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Nissan pins Leaf's WattStation charging woes on a software bug, works on a fix
GE and Nissan had previously ruled out GE's WattStation as the cause of a few Leaf charging failures, and that story of EV tragedy looks to be winding to a close with a more definitive explanation. As the two tell us, a bug in the Leaf's on-board charging software can damage the relevant hardware under a perfect storm of conditions: if a drivers uses a specific (but not necessarily GE) charger, an undervoltage or similar power crisis can bring the Leaf to its knees. Nissan says it's hurrying towards a remedy, although we're working to confirm just what that entails. In the meantime, the automaker is asking owners to be cautious and avoid plugging in when there's lightning or brownouts in the making.
GE says its WattStations aren't behind fried Nissan Leafs, green drivers can relax
GE is eager to reassure Nissan Leaf drivers that its WattStation isn't about to kill their car's charging ability: it just held a media scrum where it declared, after some study, that its EV charger isn't the culprit that knocked 11 cars off the power grid. While the electrical pioneer hasn't narrowed down the cause, it's confident enough in its innocence that it's having Nissan dealers retract their original claims of compatibility woes. Nissan spokeswoman Katherine Zachary had previously suggested the fault might lie in a "utility" issue with the power supply itself, although GE notes that it hasn't gone to people's homes; it's testing the affected WattStations in the lab, which could change the results. Whatever's responsible, we now know that the failure hit diodes in the car's charging equipment and that the incidents aren't specific to any one region. It's safe to say that Leaf owners with WattStations can once more plug in at home and expect to wake up to a full charge.
Nissan Leaf, GE WattStation embroiled in charging damage shocker, invite other EV puns (update: full GE statement)
Hopefully, you haven't paired up your Nissan Leaf with a GE WattStation for charging; if you have, you might want to power up with Ye Olde Wall Outlet for a short while. GE has confirmed to the New York Times that some Leaf drivers have encountered "problems" after charging up their EVs from WattStations. What problems? GE isn't going into detail, but a Nissan regional manager claims that the charging systems of 11 Leafs have been damaged after plugging into a WattStation. Whether or not there's a crisis or a coincidence is still up in the air at this stage. Nissan isn't issuing any warnings or recalls, and GE will only say that it's "actively working" with the automaker to find the root cause. All the same, we'll be cautious until the companies turn a new... you guessed it. Update: GE reached out to us with the full statement, which you'll find in the comments below. The company is mostly touching on what it mentioned earlier, but it's adding that the WattStation meets the needed SAE and UL standards. Other EVs haven't encountered problems to date.
