Charging your i3 at a public station and coming back to find your car unplugged

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coolesnce

New member
Joined
Apr 21, 2017
Messages
4
Quick question, I started charging at a new station recently. I plugged my car in, went to grab a coffee and sit in starbucks for about 45 min to let my i3 charge (since we are having a heatwave right now)and when I get back find my car unplugged and another car next to me charging their car on the charger i was using and my car only partly charged. I thought that if a charger was plugged into our cars and we locked our doors that it would lock the charger in our ports until we unlocked our i3. Is that not the case?
 
The only time i unplugged some one was when they were DC charging above 99%. :mrgreen:
Do people think i am justified or simply bad :eek:

Above what % of DC charge, should some one be bumped out ????
 
Well i was aat 76% when unplugged and since I usually need 90% to get home i had to drive off an look for another charger elsewhere. Also concerned if our i3s locked the charging end into our charging ports when our cars are locked, did who ever unplugged my i3 forcefully pull out the charging cable?
 
Early i3's had software that did not lock the plug into the charging port when the doors are locked. So maybe you have an early i3 whose software hasn't been updated to a version that locks the plug.

If that's not true, then maybe the locking mechanism is broken or your car's doors were not locked. Or even worse, the offender knows how to poke something thin above the charging plug to lift the locking pin so the plug can be pulled out. It's probably not easy to unplug a locked plug without breaking the locking pin or the plug.

Regardless, the behavior of the person who unplugged your car is totally unacceptable. I probably would have tried to unplug his car although doing so could trigger the burglar alarm on some cars.
 
Were you using a DC fast charger ? They cut off after 30 minutes so your car could have been sitting there, not charging, when the other car arrived.
 
My i3 is a brand new 2017, it doesn't even have license plates yet. Is there any way to check if they broke the locking mechanism? Or do I have to take it to BMW for inspection.? So for future reference when you're on a charger and it auto shuts off or you're at 100% charged does the charger automatically unlock your charging port?
 
coolesnce said:
My i3 is a brand new 2017, it doesn't even have license plates yet. Is there any way to check if they broke the locking mechanism?
Plug in to start charging, lock the doors, and try to unplug. If the locking pin is working correctly, you should not be able to unplug.

coolesnce said:
So for future reference when you're on a charger and it auto shuts off or you're at 100% charged does the charger automatically unlock your charging port?
Yes.

I don't have any DC Levels 1 and 2 experience (a.k.a., DC fast charger), so my response was based on AC Levels 1 and 2 experience.
 
alohart said:
coolesnce said:
My i3 is a brand new 2017, it doesn't even have license plates yet. Is there any way to check if they broke the locking mechanism?
Plug in to start charging, lock the doors, and try to unplug. If the locking pin is working correctly, you should not be able to unplug.

coolesnce said:
So for future reference when you're on a charger and it auto shuts off or you're at 100% charged does the charger automatically unlock your charging port?
Yes.

I don't have any DC Levels 1 and 2 experience (a.k.a., DC fast charger), so my response was based on AC Levels 1 and 2 experience.
Thanks for you input.
 
The charging cable (on US implementation), should lock the plug into the car when the car is locked until you either unlock the car, or it achieves 100% charge. Now, if the CCS unit turns off, it might unlock, I've not tried that. This assumes that you actually got the plug on fully, but if you didn't, the latch should not return to complete the interlock, and it wouldn't actually start charging. The original implementation of the firmware did not unlock the plug once the car was charged...you had to unlock the car for that to happen...somewhere after a bit of a year or so, they updated the software to enable that function. It's possible that the latch on the plug is damaged, and the latch pin in the car won't hold it in place. Or, the latch in the car is broken or stuck.
 
When using DC, the EVSE controls the lock. You cannot simply disconnect the cable even if the i3 is unlocked. You have to stop the current flow at the EVSE then remove the cable. For the US free charge plan with EVGo, the unit shuts off automatically after 30 minutes, unlocking the connector. Initially EVGo units required a card swipe to stop a charge session before the 30 minute limit was reached. However they reprogrammed at some point and now you simply tap a box on the touchscreen so anyone can come up and stop the session. They probably made that change for convenience because each EVSE also has a big red emergency stop button that shuts everything down and unlocks the charger; requiring the card swipe didn't really protect you from jerks.
 
alohart said:
Early i3's had software that did not lock the plug into the charging port when the doors are locked. So maybe you have an early i3 whose software hasn't been updated to a version that locks the plug.

I thought the issue was that the early 2014 i3s wouldn't UNLOCK the charge port when charging was complete.

Actually, I think all i3s had this issue, but a firmware upgrade fixed that for most of them, except the earliest models. Eventually another upgrade fixed even them. (I believe my i3 was one of those first models, because it took another upgrade after the first to get my i3 unlocking itself when charge completed)
 
Schnort said:
alohart said:
Early i3's had software that did not lock the plug into the charging port when the doors are locked. So maybe you have an early i3 whose software hasn't been updated to a version that locks the plug.

I thought the issue was that the early 2014 i3s wouldn't UNLOCK the charge port when charging was complete.

Actually, I think all i3s had this issue, but a firmware upgrade fixed that for most of them, except the earliest models. Eventually another upgrade fixed even them. (I believe my i3 was one of those first models, because it took another upgrade after the first to get my i3 unlocking itself when charge completed)
alohart is correct...the original implementation in the USA kept the plug locked in until the car was unlocked, regardless of the SOC.
 
I recently went to Scottsdale Fashion Square. On parking level 1 is a DC fast charger. There are 2 plugs on the EVGO unit. 1 fits ours the other is Chademo which fits a Leaf. 1 space was taken by an I-3 the other space was open. I backed in and looked to see how much longer he had to get his 80%. There was 3 minutes left to go. So, I waited for it to run its course. After it finished I was able to remove the cable and plug in mine . I put the plastic plugs back and closed his door. After plugging in and locking my car I checked to see if the cable was locked in place. It was.
I waited a few minutes to see if the driver would return but they didn't. I was in the mall no more than 10 minutes and upon my return they were gone.
I assume they knew what I did and why. No harm, no foul. At least they weren't gone for hours tying up the station.

I've gone to use that station a few times and once there was a Volt parked there and another time a Tesla was there. Neither could charge, the Tesla didn't have an adapter, they were taking up space because it's close to an entrance. Just like a lot of golfers I get behind...no courtesy, no common sense. Oh well, the world we live in today...forgive.
 
engineear said:
I assume they knew what I did and why. No harm, no foul. At least they weren't gone for hours tying up the station.

IMO this is the right attitude to have. A few months ago, I was charging at a free L2 station near a 1-hour yoga class. I plugged in at 2:55 and it was estimated it would be 70 minutes to charge to full. I get back at 4:05 and someone had put a nasty-gram on my charger door. Apparently the charging had finished around 3:55, and someone had a hissy-fit I wasn't there to unplug. Jeez people...you can't time these things perfectly.

Using EV charging spots solely for parking hours after charging or not charging at all though is a different story. Said cars should be ticketed/towed just like an ICE vehicle.
 
I do not know if they still do this in Germany (I lived there nearly 30-years ago), but when you parked your car, you put a placard on the dash indicating when you got there. It was all on the honor basis, but if there was say a 2-hour limit, and the enforcement people would use that. It was bad juju if they came around at say 1400, and your placard said 1500 (later that when you could possibly have been there). Maybe something like that, indicating when you started, or planned to be back, would help alieve some of this animosity some have.
 
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