Charging with third part chargers

[Rusty]

Over on the mods and hacks sub-forum, Ingineer Phil says (by proxy):

The Nissan/Panasonic L1 EVSE delays putting out power once the Pilot is acknowledged until it performs an internal self test. This test takes approximately 3 seconds and you can normally hear the clicking of the relays while this test is underway. The problem is the Volt seems to "give up" right before the EVSE completes it's test and recycles the Pilot, which starts the test all over again. This continues in an endless loop and the Volt never starts charging.

While this could be fixed by changing the way the Leaf L1 EVSE works, it's not violating the standard. I believe the Volt charge firmware should be modified to tolerate this sort of operation.

Otherwise there could be a number of other EVSEs that aren't Volt friendly.

[Steverino]

A standard that allows this kind of issue would seem to be a failure in it's basic goal, no? I'm sure that both parties are "right" under the standard, but now one party must give-in and modify their equipment at their expense, or not give in at all and have non-universal "standard" chargers. I realize the standard was primarily for the plug, but come on. Imagine gasoline fill nozzles that are car model specific. Sorry, this gas station is only for Dodge trucks. I wonder if the Japanese government will rally behind the Panasonic version under an industrial policy and require Toyota, etc. to adopt it.

[Noel Park]

I dunno, as I drive around SoCal I'm not seeing any 3rd party chargers to speak of anyway, so it's all academic at this point. That said, I have to agree with Steverino. Dumb IMHO.