Fast Charging Problems: “Electrical system error Service necessary” and “Unable to start charging”

[Avantgarde]

Adding a data point - brand new 2023 TTCT, I saw "waiting for the car to start charging" message on EA and "unable to initiate charging" inside the car twice in ~30 sessions, all in the first week of ownership. Both times, replugging-in, first time to a different plug and second time to the very same plug, started and completed the charge as expected. I also saw one Rivian which I think experienced a similar issue, they re-plugged in and kept on going (saw them at the next EA charger along I90, so it must have worked too).

The messaging "can not initiate charging", was it in the car or on EA cabinet screen? What was the other one?

Saw it in both. It was a variation of errors. First the charging screen in the car was grey colored and the message only appeared on the EA charger (can not not initiate charging). Second try, EA screen first started showing that it started the charge, but the screen inside the car was oddly showing climate controls etc (regular screen) as opposed to the charging screen with current charge speed (locking unlocking did not help) however the iphone app was showing the charge rate. And a short while after (0.75kwh into the charge) "charging error" came up. Next several tries resulted in similar/combination of issues.

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[Avantgarde]

Saw it in both. It was a variation of errors. First the charging screen in the car was grey colored and the message only appeared on the EA charger (can not not initiate charging). Second try, EA screen first started showing that it started the charge, but the screen inside the car was oddly showing climate controls etc (regular screen) as opposed to the charging screen with current charge speed (locking unlocking did not help) however the iphone app was showing the charge rate. And a short while after (0.75kwh into the charge) "charging error" came up. Next several tries resulted in similar/combination of issues.

Correction- turns out it is an EA charger issue… but a very annoying one. I went to the same EA station today after resting the car for 24 hrs, tried charging again same error. Tried 2 other chargers at the same location…same error. Did not bother to try the 4th one. And was scrambling to do a forced PCM reset to see if that would change anything. A guy came in with a BMW IX and started charging with the one charger that i did not try. We started talking i told him my car has a charging issue. He told me 3 of the 4 EA chargers at that location gives him the same error message and he can only charge with the one he just connected. I was like come on! what are the odds!? 3 seemingly working chargers in a row would give you an error when you plug!? He unplugged his and let me try. And boom…worked like a charm. EA has serious issues. I can understand a broken charger that lets you know that it is not working. But this…i would go nuts if this happened to me on a road trip.

 

[whitex]

Correction- turns out it is an EA charger issue… but a very annoying one. I went to the same EA station today after resting the car for 24 hrs, tried charging again same error. Tried 2 other chargers at the same location…same error. Did not bother to try the 4th one. And was scrambling to do a forced PCM reset to see if that would change anything. A guy came in with a BMW IX and started charging with the one charger that i did not try. We started talking i told him my car has a charging issue. He told me 3 of the 4 EA chargers at that location gives him the same error message and he can only charge with the one he just connected. I was like come on! what are the odds!? 3 seemingly working chargers in a row would give you an error when you plug!? He unplugged his and let me try. And boom…worked like a charm. EA has serious issues. I can understand a broken charger that lets you know that it is not working. But this…i would go nuts if this happened to me on a road trip.

So what you're saying is the BWM driver had more patience than you to try them all. Out of curiosity, did you report the non-working units to EA? While I was traveling, I met EA service guys at a couple of the stations (one was fixing something, the other one was just desnowing it), and they told me they appreciate when people tell them the units are inoperable. I think they have option to remotely disable it, or limit it to some rate like 100KW. One of them told me if the station says it's limited, there is likely a work-order for it already in the system, but if it says all is well but doesn't work, they have no idea it doesn't work.

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