Top 5 Charging Mistakes

Charging on the road isn't always straightforward. After many charging transactions through our app, we've seen, experienced, and fixed various charging errors over recent years. We're sharing the 5 most common mistakes and how to easily avoid them.

1. The car doesn't respond when I've connected to the EV charger

Many electric cars have a lock that activates after two minutes. The solution is to lock and unlock the car again to remove the lock, but without the charger connected.

This problem is especially common with rental cars that use apps to lock the car. The same procedure applies to these - just lock and unlock again before reconnecting the charger.

Another cause of the problem could be that you've made the connection in the wrong order.

1. Connect the charging cable to the EV charger (if it's a charger that requires a brought cable).

2. Connect the charging cable from the charger, fast charger, or rapid charger to the electric car.

3. Start charging in Elton's charging app.

2. You've become impatient

If you first experience that a fast charger won't start, it's tempting to press the button in the charging app or tap the charging card multiple times in succession. Due to system delays, this can instead cause the charger to lock completely and refuse to charge.

Trying once more, at a calm pace, should work fine. But make a change that you think will lead to a different result if you continue. For example, take the charger out and back into the car or fast charger, or lock and unlock, as mentioned above.

Still having problems with the EV charger? Try switching chargers. Many chargers need two minutes to reset after an error.

3. Charging doesn't start

Check that you have money on your card. Before charging starts, the charging solution you're using reserves an amount from your card or Vipps. If you don't have enough money on the card, charging won't start at all. Note! If you click many times, you risk reserving large amounts on your account.

With Elton, we'll tell you why charging isn't starting. For example, to check that you have money on the card if the reservation doesn't go through, or try reconnecting to the car if the charging app makes contact with the charger but not the car.

4. Charger doesn't give the right charging speed

Charging speed can be affected by many factors, such as the temperature of both the surroundings and the battery.

To counteract cool temperatures' effect on charging speed, you can preheat the battery if you have a preheating function in your car.

It will also help to charge after you've driven a bit and thus gotten some heat in the car.

If it's not temperature affecting the charging, the speed may be influenced by multiple cars charging at the charging station.

A 300-kilowatt charger can only provide this speed when connected to one car. As soon as you share the charging station with another car, the speed is halved to 150 kilowatts per car.

5. The charger gets stuck after charging

And if the charger gets stuck in the car after an error has occurred or you're finished? Lock and unlock again. Then the charger should come loose.

Many cars also have "secret" button combinations on the key or dashboard that force the charging cable to release if normal locking and unlocking doesn't work. Check Google and YouTube to see if such a button combination exists for your car.

Remember to download the Elton app for easy planning, charging, and payment with over 30 charging companies on the road!

Hope we helped you on your way to becoming a charging expert!

Safe travels!

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