A longtime EV owner and current Rivian R1T driver recently shared a rather disturbing incident while charging at an Electrify America station. The incident left the R1T “fried” and the owner stuck hours away from home. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the first time that such an incident has happened.
Anson Wong says that his Rivian R1T was plugged into an Electrify America charger for about one minute before he heard a loud boom from the charging stall. After which his R1T is left undrivable with two error messages on his display indicating a “vehicle battery issue” and a “system fault.”
After the explosion, the R1T owner said a burning smell emanated from the station’s power unit. While no flames were visible there were “burn marks” on the outside of the cabinet. Along with frying his R1T, the charging cable was also stuck in the charge port and could not be removed, even when using the manual release cable in the frunk of the electric truck.
Anson was able to get in touch with Electrify America, but their technician took 7 hours to arrive and was unable to diagnose the problem and remove the charging cable. The technician was so befuddled that he even suggested sawing it off.
“After [trying to unplug it], he wanted to use a power drill to bust it and get my car out of there but I refused,” Wong says.
Rivian gifted Wong rideshare credits so he could make it to his house about two hours away. He claims Electrify America “never brought up anything about getting me home,” although he believes the issue is on EA’s end rather than Rivian’s.
Their story is not unique, with at least two other instances when an EV bricked while charging in the EA network.
Back in November, Ford F-150 Lightning owner Eric Roe posted about a very similar experience on Twitter. According to the Lightning owner, he was able to plug into an Electrify America charger just fine, but not long after the charging session started, he heard a loud sound. The charger then went dark, and Lightning displayed a number of error codes. The vehicle had to be towed from the station.
There’s no clear path forward right now as both Rivian and Electrify America look into the ordeal. They certainly have some damage control to perform, even before this latest issue of a Rivian R1T being fried at one of their charging stations.