On-Board Charger

Converts the alternating current from a domestic socket or an AC charge point into the direct current a traction battery can accept, and negotiates with the charge point about how much current may safely be drawn. It is what makes AC charging possible, so losing it stops the vehicle being refuelled — while the vehicle still drives perfectly.

That produces a countdown rather than a fault: whatever is in the battery is all there is. Get the vehicle home or to a workshop while it still has the range, and do not set off anywhere assuming a top-up.

The fact that surprises people, and is worth trying before assuming the vehicle is stuck: rapid DC charging may still work. A DC rapid charger does its conversion inside the charge post and feeds direct current straight to the battery, bypassing the on-board charger entirely — so a car that will not charge at home often charges perfectly at a rapid point.

Where a vehicle offers high AC charging rates it usually has two chargers sharing the load, and losing one halves the rate rather than stopping it. That looks exactly like battery degradation and is not — a tired battery holds less charge, while a missing charger takes longer to reach the same charge. Unlike degradation, it is fixable.

Test the 12-volt battery first. A weak one prevents charging on many electric vehicles and is regularly missed.

Also known as: obc, ac dc converter, onboard charger module, charger module, ac charger

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Information, not instruction

CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.

Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.

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