BOMBA Advises Against Charging EVs In The Rain! Any Logic To This?

Recently, TV3 ran a segment titled "Keselamatan Kenderaan Electric," or "EV Safety," on Malaysia Hari Ini (MHI). It featured two distinguished panellists: Ir. Lee Yuen How, chief honcho of EV Connection, and Ts. Dr. Mohd Zaid, Senior Fire Superintendent of the Fire Safety Division of the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia.

I personally tuned in hoping for more clarity on the roles, policies, and motivations behind the Fire Department's pullback, in contrast to the government's push to accelerate the rollout of EV chargers in order to meet the 10,000 EV charging bays (EVCB) by 2025 goal.

Some of the remarks made in the segment, however, astounded me and made me think that this might be the reason why the nation is experiencing so many setbacks. As a result, Tengku Zafrul, the Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry (MITI), came forward and stated that the 10,000 goal might have been too ambitious.

Similar to the Energy Commission (ST) segment, this one was blatantly uninformative, and it is clear that the decision-makers initially knew very little about EVs and safety.

This is merely based on two (2) statements that Dr. Zaid made in the segment: first, that EV owners should never charge their cars in the rain, and second, that they should always remember to unplug their cars before leaving. Let's now "logically" dissect these two claims.

Rainy weather charging: Every public EV charger installed is IP54 rated or higher, meaning it is built to withstand both dust and precipitation, making it safe to use in both scenarios. In actuality, EV users have been safely charging in the rain since the majority of CPOs worldwide, including those in Malaysia, do not offer any kind of shelter.

It's actually possible to verify that EV chargers are safe to use by looking at a post from October 2023 on EV Connection's Facebook page. It says, "Our chargers are water resistant and do not conduct electricity via the outer side of the cables."

Driving off while plugged in - The charging nozzle on an electric vehicle functions completely differently from that of a fuel nozzle on an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICE). First of all, it takes a lot longer to deliver electricity, and before the session can start, the car and the charger must be synced (shake-hands). An EV or even a PHEV cannot be inadvertently driven off when it is plugged in.

This is demonstrated in the video below, where the driver is prompted to unplug the car in order to operate it, as they are unable to engage the vehicle's Drive mode while it is plugged in. This is the advantage of carefully designed electronics over the human error factor associated with ICE fueling.

It is true that EV users are advised not to charge their EVs should either the nozzle or cabinet be submerged in a large puddle of water or flood, but we at CariCarz.com would like to reiterate that Dr. Zaid may have confused puddles for rain. Users are undoubtedly intelligent enough to avoid doing that anyhow and would surely choose to stay indoors during thunderstorms as that is the sensible thing to do.

We also wanted to hear Ir. Lee's opinion on this, since we know that he and EVC are cool with EV charging in the rain. To help prevent fires and electrical shocks in wet conditions, the EV charging stations are actually outfitted with extra safety features like manual isolated cut-off switches and ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs).