Once the car has been selected, the time has come to get down to business to buy a charging point and a cable, if it does not come standard. And this is where many users go to the networks and the main portals to buy the cheapest they can find. An error that can cost us dearly as warned by various user associations.
This is how the organization has put it on the table Electrical Safety Firsta British NGO that works with all sectors of the electrical industry, and which has analyzed different products present on the large online sales platforms, Amazon and Ebay.
There, users can find a wide range of charging cables for their electric cars at very low prices. An easy and fast solution, but with some risks.
According to Lesley Rudd, CEO of Electrical Safety First: “Charging your electric car should never put you in jeopardy, but the devices we find for sale through online marketplaces risk turning this everyday chore into a potential hazard.«.
Research by the organization has found that around a third of consumers use online marketplaces to compare prices and save. He claims that by being aware of this, third-party vendors they are being inundated with cheap, shoddy electrical products.
From Electrical Safety First they remind consumers that they have less rights to purchase from sellers in the online marketplace than from retailers. For example, according to Chris Montgomery, director of specialty store EV Chargers Direct, has indicated that inferior quality charging cables are often not properly rated for use in Europe.
This results in cables designed to work at 13 amps arrive with labels indicating charging at 16 or 32 amps. An intensity at which they are not prepared to work for hours and days, which end up burning and causing damage to the home or vehicle.
Added to this are other problems found in cheap cables, such as not being sufficiently waterproof, resistant to UV rays and weather, or not having TÜV and CE approval.
The conclusion is that after spending tens of thousands of euros on the car, the charging cable should not be a section where you are looking to save a few euros. And it is that for some 250 euro we can buy a cable Mennekes 32 amps, with all the guarantees of the German manufacturer.
