Charging with the GE Wattstation

[felkster]

I'm sure others have seen in the news that the Leafs and the Wattstations aren't playing nicely together for a small number of drivers.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/201...-s-wattstation-charger-for-some-nissan-leafs/

I received my Focus on Monday and am electrifying my Wattstation tonight. Does anyone else use the Wattstation? Any issues? I don't expect there will be any....but as someone who shipped a car from California to Seattle, I would pay a higher penalty than most for having something go wrong with the Focus. The dealerships up here aren't yet trained to service the car, so I'm sure any service issues would take a while to get fixed.

I'm certainly going to keep my fingers crossed when I plug it in tonight

 

[Fluke]

I have the Wattstation and have been using it with my Focus for the last month without any issues so far. I had heard about the problems a few Leaf owners were having with the GE station and was under the impression that the issue may have been with the Leaf rather than with the Wattstation but I've seen nothing conclusive on root cause.

 

[Fluke]

As I re-looked at current discussions on the Wattstation, I found a post article discussion comment (apparently) from an individual assocated with GE on the subject at AutoBlogGreen.

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/07/17/nissan-leaf-doesnt-play-nice-with-ges-wattstation/#aol-comments

Another story with comments from the same GE person:

http://insideevs.com/ge-wattstation-charger-can-damage-nissan-leaf/

 

[felkster]

That's good to hear. It's a standard, and everything should "just work". But I work on standards myself and there are always interoperability issues that seem to pop up regardless. It's hard to make the testing full-proof.

 

[seangannon]

Hi, this is Sean Gannon from GE. To help clarify the news report you are referring to, GE and Nissan are aware of several isolated instances of Nissan LEAFs experiencing on-board charging (OBC) issues when using certain EV charging units of several different manufacturers. GE's own investigation is nearly complete and our current analysis indicates that the GE WattStation Wall Mount is NOT the cause of the on-board charging issue. Additionally, our charger has not encountered a similar issue with other brands of electric vehicles. We stand behind our WattStation Wall Mount technology and we encourage drivers to continue to use it.

Part of what I just wrote also appears on our website: http://www.ge-energy.com/leaf-wattstation-facts.jsp
We'll also update that page when we have more information.

 

[Fluke]

Thanks Sean - always best to get first hand information. Please keep us posted on findings.

 

[seangannon]

Hi, this is Sean again from GE. The problem has finally been resolved -- it's an OBC software issue on the Leaf. We just posted a statement to our website (http://www.ge-energy.com/leaf-wattstation-facts.jsp) but I've also copy and pasted it below.

Nissan and GE have completed their investigation into the instances of Nissan LEAFs experiencing on-board charging (OBC) issues when using certain EV chargers. Nissan has traced the root cause of the issue to the LEAFs OBC software that can allow damage to occur to its OBC components while using certain chargers and in certain instances, such as when a brief under voltage or blackout condition occurs. Nissan is working to address this issue as quickly as possible, and in the meantime is advising customers to avoid charging during times when brownouts or momentary power dips may be likely, such as during electrical storms or high power usage on the grid.

 

[Hocus Focus]

GE wattstations in Irvine (public) don't work for me. I have a PayPal account with a bank account and a credit card verified. The iPhone app interface is straightforward but the FFE didn't chArge. After some thought, maybe I need to have a PayPal wallet balance separate from the other verified accounts. I'm headed back there this wkd and will post when I get to the bottom of the problem. One would think that the GE app would tell me the reason it didn't start charging...

UPDATE: I went back a week later and the same station worked. I resolved the problem with a little help from paypal--basically if you can use wallet or have a CC and bank account set up it should work.