I always thought that they were an extension lead with a suitable plug at either end. The lights may simply indicate that the lead is receiving power from the mains and is connected to the car.

AFAIK, there are no safety features as such.

However, what isn't clear to me is what you mean by "charging unit".

It clearly does more than that as it claims: "

• Recognition of Dangerous Voltage on the Protective Conductor"

though how it manages that when there is only a standard 3 pin plug, I don't know.

It looks similar to this:

www.symphonyev.co.uk/.../

I bet the car takes days till its fully charged on a 13amp granny lead?

I bet the car takes days till its fully charged on a 13amp granny lead?

Depends on how "empty" it was to start with - not may people run the battery completely flat before re-charging. Even then at say 2.4kW (10A) a 48kWh battery can't take much longer than 20h.

  - Andy.

Anyway the OP says he has been charging it for 6 months (!) Joking aside, for folk who do not use a vehicle hard every day of the week, then a 13A lead may well be more than enough, as an overnight charge will be tens of kVA, and even a 100kVA battery (sporty Tesla) will only need 30 hours  or so from dead flat to full.

Mike.

It would be interesting to see the thermal effects on that plug and socket arrangement after regular 20 hour charging periods.

Some ordinary 13A are known to have problems. Ones marked EV on the back should be OK. Type 2 charger manufacturers seem to aware of the problem - some units incorporate temperature monitoring into the plug, others limit the current to something well below 13A (10A is common).

Hopefully no-one's tried plugging two of them into a double socket...

   - Andy.

Some ordinary 13A are known to have problems. Ones marked EV on the back should be OK. Type 2 charger manufacturers seem to aware of the problem - some units incorporate temperature monitoring into the plug, others limit the current to something well below 13A (10A is common).

Hopefully no-one's tried plugging two of them into a double socket...

   - Andy.