Charging won’t begin

[DemySD]

Just leased a 2017 Soul EV and am excited to use the car but there’s only one problem: the car won’t charge at my house.

I have an outlet right next to where I park in the driveway that supplies power. I plug in the standard level 1 plug. All three indicator lights on the plug blink for half a second then the power indicator blinks every second or so. I plug the cable into the soul and nothing happens. I press the Schedule Off button and still nothing happens. When I go into UVO it sees the car is plugged in but when I tell it charge it thinks for about 30 seconds then says something to the effect that the request could not be completed and then refreshes back into the same screen.

No light every blinks on the dashboard and the plug just keeps blinking in green next to power. No other indicator/warning/error flashes at all.

Am I dense and just doing something wrong or might there be a technical issue here?

 

[JejuSoul]

... there’s only one problem: the car won’t charge at my house....

If you can consistently use a slow / normal ch arger away from home (it uses the smaller of the two charge ports at the front of the car) then you need to check the wiring at your house.

The fast ch arger will work even when the normal ch arger doesn't. So if you mean that when you are away from home fast charging works, you need to test a slow / normal ch arger somewhere other than your house.

If all slow / normal ch argers are not working it is because of a fault in your car. You need to take it to Kia to get it fixed.
For a lot of detail on this issue, (it is a very common fault) read some of this thread ... Charging Fault error.

 

[DemySD]

I’m currently away on vacation so I’m going to test other outlets when I get back but if it was the outlet wouldn’t there be some kind of fault/error message on the car or the charging indicator? It’s like it’s plugged in and it recognizes it’s plugged in but nothing happens **but it doesn’t seem concerned by nothing happening.**

For what it’s worth the outlet does work for other devices but it doesn’t seem to charge my vehicle.

 

[JejuSoul]

-
The alternative explanation that doesn't involve anything being broken is that the scheduled charge timer button is on.

 

[DemySD]

Sorry for the late reply.

I've tested the vehicle at other outlets and it charges fine so it's down to something wrong with the outlet in question. I purchased a 3 light outlet tester from Amazon that should be here either today or tomorrow. I'm, of course, very curious to see what's wrong.

 

[GizmoEV]

There could also be a problem with your EVSE, unless you mean you have tested the same EVSE on other outlets and it worked fine. One of my OpenEVSEs stopped charging the car and I had to unplug it and plug it back in to reboot its internal processor. It has been fine ever since.

 

[notfred]

The outlet tester may not be enough, it may only show if the outlet is wired correctly (i.e. all 3 of live, neutral and earth connected to the correct pins). Of course the outlet may not be wired properly - broken earth wire or similar is possible and the EVSE may be detecting that.

Another possibility is that while it is connected, the connections are not firm and clean and the current draw from the EVSE is detecting the drop in voltage and refusing to charge. This is good - if it continued to charge then the heat generated could melt things and start an electrical fire.

 

[DemySD]

Yes, the same EVSE was able to charge in those other outlets so I don't think that's the problem.

Something interesting happened when I plugged the outlet tester into the outlet in question, though. Ultimately, it lit up to show "correct" wiring. However, initially when I plugged it in, the far right light was noticeably flickering before it went solid. That light being off, according to the instructions, would indicate an open ground.

Curious that it's kinda sorta showing open ground, then ultimately stops on "correct."

 

[notfred]

Likely a bad connection then. I would turn off the power to the socket, unscrew it and check.