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

[coolesnce]

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?

[EVMan]

The only time i unplugged some one was when they were DC charging above 99%.
Do people think i am justified or simply bad

Above what % of DC charge, should some one be bumped out ????

[coolesnce]

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?

[alohart]

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.

[Gif]

I'd have let their tyres down and told them I borrowed their air cos I was all out. Hope you don't mind, byyeeee!

[theothertom]

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.

[coolesnce]

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?

[alohart]

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.

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.

[coolesnce]

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.

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.

[jadnashuanh]

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.