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Charging cable

8K views 36 replies 16 participants last post by  santellavision 
#1 ·
My first post after doing a lot of reading here this last month. After many years of looking for a replacement for her much-loved 2005 XC70, my wife decided to take the plunge and purchased a 2022 XC40 Recharge Ultimate. We had to wait about a month for it to arrive, which gave me time to have a 240V/50A circuit added to our garage and to do some research on what to expect in the future with this new vehicle. Being a life-long car enthusiast, the first thing I did was look for a Recharge forum, and this one has proved to be a wealth of information. She took possession a couple of days ago and so far, she's very happy with it.

I'm particularly impressed with the design and the quality of the interior. One thing I'm not very impressed with, however, is the charging cable. While manipulating it today, the AC side of the bulky cylinder on the cable fell off. I assumed that it had not been properly connected but, looking at its design, realized that it's very easy to separate those parts. It takes very little force and rotation to disconnect, which is a problem for us because the cable just barely covers the distance from our outlet to the car.

Has anyone else had problems with this design? Are there better and longer cables available?

Tire Wheel Car Land vehicle Vehicle
 
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#3 ·
My issue with the design is that it doesn't latch; a slight twist is enough to disconnect it, which is impossible to avoid when handling such a stiff cable from a spooled state.

Looking at Volvo's website, I see that there are longer cables available but can't find specifics about them, such as price and availability.
 
#5 ·
The original cable that came with my 2022 model was defective. As soon as the white light came up in the big cylinder it turned red. According to the directions, a blinking red light means that the there's a hardware malfunction. Took it to the dealership and they switched with the much slender cylinder. Now it is working fine, I have a 240 connection at home and I have no issues charging now.
 
#9 ·
I have no problem with the cord and the 14-50 end either. Tesla has a similar system but theirs just "plugs" together, no turn lock. I simply accepted the free ChargePoint wall adapter Volvo offered to us and hard-wire installed it to provide electric at up to 48amps which can used used with either car. Now I carry the original cord in the rear underfloor area.
 
#12 ·

See link above. We’ve been using this cable since May 2021 when we traded our Tesla in for the XC40. It has worked great (sometimes if you don’t push/seat it fully in then it gets mad, but if you give a firm cable placement into the XC40 then it works flawlessly). This cable handles up to 40A which is fine for me since my home is only wired for that (note: the cable with the car will permit the full 48A, so this is a step down overall). But this 25ft cable is great for harder to reach spots, which was a necessity for us.

Again for me it was all the power i needed with a length that met my demands. For some, you may want to look for a 48A cable obviously, if you dont want to lose max amperage. Anyhow, the above cable has been GREAT for us! Hope this helps…
 
#14 ·

See link above. We’ve been using this cable since May 2021 when we traded our Tesla in for the XC40. It has worked great (sometimes if you don’t push/seat it fully in then it gets mad, but if you give a firm cable placement into the XC40 then it works flawlessly). This cable handles up to 40A which is fine for me since my home is only wired for that (note: the cable with the car will permit the full 48A, so this is a step down overall). But this 25ft cable is great for harder to reach spots, which was a necessity for us.

Again for me it was all the power i needed with a length that met my demands. For some, you may want to look for a 48A cable obviously, if you dont want to lose max amperage. Anyhow, the above cable has been GREAT for us! Hope this helps…
Thanks for the cable information. Do you have any concerns about using a non-Volvo cable? There are warnings in the user's manual against doing so. Wonder if it could null warranties if something were to go wrong.

Regarding the bulky cylinder, I did some searching and Volvo calls it a 'residual current device' and a 'control module'.
'The charging cable has a circuit breaker that helps protect against current overloads and thermal overheating.' Good to have!

 
#24 ·
My first post after doing a lot of reading here this last month. After many years of looking for a replacement for her much-loved 2005 XC70, my wife decided to take the plunge and purchased a 2022 XC40 Recharge Ultimate. We had to wait about a month for it to arrive, which gave me time to have a 240V/50A circuit added to our garage and to do some research on what to expect in the future with this new vehicle. Being a life-long car enthusiast, the first thing I did was look for a Recharge forum, and this one has proved to be a wealth of information. She took possession a couple of days ago and so far, she's very happy with it.

I'm particularly impressed with the design and the quality of the interior. One thing I'm not very impressed with, however, is the charging cable. While manipulating it today, the AC side of the bulky cylinder on the cable fell off. I assumed that it had not been properly connected but, looking at its design, realized that it's very easy to separate those parts. It takes very little force and rotation to disconnect, which is a problem for us because the cable just barely covers the distance from our outlet to the car.

Has anyone else had problems with this design? Are there better and longer cables available?

View attachment 1757
We use a ChargePoint charger which comes with a 23 foot cable. I only occasionally use the one that came with the car, as it seems heavy and clumsy to deal with
 
#26 ·
I can highly recommend the Chargepoint Home Flex. IMO it's worth the extra $. Background: I've owned four EVs, four wall chargers, and am a retired career electrical engineer with decades of experience in power electronics and both industrial and consumer product design.
 
#27 ·
We originally assumed we'd need some sort of wall charger but a bit of research, some of it on this forum, revealed that these EVSE's are nothing more than a power switch with some 'smarts' to allow communication and programming. The only true charger is the one built into the car, and Volvo promises that time-programming will be a function added to the software soon. For these reasons, we decided not to use a wall 'charger' and wait for the scheduled charging functionality.

I am also retired after 30 years in the electrical engineering field, mostly in instrumentation design used in various research fields (photonics, chemistry and wind tunnel testing).
 
#32 ·
Other than the minor wifi connectivity issue the Grizzl-E is built like a tank. In addition their customer service is great.

Check out the video below. Might be boring at times but it speaks volumes.

 
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#37 ·
Check with your local power company. Here in CO, they have a deal if you buy the charger from them. And, they will hopefully in the near future, give you a discount on power if you use one their 2 approved chargers with wifi.
 
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