All high-powered EV charging stations are coming back online after shutdown

HUBER+SUHNER, a cable supplier, has prompted a shut down of virtually all high-powered EV charging stations in many networks, like Electrify America’s, Fastned’s, and Ionity.

Now, the company says it’s back to normal and those stations should be OK.

We first reported on the issue last week when Electrify America announced that it was affected by a potential safety risk with its liquid-cooled cable for high-powered stations.

The issue ended up affecting several more networks, especially across Europe where they have deployed more high-powered EV charging stations.

It was a strange situation since the concern was prompted by a short circuit in a prototype from 2017.

Even though the company said that it redesigned the production version, it still feared that the issue might have carried over.

Yesterday, HUBER+SUHNER issued another press release announcing that they are now confident the production version is OK and they started informing customers that they should reopen the charging stations.

Here are HUBER+SUHNER’s press releases about the issue:

The announcement of the problem:

HUBER+SUHNER reviews high-power charging systems after a short-circuit in a charging station on a test site

At a charging station on a test site of a customer in Germany, a short-circuit occurred with a HUBER+SUHNER cooled high-power charging cable. Nobody was injured in this incident. The short-circuit occurred in the plug. The cooling circuit with the synthetic, non-conductive coolant can be ruled out as the cause. The product in question is a first-generation prototype.

Safety in the application of the products has the highest priority for HUBER+SUHNER. Although the products supplied comply with the required standards, HUBER+SUHNER checks the exact operating conditions of the high-power charging systems together with customers. With that the company wants to ensure that the further developed series products fully meet the requirements.

As a precautionary measure, HUBER+SUHNER has recommended its customers to suspend the operation of all charging stations with the high-power charging system until the tests have been completed.

The affected prototype was already delivered in the summer of 2017. The series products differ from the first prototypes by, among other things, increased sealing.

HUBER+SUHNER will provide further information as soon as new findings become available

The announcement following the investigation:

HUBER+SUHNER: Review of high-power charging systems confirms correct functionality

For HUBER+SUHNER, the safety of its products is of highest priority. After the occurence of a short-circuit in the plug of a high-power charging system, HUBER+SUHNER recommended to its customers on 26 January 2019 to suspend the operation of all charging stations with HUBER+SUHNER high-power charging system as a precautionary measure until further analysis could be performed. The concerned plug was a first-generation prototype which had been in use at a test site.

Since the event became known, HUBER+SUHNER has carried out intensive investigations and tests, in some cases also together with its customers and partners. These also included tests on the entire charging system with high-power charging cables from series production.

The tests confirmed the correct functionality of the system and proved that the series products supplied by HUBER+SUHNER meet the required standards without any restrictions, both individually and in the entire charging system. HUBER+SUHNER will inform its customers about these positive results today.