At the recommendation of its supplier, HUBER+SUHNER, a leading supplier of high-powered charging cable technology in the industry, Electrify America is shutting down the majority of its high-powered chargers (150 kW – 350kW) in its network to investigate a potential safety issue with its liquid-cooled cables. The recommendation was issued to all of HUBER+SUHNERS’ customers using the technology worldwide.

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.

The HUBER+SUHNER RADOX HPC High power charging system multiplies the power-throughput of a charging cable. Due to the integrated cooling system, the RADOX High Power Charging System offer a much smaller cable cross section than the traditional option. The cooled cables are thin, highly flexible, lightweight and easy to handle.

Out of an abundance of caution, Electrify America is shutting down all of our stations that use the HUBER+SUHNER high-powered cables until we can confirm that they can be operated safely. We are confident that HUBER+SUHNER will investigate and resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

—Giovanni Palazzo, president and CEO of Electrify America

Electrify America chargers not affected by the high-power cable issue will remain open and available for use. The 50kW CCS chargers, all CHAdeMO connectors and L2 chargers are not impacted.

The following stations will remain open:

Background. 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.