A dramatic video has emerged of an electric car getting hit by lightning while at a charging point.
In the footage, captured on the Tesla’s dashboard-mounted camera during a storm in Ohio, US on Saturday afternoon, a loud crack can be heard as the lightning strikes.
“I was at the supercharger as well as another owner. I heard the crash, and just a second or two after about 9 errors popped up on the dashboard,” the car’s owner, Sarah Day, later wrote online.
“Some of them were low charge warnings, saying it would disable some functions. Others were on how the car needs to be serviced. I was also getting that the car can't be charged, and that the 12v battery is low. After the storm died down I got out of the car. The charging port wasn't lit up, and when I tried to remove the cable it wouldn't come out. I still had most of the functions in the car, including the touchscreen. The other car that was charging just a couple stalls down from me was completely fine and drove away, though I didn't get to talk to that owner afterwards…
“We can't speculate on what caused the problem, since it's currently unknown. It probably isn't the supercharger, though, since they said there are multiple relays and safeguards to keep any surges from getting to the car. Still, I am waiting for them to check out the car. They usually are pretty thorough with their descriptions of what went wrong. I'm hoping that it's something simple. The technician in Marietta says the car may have sensed the large external voltage spike and disconnected everything as a safety precaution, but I don't know if that would cause the charging port to malfunction.”
++PLEASE NOTE: VIDEO HAS BEEN LOOPED++
A dramatic video has emerged of an electric car getting hit by lightning while at a charging point.
In the footage, captured on the Tesla’s dashboard-mounted camera during a storm in Ohio, US on Saturday afternoon, a loud crack can be heard as the lightning strikes.
“I was at the supercharger as well as another owner. I heard the crash, and just a second or two after about 9 errors popped up on the dashboard,” the car’s owner, Sarah Day, later wrote online.
“Some of them were low charge warnings, saying it would disable some functions. Others were on how the car needs to be serviced. I was also getting that the car can't be charged, and that the 12v battery is low. After the storm died down I got out of the car. The charging port wasn't lit up, and when I tried to remove the cable it wouldn't come out. I still had most of the functions in the car, including the touchscreen. The other car that was charging just a couple stalls down from me was completely fine and drove away, though I didn't get to talk to that owner afterwards…
“We can't speculate on what caused the problem, since it's currently unknown. It probably isn't the supercharger, though, since they said there are multiple relays and safeguards to keep any surges from getting to the car. Still, I am waiting for them to check out the car. They usually are pretty thorough with their descriptions of what went wrong. I'm hoping that it's something simple. The technician in Marietta says the car may have sensed the large external voltage spike and disconnected everything as a safety precaution, but I don't know if that would cause the charging port to malfunction.”
++PLEASE NOTE: VIDEO HAS BEEN LOOPED++
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I was at the supercharger as well as another owner. I heard the crash, and just a second or two after about 9 errors popped up on the dashboard. Some of them were low charge warnings, saying it would disable some functions. Others were on how the car needs to be serviced. I was also getting that the car can't be charged, and that the 12v battery is low. After the storm died down I got out of the car. The charging port wasn't lit up, and when I tried to remove the cable it wouldn't come out. I still had most of the functions in the car, including the touchscreen. The other car that was charging just a couple stalls down from me was completely fine and drove away, though I didn't get to talk to that owner afterwards.
So, I call Tesla which took forever because they were getting a ton of calls. They had to send a tow truck to jump the 12v battery so they could disconnect the charger and tow the car. About this time the 12v battery got too low and the touchscreen shut off. When the tow truck got there, he connected his battery pack to try to charge up the 12v battery. The touchscreen still wouldn't come on at this point, so he had to recharge his pack and do it again. Once the touchscreen finally came on the car still wouldn't disconnect from the supercharger. Since it couldn't disconnect, the car couldn't be towed. I also had opened the sunroof to vent earlier because it was getting hot in the car. We tried everything we could to try to get the sunroof closed, but it wasn't responding. So I had to leave the car at the supercharger. On Monday, they manually disconnected the car and towed it to the service center. They pulled the logs from the car and sent it to engineering, and we're currently waiting for them to analyze them.
Tesla customer service was amazing. They were very responsive, and offered to rent me a car from enterprise so I could come home. I said I would rather stay with the car for a couple days to see how it all played out. I am from Atlanta and I was visiting a friend in Columbus, and I didn't want to be that far away from the car in case of any issues. They offered to put me up in a hotel for a night, and also to get me a taxi or Uber ride. I decided I'd just stay with my friend, but they sent the Uber driver over for me. Also, the service center in Marietta, GA has been in contact with me to see how things are going. I know them pretty well, as well as one of the technicians. They have been incredibly helpful and supportive, though they can't really do anything from there.
Right now I have to wait till tomorrow. They have to send a technician over to the supercharger to manually disconnect the car so they can tow it to the service center. We can't speculate on what caused the problem, since it's currently unknown. It probably isn't the supercharger, though, since they said there are multiple relays and safeguards to keep any surges from getting to the car. Still, I am waiting for them to check out the car. They usually are pretty thorough with their descriptions of what went wrong. I'm hoping that it's something simple. The technician in Marietta says the car may have sensed the large external voltage spike and disconnected everything as a safety precaution, but I don't know if that would cause the charging port to malfunction.
