethered cable or are you using your own?

 

The reason I ask is because there is a known problem when you try to use a tethered charge point cable with an i3.

It's caused by a combination of the cable's weight and the fact that the i3's charge port is at the side of the car rather than at the front. It can be tricky to obtain a good connection to get the charge to start.

Park as close to the charge point as you can, hold the cable upwards to support its weight while you press start on the charge point screen (or press start and quickly dash over to the cable while the session is starting). Locking the car first also helps. Good luck!

 

Yep using the tethered cable, just realised that all the sucessful fast AC charges have been with my own cable, I'll nip in to the Cherwell Valley Services on Sunday and try again.

 

It took me several attempts before I first got the technique to work. I was at the point where I didn't believe it would. Even nowadays there's the odd problem but it usually works in the end.

 

Stopped off at Cherwell Valley Services on the M40 on my way back from Banbury, still no joy, tried loads of times and just kept getting the same "Station waiting for a charge request from the vehicle" message from the charger, not sure if this is a problem with my car or the charger, I can charge OK using my own cable but not it seems a tethered cable.

Ecotricity really is an appalling network, I know they are free but if you can't charge then they might as well not bother.

 

Is it worth it? You've only pulling in 7kW using the ac on a charger designed for up to 50kW

 

Mine failed at the Ecotricity Wetherby services yesterday as well. Same message. But then the pleasant lady who has only had her i3 for three days using the CCS post adjacent hit 80%, kindly moved early for me and joy was restored. I'd like to thank her if she's on here. Well done for being a clued up owner so quickly

 

Obviously not it will become irrelevant once they upgrade/add CCS but I suspect thats unlikely in the near future.

 

Just had a look at the connector and on the car socket and one of the 2 small pins at the top is recessed right inside probably about 1 cm lower than all the rest, is this normal or has the pin been pushed back on mine, looked on-line and the I think it's the control pin which would makes sense.

 

Just had a look at my I3 which has a DC socket. The upper right pin on the AC socket is recessed. I charged successfully on an Ecotricity DC CCS charger twice last week at Chieveley, but had no success at Membury.

 

Thanks for looking, it looks as though the Ecotricity connector isn't making contact with that pin, which happens to be the control pin which explains the error message.

It would be interesting to see if other manufacturers also recess this pin, I'm guessing not.

 

AFAIK it is a requirement of the protocol and mechanical spec that the pilot makes contact last. All sockets should be like that.

 

Socket recess is normal, the problems on Eco units are due to flex of socket in vehicle due to weight. i3 was never designed to support 3phase cabling

 

So I have paid for a DC charging socket that is incapable of taking the weight of a DC cable. Is there a potential case of mis-selling here?

 

Unfortunately it's not too good at supporting the CCS cable either!

 

DC is fine, its the AC 3 phase thats the issue. I have never had any problems with i3's with DC prep getting comms going, I have had problems with reliability of DBT units but that is another issue.

 

Took me three tries to get the ABB at Northumberlandia going last week. Whether supporting the gun helps or not it's impossible to say. I've experienced the same with the ABB unit in Stockton.

 

I've yet to try my i3 on the rapid's ACs... I've only had the car 6 weeks and ccs/AC (own cable) so far has been fine.
I happen to think using AC on the rapid units is inappropriate in any case.

With that in mind, what reasons do people have for using the rapid units as 7kW chargers? I can think of
- not rapid charging equipped
- no suitable 7KW closeby

Of course recent OLEV funding focussed on provision of rapids, which may have affected the latter...?
ALso in the early days ecotricity did install seperate AC units. It's a shame they don't still do this as a backup / for lower capability charging (though no doubt we'd then have a 22/11/7/3 kW discussion!)

 

I generally never bother, but I have used AC in order to reset a fault warning by getting my SOC over 75% so I didn't need to run the REX for a while, I stopped no longer than 25min in either case. Generally speaking I only really use the 22kW posts at Leicester Forest if I bother at all.

 

The 22kW units were wholly funded by OLEV, most of the RC's are either partially or totally self funding by Ecotricity. They have gone on record saying there are no plans to deploy more of those.

 

I've used the ac side when no CCS available on a couple of occasions while wife was dog walking etc. Every extra electric mile is one less fossil fuel! Naturally I stay with the car to relinquish the charge point if someone else needs it.

 

I've used AC to get to get a few % added to get over the DC combo error, just had to hold up plug while comms completed.

 

I've just picked up my i3 and whenever i try and connect to a rapid charger a warning sign comes up on the dash saying not enough power is coming though (or similar). I've gone to charge settings and lower the speed to average instead of Max. I tried 7 different charging points at westfield London and they all said the same as well as oxford services on the m40 yesterday. Any help or advice would be appreciated. I googled the question but no help. thanks

 

I believe your problem is related to the weight of the tethered AC cable. Try supporting the weight of the connector for the first few seconds until the charge session starts. Sometimes this still doesn't work (I've experienced the same error message as you) but it is worth trying to get the hang of the technique in case you really need to use one of these rapid AC chargers as a 7kW

 

Thanks for the feedback. I was at a loss to work out what to do. I will try this tomorrow.

 

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the i3's charge port is at the rear of the car on the driver's side, which means that the tethered AC cable is usually being pulled to one side as well as downwards. Holding the connector very firmly to the car for the first few seconds is the only thing that mitigates against that.

 

Thanks for the tip. Its appreciated. Will have a go tomorrow.

 

If you get the "charge power is too low error" the charge will not start until you clear the error, it also will not charge if the doors are unlocked, if you unlock the doors while it's charging it will stop charging.

 

Is that by design, or can you get BMW to fix it? I find it really useful being able to return to the Leaf while it's charging, put the shopping in the boot, then maybe go for a coffee while it continues to charge - without interruption.

 

It doesn't do it when I use my home charger, when you unlock the car it must signal the post, it is a little irritating and I can't think of a good reason why it does it.