Using "trickle" charger on a NEMA 6-50 plug

[invader166]

Hello everyone,

I have a 2019 Soul EV that's only 9 months old.
I found that a grocery store in my area has dedicated stalls for electric vehicles, with NEMA 6-50 plugs. You need your own cord to be able to charge.
I recently found an adapter that can allow me to do this. It's a NEMA 6-50 male to a NEMA 5-15 female adapter.
Thing is, as I recall, the NEMA 6-50 circuit is a 220-240 Volt circuit. The trickle charger that came with my car doesn't say anything about a 240 Volt input. Only 110-120 Volt input, being that I'm in North America.
Should I still attempt to plug it in? What's the worse that can happen? I fry my trickle charger?
I find it a bit strange that in this day and age battery charging equipment can't use both sets of voltage, being that laptop chargers have no issue at all with this...

 

[SoulMan]

Strange! EV stations with 220v plugs only?

You will probably destroy your 110V Level 1 charger if you try and run it using some adapter cable, which presumably does not alter voltage. At worst, you'd start a fire.

If you really want/need to charge there, buy a plugable Level 2 charger.

 

[EVDee]

OP,

If your EVSE only has a plug for 120V, it's probably a safe bet that it's limited to that and I would not recommend finding out via trial & error...

The EVSE that I currently use is a Duosida EVSE which allows me to charge at either 120V (with a cable adapter) or 240V (NEMA 6-20 @16amps).
Only thing to note with 120V/240V EVSEs is that they're limited to 3.3kWh vs the 6.6kWh that our Kia Soul's can charge at.

Hope this helps.

 

[invader166]

Don't worry guys I'm not going to experiment through trial and error. I'd be digging my own grave in that case...

I plan on getting a proper dual voltage charger.

The only reason I mention this is because I found another thread where the one of the respondants was able to use their included portable charger to charge on a 220V circuit.

They had a 2016 Soul EV, which makes me wonder if for some reason Kia changed the included portable charger for the 2019 model years with a more basic one, to cut costs.

https://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1032&p=8821&hilit=trickle+charge#p8821

 

[JeroenE]

They had a 2016 Soul EV, which makes me wonder if for some reason Kia changed the included portable charger for the 2019 model years with a more basic one, to cut costs.

You could open the charger and at least see if they still use a power supply that can handle 240V too.

Rereading the threads the boards have another colour and another sticker regarding the firmware. It seems in the NA version the charger will allow up to 12A while in the EU version it is limited to 10A. More V and more A means more power means more heat. So while I don't mind using my 240V charger at 120V I don't know if I would try the other way around unless I can keep an eye on it and measure the heat once in a while. Although it would probably work fine, it is not fun if it turns out you would slowly melt your charger and it stops working after you used it for a while.

 

[EMartin]

I'm in Europe and don't know which hardware is installed in the US models. I assume it's the same and can handle 110 V and 220 V.
My Soul is equipped with a 6.7 kW OBC. This means 32 A at 230 V.
With the original charging cable it can charge at 10 A. While plugged into a 11 kW 3phase charging station it runs at 16 A. I didn't try yet, if I can get 32 A out of a 22 kW station. Should be possible - if not limited by the energy supplier.

BR,
Martin

 

[JeroenE]

My Soul is equipped with a 6.7 kW OBC. This means 32 A at 230 V.

It's about 29A actually. Your Soul will certainly charge that fast when it's gets connected to a charging station that can provide that power. Only when the battery is nearly full it will use less power.

 

[invader166]

I don't think I will go as far as to open my EVSE and check, mainly because it's the only one I have, and don't want to risk damaging it.
I will just buy a proper dual voltage one, not only for the fact that it's certified for the dual voltage, but also for the higher amperage rating as well.
16A vs. 12A would mean a 30% increase in charge speed, which would be great, since I have access to NEMA 5-20 plugs at my workplace.

 

[SoulMan]

In North America, maximum load for a circuit is 80% of breaker rating so for standard 15A/110 outlet, that means a maximum 12A charger.

EU design may be limited by the UK, some of which utilises "ring circuit" wiring which permit a maximum appliance load of 2/3 (67%) of rated maximum, i.e. 10A.

The limitation isn' t the car, but general wiring standards.

They had a 2016 Soul EV, which makes me wonder if for some reason Kia changed the included portable charger for the 2019 model years with a more basic one, to cut costs.

You could open the charger and at least see if they still use a power supply that can handle 240V too.

Rereading the threads the boards have another colour and another sticker regarding the firmware. It seems in the NA version the charger will allow up to 12A while in the EU version it is limited to 10A. More V and more A means more power means more heat. So while I don't mind using my 240V charger at 120V I don't know if I would try the other way around unless I can keep an eye on it and measure the heat once in a while. Although it would probably work fine, it is not fun if it turns out you would slowly melt your charger and it stops working after you used it for a while.