1st rex in the country, not charging... please help

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oostlanderhg

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2015
Messages
11
Dear fellow i3 owners,

I've just bought a 2014 i3rex and trying to charge it. I live in Saint Martin with American outlets of 110v.
When i connect the cable the 'charging' and 'power' lights switch on, but the lights on the car don't turn to blue, let alone green.
The leds remain white.
On the car display it shows that it has a cable connected, but the blue bar of miles does not show the moving indicator at all.
The car is locked and we've tried several power outlets now.

I'm very anxious to drive it, but the range anxiety is starting to take over.

Since it is the 1st (yeeeh) electric car on the island I can not ask anyone here, could you please help me?
 
Sorry to hear.

Where did you buy it from, and did they charge it before shipping it over? (to show that the charging system was actually working?)

When you power off the car with the start button, does the display show that charging is immediate? Maybe it has been set to charge at a later time? To change these settings, go to "Settings", then "Charging", then set "Charge Immediately" See Page 162 of the paper manual under section "Mobility/Charging"

Can you measure the voltage at your power point, maybe it is below usable charger voltage?

Have you tried leaving it connected overnight?
 
What software version do you have ? Europeen or America. So you could test the REX before being almost electric depleted. If the REX does charge, you could drive like that until you figure out the problem.

You are on an island without proper ressources to figure it out. Buy right now another charger. Have it delevered as fast as possible. At least you will know if it is charger related.

What kind of charger did you get ? 110 V or they furnished a 220 volts charger ? Check the small prints on the charger. A 220 volts charger won't work on a 110v plug. If you do order a new one, choose the 110v 220v both compatible. They are great. They do work on 110v for slow charge, and 220v for fast ones.

Don't miss I33t post about the " charging at a latter time " setting.

Louis
 
I have the American version, 110 V, with a 110 V charger.
Our electric utility states the following:
"NV GEBE supplies electricity throughout the Dutch part of the island as alternating current (AC) at 12,5 kV at a frequency of 60Hz, and either single phase, two phase or three phase at 220 / 127 volts to residential and commercial clients."
Could it be a problem with the voltage/Herz?
 
oostlanderhg said:
Could it be a problem with the voltage/Herz?

Sure it could, but until you measure it, or get an electrician to measure it, you won't know if the voltage or frequency is the problem.

Are there any other recent electric cars or plug-in hybrids on the island?
 
For charging to proceed, communication between the charger (in your car) and the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE - the charging cord included with your car) must be successful. If either is broken, charging won't commence.

If there is another plug-in EV nearby (it could be a gasoline-electric hybrid or pure EV), you could ask the owner to try charging using your EVSE. Your EVSE should charge all EV's. A Tesla Model S includes an adapter that would allow it to be charged with your EVSE. If your EVSE won't charge another EV, your EVSE is likely defective or maybe incompatible with the local electricity quality, both of which are more likely than your in-car charger being defective.

But if your EVSE is able to charge another EV, then either your in-car charger is defective or the electricity quality at your home is insufficient. Maybe you could borrow the portable EVSE from another EV owner and see whether it will charge your car using your home electrical outlets.
 
The level 1 EVSE that you have is a fancy on/off switch...IOW, it doesn't have a huge amount of smarts to it and all of the actual charging (converting from acv to dcv) is done inside the car. The EVSE must be producing a pilot signal that tells the car it's there, and how much current it is capable of supplying safely. The act of plugging in the EVSE to the car completes a circuit that tells the EVSE that it's there, and then, when the car decides it wants power applied, it applies a control signal back to the EVSE, and the EVSE turns on its internal switch to apply power to the i3. On the EVSE, that 'switch' is often a contactor or relay, and you can often hear it 'clunk' when it closes. If you press the release button on the plug, that breaks the "I'm here" signal to the EVSE, and it shuts off, again, often you can hear the clunk as the switch (contactor or relay) opens back up again. If there are no error lights on the EVSE, the power is probably okay. IT could be any of the handshake/control lines that aren't working or making good connection, or being decoded properly at either end. That's why it would be good to see if it will charge some other EV, especially if it could be done using your house plug to power it up. IF hot and neutral are reversed, or there's no ground wire, usually the EVSE will not work. There are inexpensive outlet testers you could plug in to verify those things are correct. If the EVSE's plug into the wall is loose, you may just need a new receptacle installed as what's there is worn out and not making good contact. You could also shoot a little WD40 on the connector in the car and the plug from the EVSE in case there's a bit of dirt or corrosion on the pins or sockets.
 
oostlanderhg said:
Could it be a problem with the voltage/Herz?

Don't think so. 60 hz is the normal herz if you have an american compatible charger.

If you order a 110-220 volt charger, then you could also go on the other side of the road and try it on the french 220 volt plugs that they have on the other side.

Louis
 
jadnashuanh said:
and how much current it is capable of supplying safely. .

very interesting. I have those 110-220 charger that can go up to 6000 watt. I was wondering to plug it with the supplied adapter on a 3600 watt 220 volt plugs. I was thinking the charger would not be intelligent enough to know that the plug could not furnish safely 6000 watts.

So, if i understand well, the charger have the capability to adjust to the available current ? I don't have to change my setting in the car for a lower charge, the charger will do it by itself ?

Louis
 
louisgrenier said:
I have those 110-220 charger that can go up to 6000 watt. I was wondering to plug it with the supplied adapter on a 3600 watt 220 volt plugs. I was thinking the charger would not be intelligent enough to know that the plug could not furnish safely 6000 watts.
To start with, the charger is in the EV. The device that regulates the current delivered to the charger is an EVSE. I assume that when you write "charger", you mean "EVSE". I will use the correct names below.

Correct! Most EVSE's do not know how much current their circuits are capable of delivering safely. A few EVSE's have adapters for various electrical outlets that will configure the EVSE's maximum deliverable current based on the outlet's capacity. Maybe you have one of these EVSE's. Some EVSE's can be configured to deliver a maximum current. The maximum current that a portable 120 volt EVSE included with North American EV's cannot be configured, so the charger must be configured to request a maximum current that doesn't exceed the maximum current that the EVSE or its circuit, whichever is less, can safely deliver. The maximum current that an i3's charger can request is settable in iDrive.

louisgrenier said:
So, if i understand well, the charger have the capability to adjust to the available current ? I don't have to change my setting in the car for a lower charge, the charger will do it by itself ?
Incorrect! An EVSE has the capability of adjusting the current that it delivers to that requested by the charger or the maximum current that it can safely deliver, whichever is less. An EVSE communicates with the charger to negotiate a current to deliver. But if the EVSE's circuit is incapable of delivering that current, its circuit breaker will trip or its fuse will blow.
 
An EVSE internally from the factory (sometimes it is user adjustable, and sometimes, it is adjusted automatically if it 'sees' one of it's special adapter plugs) is set to announce a maximum output in amps to the vehicle. A level 1 EVSE is designed to only work on 120 +/- a certain range of voltage. A level 2 EVSE is designed to work on 240 +/- a certain voltage. Unless modified internally, and most are not user adjustable, they output a specific signal that tells the connected vehicle something like "I have 30A max available". It is the VEHICLE that then decides how much power to try to pull from the EVSE. The EVSE is just a moderately smart on/off switch. The EVSE does NOT adjust itself, except in fairly rare cases.
 
Thanks for the reply both of you.

A remark: on some 110 evse, there is a button to control the maximum wattage. The Smart comes with such EVSE. So when i plug my i3 on the same circuit than the Smart, i have to reduce charging power from the i3 menu, and from the EVSE of the Smart. In fact, each time you plug the Smart EVSE, it does start to charge at something that draws around 750 watt. You have to push a button if you want to double the charge to maximum 110v charge power.
 
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