A recent photo of the ChargePoint Express 200 unit installed along I-5 in the city of Mt. Shasta in Northern California. This is among the chargers recently shutdown due to a safety concern.

ChargePoint, a major supplier of electric vehicle charging equipment, has issued a shutdown notice for around 159 of its 50 kW DC fast chargers due to “quality and safety” concerns.

The chargers, branded as the ChargePoint Express 200, are made by Tritium of Australia which itself brands them as the Veefil-RT. They have been made since 2013 and support CHAdeMO and CCS with dual cables. The problem seems to involve recently manufactured units.

Tritium has not commented publicly and a ChargePoint press release is not clear on what the specific issue is or how it was discovered.

“ChargePoint has been notified of a potential product issue involving its CPE200 fast charging station in North America. The quality and safety of our charging solutions are our highest priority. An investigation into the matter was opened immediately and is currently underway. ChargePoint is working closely with the station manufacturer to identify a solution to the matter as quickly as possible…. In the interest of customer satisfaction and safety, ChargePoint has notified owners of affected stations and remotely shut them down until a solution to the matter is identified”, the company said.

The charger shutdowns appear to have begun around March 30 and have included units recently installed as part of ChargePoint’s California Energy Commission (CEC) grant program along the I-5 highway in California.

The units at a string of fast DC charging sites in Dunsmuir, Mt. Shasta, Weed, and Yreka are now shutdown although an older 24 kW charger in Yreka appears to be available. This has resulted in difficulty for non-Tesla EV drivers trying to travel between Southern Oregon and Redding in California. An older CPE200 unit in Redding that was installed in late 2017 is still working and available.

Along I-5 in the Central Valley, there are three units shutdown at a site near Santa Nella and another three in Coalinga. These locations had provided the only CCS charging support on I-5 between the Sacramento area and the Grapevine area that leads into Los Angeles.  An alternative route along state highway CA-99 continues to provide fast DC charging at multiple locations south of Sacramento. Other CEC-funded locations along I-5 with shutdown chargers include Red Bluff and Stockton.

All of the CEC grant locations also contain 240V AC charging cables which remain available so drivers unaware of the DC charger shutdowns would not be completely stranded although charging times would be greatly increased.

Categories: Charging

Tags: California, ChargePoint