EV charger explosion in Hope result of a combination of errors

A Tesla driver was sent flying last year when an arc-flash explosion occurred at an electric vehicle (EV) charging station in Hope—and the fault appears to have mainly been caused by the station’s electricity system. 

A report from Technical Safety B.C. (TSBC), released this week, found that a combination of errors occurred leading up to the explosion.

The driver was using a non-Tesla charging station in Hope with a third-party charging adapter that had been used approximately 50 times prior. But the adapter wasn’t approved for use in Canada and hadn’t been tested for use here. At the time of manufacturing the adapter, there was no approved standard in Canada, making the testing impossible, says the report.

But the adapter wasn’t solely to blame, says TSBC—prior errors at the charging station occurred before the explosion. As the driver began to charge his car, a short circuit in the station caused “abnormal voltage” to be sent through the adapter, which then “experienced an internal arc fault and explosion which damaged the adapter and vehicle,” according to the TSBC report. 

The vehicle and the charging station were significantly burned and the adapter was destroyed. In a video released by TSBC, the driver can be seen standing directly in front of the explosion. He only came away with minor scrapes and abrasions after being knocked over by the arc-flash.

A2Z, the company that creates the adapter, said in a statement that its internal investigation found the fault was mainly tied to issues with the charging station in Hope.

The short circuit caused an electrical current to flow through the ground conductor, which is not designed for continuous voltage “where there should be none.” Normally, charging stations would shut down if this occurs, but the Hope station didn’t.

“The adapter simply became part of the fault path; it did not cause or sustain the current,” the A2Z release reads. “Under safety standards, the charging station should have instantly detected and interrupted that fault.

“Under normal operating conditions, this event would never have occurred.”

A2Z says that the charging-station operator has since conducted a review of its systems and has made adjustments to prevent another explosive accident. The company says no faults were found with its adapter in its review.