Make EVSE cable unlock at full charge a user option

Parked at a public EVSE, I can see where automatically unlocking the cable when fully charged would be a nice courtesy to others that may want to use the thing, but I'd like the option. Say you're using your occasional use EVSE, once charged, there's nothing to keep some miscreant from walking off with the thing since it's unlocked from the car! Now, I don't use mine except very rarely, but should I need it, I'd not like it to walk away.

BMW heard you. Apparently, this will be included in the spring (March?) Customer Care Package Software Update, along with a SOC % in the BC. (Yay!)

jadnashuanh said:

Parked at a public EVSE, I can see where automatically unlocking the cable when fully charged would be a nice courtesy to others that may want to use the thing, but I'd like the option. Say you're using your occasional use EVSE, once charged, there's nothing to keep some miscreant from walking off with the thing since it's unlocked from the car! Now, I don't use mine except very rarely, but should I need it, I'd not like it to walk away.

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Do public chargers not lock the cable at the charger end too? I've never checked but assumed they did. Consequently I've never understood the desire to have the car unlock the cable at one end when charging is complete, because the cable would still be locked at the charger end.

Bill

Isn't the cable captive at the charger end?

No unlock to do.

Makes sense to release the cable from the car when charging is completed.

I33t said:

Isn't the cable captive at the charger end?

No unlock to do.

Makes sense to release the cable from the car when charging is completed.

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No. In the UK only rapid chargers have teathered cables, the rest you bring your own cable.

Bill

When I use the chargers in my local city with my own cable the charger end is locked until I unlock it! So being able to remove the cable from the car would not help much. Moreover, if both end were unlocked at the end of charging then some miscreant would probably steal it. Parking is limited to 2 hours where I am so hogging a space is not really an issue.

MikeS said:

When I use the chargers in my local city with my own cable the charger end is locked until I unlock it! So being able to remove the cable from the car would not help much. Moreover, if both end were unlocked at the end of charging then some miscreant would probably steal it. Parking is limited to 2 hours where I am so hogging a space is not really an issue.

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I think that other regions (US especially) have different public charging configurations hence the desire to include an "unlock the cable on completion of charging" option.

Bill

The SAE J1772 EVSE's all have a tethered cable on them unlike the Euro implementation. The recent software update (after the KLE upgrade) for the USA version unlocks the J1772 connector at the car end once full charge is reached, regardless of the car's lock status...previously, it was always locked in place when the car was locked. I'd like that functionality to be a user selectable option in the next s/w update, so if you're using your own EVSE, or cable as in Europe, it can't walk away after the car is fully charged up.

It would be nice if it knew you were on 110v/the occasional charger and not unlock when charging is done on that one.

Or, it would be nice to have the iRemote app be able to unlock the charger.

Would also be nice if you could set it up to get a text or a phone alert when charging was done, instead of checking constantly.

This would be a very nice feature, if we were given the option to turn it off if we wanted to.
Today three were 3 Leaf's all plugged in and fully charged, but they were all locked, so I could not unplug them, and use it on my car.
Great idea.

jadnashuanh said:

The recent software update (after the KLE upgrade) for the USA version unlocks the J1772 connector at the car end once full charge is reached, regardless of the car's lock status

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I'm not sure about that. I just got my car out of the shop and I assume they've applied the KLE fix and new software (I could look at the service bill), but my car still leaves the connector locked in place.

Maybe my locking mechanism is sticky...since last June when I bought it, I've had to use the manual release a couple of times. I'm taking it in next week to have them look at the a/c, which doesn't seem to be working well, and I'll have them look at that as well. But, the latest software fix available, does deal with this feature...I'm not sure exactly how, but was told that it automatically unlocked the cable when the charging was complete.