Welp, I officially dislike the BMW i3

[Jeff]

I park in a very busy garage in downtown SF next to my office -- the charging spots are nearly always full up (there are at least a dozen Teslas that park there regularly).  I can usually grab juice if I need to, because invariably somebody will be parked in a spot and has finished charging.  This is a problem for car owners, because now the spot is blocked, but haha as everybody here knows: not a problem for a bike!  I usually just slot myself between the wall and the parking spot and unplug them.

However, enter the i3.  See that little metal nubbin?



Apparently, the BMW i3 has a permanent lock on the J1772 connector while charging, even once charging is complete.  And so of course now there is somebody in an i3 who has been parked in a charging spot overnight, finished charging about 16 hours ago, and is now preventing anybody (bike or car) from using the station.

This is actually a thing?  Who in the hell at BMW thought that would be a good idea?

Congratulations Chevy Volt, setting off your alarm at charger unplug has been dethroned as the emperor of Most Annoying EV Charging Implementation Decisions.

[benswing]

Some friends of mine drive i3 cars.  Will look into this.  Maybe a sticky-note is in order...  ;-)

(That's how we first met. :-D )

[benswing]

Here's a reply I received from i3 owner Christopher Mirable:  "There has been much ink spilled on this issue in this forum. It does lock the charge handle when the car is locked. Europeans like this because they supply their own charge cables. Americans do not like it because they do not supply their own cables and the etiquette over here is to move the cable to your car once another car is done charging. The car's locking behavior apparently cannot be modified or defeated and so there is a hope that it will be addressed in a future update."

...and 3 minutes later I have confirmation that it will (almost definitely) be addressed in a software update.

Sometimes the interwebs is super handy!

[Jeff]

Hahaha!  Awesome.  I knew I should've talked to you, Mr. Famous Journalist!

Yeah so update: the person basically left their car in the garage for something like 36-48 hours, plugged in (in a posted '4-hour charging limit' spot).  No idea why.  The garage people were talking about towing them . . . but even if they decided to go through with it, how would they?  Hacksaw through the cable?

I even tried calling Chargepoint and asking if they could maybe ping the owner or do something; they couldn't do anything (and even if they wanted to, the lock is controlled on the vehicle side).

I guess I just find it totally insane that nobody at BMW -- a company, let us not forget, that has already put out two electric cars and runs an all-electric car-sharing program -- thought of the fact that maybe somebody might plug into a public (the garage is city-owned, even) shared charging infrastructure.

Is the solution for never getting your car towed simply buying an i3 and locking it to a charging station wherever you please?

[Shinysideup]

That totally sucks.
Sticky notes are definitely in order.

Certainly the garage people should come down hard on this inconsiderate moron. If its a city garage, surely they could have the SFMTA folks issue a fat ticket for violating the 4-hour limit.

Working only from the photo, it seems a stout pair of pliers might do the disengagement trick, after trying a sticky note, of course, just to be polite.

[Brammo Rider Wannabe]

Maybe this should be part of the note stuck to the car:

How to defeat the charge cable lock – should you think you need to.
2014 BMW i3 US charging socket showing locking clip. Press the release button on the J-Plug whilst locking the doors – the little locking plate above the J-Plug wants to come out, but it won’t until you release the button on the J-plug. Slowly ease the button up whilst tilting the J-plug out and back… wait for it… the moment the catch starts to move, press the button down again quickly to block the catch coming out! The catch will stop automatically, thinking it’s out far enough but it’s not! With a bit of practice you too can defeat it every time leaving the cable unlocked for the next person to use.