Tesla is suing a company producing an EV charging accessory aimed at preventing carjacking because it believes it is making Tesla’s charging experience dangerous.
Some EV owners are afraid of carjacking at public charging stations due to the fact that if you are in your vehicle while charging, you are a somewhat easy target because if some people rush your car, you’d have to get out to unplug before you can escape with your vehicle.
It’s not a very common problem in the EV industry, but it’s apparently big enough that a company, EVject, decided to build a product around it.
The $299 EVject Escape Connector is designed to be able to separate itself from the charge connector by driving away.
The company describes the device on its website:
Experience a safer EV charging experience with EVject. In an emergency, you no longer have to worry about leaving your vehicle, disconnecting the charger, and rushing back to safety. Simply attach the EVject connector to the charger’s head each time you plug in. In the event of an emergency, disconnect the charger from your dashboard like usual, but now you can immediately shift into drive—all from the safety of your car.
Tesla is now suing the company in California court, claiming that the connector can reach dangerous temperatures, which creates a safety risk. Tesla wrote in the complaint (via Jalopnik):
In the event of an over-temperature condition in the Connector, the lack of overtemperature protection creates a safety risk. Testing of high-current simulated charging through the Connector, utilized in conjunction with a Tesla Supercharger cable and Tesla EV charge port, demonstrated that surface temperatures of the Connector may reach as high as 100C, after 30 minutes of charging at 420 ADC. During an over-temperature event, a user of the Connector may be burned during (or following) charging by touching or grabbing the Connector. Additionally, the high temperature present in the Connector poses a risk of fire and ignition of other combustible materials in the charger cable, the vehicle connected to the Connector, and the Supercharger infrastructure.
With the civil suit, Tesla is seeking to prevent the company from advertising the connector as safe and from importing it into the United States. It is also seeking a minimum of $75,000 in damages.
Electrek’s Take
If it can reach those temperatures, and Tesla appears to have tested it, then I think it is safe to say that the device is more dangerous than the potential arm it can prevent.
Personally, I’ve never felt unsafe at a charging station, but I do understand how this could happen as some charging locations can be sketchy, like in a dark corner of a Walmart parking lot without anyone or anything close.
But hopefully charging station operators are going to keep that potential problem in mind when researching charging locations.
