What technology does VinFast use for electric vehicle charging padlocks?

Recently, some VinFast electric vehicle charging stations have been installed with strange equipment in the middle of the parking lot, making many people curious. In fact, this is a set of parking bans, a solution to help limit the situation where petrol / diesel cars occupy the charging point in the area reserved for VinFast electric cars.

Currently, these locks are being trialled in the parking lot of Vincom Mega Mall shopping centers of some Vinhomes urban areas in Hanoi such as Riverside Long Bien, Smart City and Times City. However, currently only in the Riverside Long Bien area have the keys actually working while the rest of the areas are mainly newly installed and are in a state of waiting for operation.

This device is similar to a number of products being sold on the market. The key set mainly consists of a yellow fork with a controller as well as a black base that is attached to the concrete floor of the parking lot through 4 solid screws. The black lid that covers the bottom controller can be opened via a separate padlock at the rear.

While waiting or a vehicle is allowed in, the maximum height of the lock is only 75 mm, and can withstand being rolled over by a vehicle weighing 2-3 tons, with water and dust resistance. When used, the controller will straighten the fork with a height of up to 420 mm, higher than the chassis of most popular cars today.

Contrary to many speculations, this parking lock does not directly prevent the vehicle from entering the charging point, but actually has a small speaker that can emit a warning sound if the fork of the lock is impacted, signaling the driver. do not continue to drive forward.

To lower the fork, the driver needs to own the remote control of the lock, and press the open button with a signal receiving distance of 20 m. In addition, this lock can also automatically identify to raise / lower the fork via a sensor, with the plug plugged into a 12 V car charger and will receive a signal within a radius of 15 m.

The parking locks sold in the market will use their own batteries, but the locks in Vinhomes areas are expected to use direct power. In addition, it is not clear whether VinFast will integrate its own software on the phone or equip future electric cars with an automatic unlocking sensor, which will make customers more convenient and hands-free.

This solution is actually not too new when it has been applied by Tesla in China with its own charging points installed in parking lots similar to Vietnam. These lock systems were first deployed last year and are expanding across the country of billions of people.

In addition, currently charging stations for VinFast electric vehicles are gradually becoming more diverse with many different types of charging posts. As noted in the Vincom Mega Mall area of ​​Vinhomes Smart City (Tay Mo, Nam Tu Liem), VinFast has installed up to 4 different types of charging posts.

The most special of these is the series of dark blue charging posts, which are set apart from other charging posts and have 2 charging heads for each. This is said to be a fast charging pillar with a capacity of 150 kW, the largest ever of VinFast, equivalent to existing types in the world. However, the company’s only electric car model on the market – the VF e34 – can only receive a maximum capacity of 60 kW, so the new pillars will be directed to VinFast’s future electric cars, typically the VF 8 and VF 9.