Quote:
Originally Posted by California98Civic
Anyone else starting to imagine drivers getting electrocuted to death while charging their cars? Anyone else starting to wonder if self-service charging might get regulated out of existence? Is there a hardware/software fail-safe to prevent injuries? (Not that gasoline is safe, of course!)
|
The J1772 plug used on most EVs for L1 and L2 charging communicates with the car before flipping on the higher voltage. I'm pretty sure the other standards and fast charging standards do something similar. So the only time there's lethal current available is from a few seconds after plugging in and when you push the button to release the charger. I don't know what would happen if you were to cut a cord that was in use or if they fail-safe if there's a malfunction.
Considering that anything bad happening with an EV (particularly Teslas) is front page news, the lack of electrocution stories implies that everything is pretty safe, likely many times safer than gasoline.