What does a EV charging point actually do?

I have bought a 2nd hand Nissan leaf and have been happily charging it slowly from a 13A socket (fed by solar panels) for 6 months using the "granny lead" that comes with the car.

Yesterday, when I turned it on, the READY and CHARGE light flashed about once per second, as did the lights on the dashboard, and there was a click each time from the unit. The manual does not list this combination as indicative of anything.

This lead me to wonder what the "charging unit" actually does, It lists its input and output as 250V ac so it clearly is not a transformer/ rectifier. If it is a protective relay measuring neutral earth voltage, then maybe the ON / OFF is caused by something happening to the voltage in the house?

I have not found any information on the internet as to what is inside these units.

Parents
  • Being automotive there are far too many standards and it is getting more complex not less.

    In US literature, the mode numbers may mean something different, so be careful when browsing the web as 'mode 3 charger' is not universally defined the same if you are not reading 230V land literature -some folk mean DC charging.

    DC charging "standard" is also a bit variable -  DC charging voltages from as low as 300 up to 1000 (now and later maybe higher for lorries) and currents up to 100A (now and later maybe higher for lorries) are required.  So perhaps the DC charger is better visualized as  a large programmable DC power supply, and the negotiation between car and charger is far more complicated, as the voltages and current limits etc are car model and battery specific, and also far more safety critical  as a result.

    Personally I think private driveway charging will probably be 'just give me the mains, I have a charger in the car matched to these batteries' for many years to come.

    However a DC tap to the batteries does raise the interesting prospect of  using the car as a mobile storage battery, and inverting high powers  back to the house in times of loss of supply, or to base-load solar or similar generation, and indeed this sort of thing has been done, although it is a bit experimental, and not very common at the moment.

    For more modest powers some cars have charger designs can support inversion, and generate 'mains' themselves, sadly not yet as self generating islands - that would be really useful for getting power to remote sites  etc.

    Mike.

  • For more modest powers some cars have charger designs can support inversion, and generate 'mains' themselves, sadly not yet as self generating islands - that would be really useful for getting power to remote sites  etc.

    Not cars, but ... www.ford.co.uk/.../e-transit

    At least for portable tools.

    There are also products such as this, providing similar options for many vehicle types: www.claytonpower.com/.../

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  • Interesting, the transit is very sensible,  and either of those is probably good enough for the average household with ADMD of a few kW.

    It occurs to me that access to the batteries direct would allow a significant step up in peak current, as it would  allow you to add the electronics for the car to double up as something like this.

    https://bynder.aggreko.com/m/6b7864c6764fb3f7/original/45-kVA-Battery-Storage-Datasheet.pdf Which would probably have some applications too - it then allows you you have a self propelled  generator truck, and you could have a few parked up & humming gently behind the stage at pop festivals etc instead of the current method using  tanks of diesel and the equivalent of a bus engine throbbing away inside half a  shipping container.

    Mike