Looking for EV chargers on China sites is the wild, uh, east

[Brons2]

Was just browsing Aliexpress and Temu.

For one there are way more types of plugs than we have here, both on the supply feed and the car end of it. Type 1 is J-1772 but there's also Type 2, and CCS 1 and 2 as well, and GBT which I have no idea what that is.

Then there's the input amperages and voltages themselves. There's single phase stuff like we have in the US, but there's also 3 phase stuff offered. You can get a 22KW charger at 3 Phase 32A. Wild. I don't think any EV sold in the US supports 22KW AC charging, but it would be nice to have it as an option for sure. You could charge a 100KW battery from 10-90% in less than 4 hours, at home no less. I think anyone who's a big mileage commute, charge at home type person would be interested in that. Like someone who drives 150+ miles round trip to work.

Anyway just thought it was interesting.

 

[Owen Lucas]

For an item as important as a high amperage in-home appliance charging ones vehicle, I'd stick to well known us brand or the OE charger. I do not trust any of this Temu junk for important purposes. Heck, I only go with name brand chargers for my phones or Anker.

 

[PandaBear]

For something that high power I would steer away from buying on Aliexpress or Temu. They are not that reputable in reliability and durability.

 

[y_p_w]

A typical outlet in China is 220V, and may look like this:

Granted there are many variations, including single outlets and some that can take various pin/blade plugs. But for something like the one above, I've had no issues plugging in American two-bladed power adapters that have a wide input voltage range. Granted, I think the original topic isn't about Chinese outlets, but Chinese-origin websites selling product to American buyers. I wouldn't trust an EV charger bought from Temu.

 

[Brons2]

For an item as important as a high amperage in-home appliance charging ones vehicle, I'd stick to well known us brand or the OE charger. I do not trust any of this Temu junk for important purposes. Heck, I only go with name brand chargers for my phones or Anker.

I agree with you 100%, I just wasn't aware that a three phase EV charger capable of 22KW AC even existed, nor a car that could actually take advantage of it. Actually I still don't know what car could use it, but there must be some out there, suppsosedly the Chinese car market is around 50% EVs.

 

[Brons2]

And if that wasn't enough, here's a 30KW DC Fast Charger that states it could be for home use. LOL

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...p4p_id=202503270915340012821208050050705321_1

 

[Torrid]

And if that wasn't enough, here's a 30KW DC Fast Charger that states it could be for home use. LOL

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805309291892.html?gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&_t=gps-idcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.14452.396806.0,pvid:3d8ba318-ac4f-4748-899d-7e68e5182dea,tpp_buckets:668#2846#8107#1934&pdp_ext_f={"order":"9","eval":"1","sceneId":"30050"}&utparam-url=scenecDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller|query_from:&search_p4p_id=202503270915340012821208050050705321_1

That is concerning.

 

[y_p_w]

And if that wasn't enough, here's a 30KW DC Fast Charger that states it could be for home use. LOL

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805309291892.html?gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&_t=gps-idcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.14452.396806.0,pvid:3d8ba318-ac4f-4748-899d-7e68e5182dea,tpp_buckets:668#2846#8107#1934&pdp_ext_f={"order":"9","eval":"1","sceneId":"30050"}&utparam-url=scenecDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller|query_from:&search_p4p_id=202503270915340012821208050050705321_1

All those things are doing is just passing electricity through without necessarily doing any kind of conversions. The biggest safety issue would be that the cabling is capable of safely carrying the level of current. That one also seems to be able to access payment systems as a gateway. I'm a bit skeptical since the specs say up to 133A and 40 kW, but the photos look like a fairly thin cable.

 

[Brons2]

All those things are doing is just passing electricity through without necessarily doing any kind of conversions. The biggest safety issue would be that the cabling is capable of safely carrying the level of current. That one also seems to be able to access payment systems as a gateway. I'm a bit skeptical since the specs say up to 133A and 40 kW, but the photos look like a fairly thin cable.

I could easily see that tripping the main house breaker at 133A + AC + dishwasher + dryer + microwave, or some permutation thereof.

 

[UncleDave]

I'll bet there is all kinds of wild stuff.

Sometimes niche stuff out of people's garages works great.

One time in the desert a guy showed up with a triple parallel combiner he found online and was running 3 honda 2K's off it then at night powered the whole thing down to one.

 

[Brons2]

One time in the desert a guy showed up with a triple parallel combiner he found online and was running 3 honda 2K's off it then at night powered the whole thing down to one.

I think I'd probably just buy a bigger generator as opposed to doing this. Although, those Honda units are super quiet so maybe that's what it was?

 

[UncleDave]

I think I'd probably just buy a bigger generator as opposed to doing this. Although, those Honda units are super quiet so maybe that's what it was?

That was exactly it, noise and consumption of one unit idled down.

It's an hour to town and back so running out of fuel blows a big hole in your trip.

The guy was using a single tank with three taps on it as well that he could hot fill.

There was close to a 50 degree swing during day to night - during the day he ran a 15K AC unit and whatever else the camp needed off the 3, and at night the thing burbled down to almost nothing but kept the house bank from depleting as it was running propane heaters at night.

With thousands of vehicles ripping around 24x7 there is always noise, but an open frame 5K 50 feet away gets annoying fast.

 

[y_p_w]

I could easily see that tripping the main house breaker at 133A + AC + dishwasher + dryer + microwave, or some permutation thereof.

Something like this needs a dedicated breaker. And it has to be current limited for that breaker.

 

[97prizm]

For an item as important as a high amperage in-home appliance charging ones vehicle, I'd stick to well known us brand or the OE charger. I do not trust any of this Temu junk for important purposes. Heck, I only go with name brand chargers for my phones or Anker.

A number of people with YouTube channels have sent out for items on Temu etc only to receive stuff not even close to what was on the order page. I bought my Anker charging port for my phone at Target recently. Target offers some off brand (can't remember the name) but page after page of reviews say that it didn't charge a person's device right out of the box.

 

[PandaBear]

All those things are doing is just passing electricity through without necessarily doing any kind of conversions. The biggest safety issue would be that the cabling is capable of safely carrying the level of current. That one also seems to be able to access payment systems as a gateway. I'm a bit skeptical since the specs say up to 133A and 40 kW, but the photos look like a fairly thin cable.

My bet is they just throw some spec out there that says 133A from the copper wire supplier they use, and the insulator supplier for the 40kW / 133A = 300V. I doubt they did any testing and care about resistance loss (maybe resistance loss is 20% instead of 3%?), and they have very short cable length.

Will it work? Maybe, they probably think nobody will really use it enough to burn down the house without tripping the circuit at home anyways. Thing is where are you going to find them and who can you sue if you bought it from Aliexpress and Temu? They may have a clause to refund you the purchase price but that's it.

 

[Brons2]

Ok, I just found a Duration Triple Parallel Combiner for $20 near me on FB Marketplace. Curiosity demands that I buy it. LOL.

What can you buy a used knockoff Honda/Chonda generator for? Need some more ICE engines in my life, my oil stash is still YUGE and I own 2 EVs!

 

[Brons2]

A number of people with YouTube channels have sent out for items on Temu etc only to receive stuff not even close to what was on the order page. I bought my Anker charging port for my phone at Target recently. Target offers some off brand (can't remember the name) but page after page of reviews say that it didn't charge a person's device right out of the box.

I bought some cycling gear for real cheap on Aliexpress when it was fairly new about 10-15 years ago. It took a LONG time to show up, I'm talking like 4-5 months. I had already given up on ever receiving it. But it did get there and I was actually really happy with it once it did. I think I still have it!

 

[dogememe]

I think it's important to buy safety-certified charging equipment/EVSEs/adapters from reputable name brand companies, and be careful about where you buy it, too.

Temu, Aliwhatever, Amazon, eBay, are full of junk that is not safety-certified. Sure, it COULD be perfectly fine and work safely for decades, but you just don't know. And even if it claims to be safety-certified, the certification could be fake, and even if it is a name brand unit, it could be fake as well. Even "shipped and sold by Amazon" isn't a guarantee of a legit item... they apparently mix inventory they get through reputable channels with the inventory of third-party sellers to be able to deliver items faster and cheaper.

 

[UncleDave]

I wouldn't buy anything without some certification from what we in our industry call a tier 1 country.

UL, CTik, EU, Japan...
KCC requires US certs, so if it's KCC you get US certs by default.
A long as its officially given vs fake Chinas CCC is trustable these days.

 

[y_p_w]

I wouldn't buy anything without some certification from what we in our industry call a tier 1 country.

UL, CTik, EU, Japan...
KCC requires US certs, so if it's KCC you get US certs by default.
A long as its officially given vs fake Chinas CCC is trustable these days.

It's a little bit difficult because a lot of these might not go with the the gold standard in the US, which is UL. But then there's ETL as kind of lower-cost alternative that claims to test to UL standards. Some go with TUV from Germany.

https://www.tuv.com/usa/en/electric-vehicle-charging-system-testing.html