Electrify America network at full strength after brief fast-charger shutdown

Late last week, Electrify America -- Volkswagen's court-ordered penance for Dieselgate -- shut down its 150-to-350-kW chargers at the behest of a cable supplier who was worried about a potential defect. Four days later, we're back to normal.

Electrify America announced on Tuesday that it has opened up its entire charging network once again, following a brief shutdown. According to Huber+Suhner, the company that supplies the liquid-cooled charging cables for the EV charging provider, the cables passed muster after extensive testing.

The problem was originally discovered during a test at a private facility in Europe. The cable in question, which was an early prototype similar to Electrify America's cables, suffered a short circuit that sparked the safety concern. Nobody was injured when the fault occurred, according to the supplier.

Thankfully, the cables in question were only used for Electrify America's highest capacity chargers, with outputs between 150 kW and 350 kW. While those were shut down, the company was able to still offer juice at the 89 affected stations using Level 2 or other chargers. No location was completely unusable during the shutdown.

Electrify America was created as part of Volkswagen's Dieselgate settlement, which mandated the creation of an entity dedicated to fostering EV adoption. Electrify America already has a network of EV chargers criss-crossing the nation, and soon, it will provide free juice to Porsche Taycan owners, with some of the fastest charging speeds in the world.

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