Charger won’t connect after manual release

[Kevmcl]

Hi all. Very new owner of 2015 i3. Was very excited to find the menu option to set the timed charge during off peak hours but found the charger locked in the morning. I guess it wasn’t done yet, but not knowing this and needing to get to work I switched off the charger and pulled the manual release to remove the cable from the car.
Now all I get it a “charging not possible-check your cable” message. I guess some locking mechanism bit isn’t relocating?
Any advice please?!
Thanks in advance. Kev

 

[Kevmcl]

It’s all good!
As suspected, it was just the manual release cord being sticky and not retracting after being pulled/pushed back in.
Took off inner wheel arch and poked it back a bit. Sorted.
Initial panic of “why did I buy a stupid electric car” alleviated for now.

 

[alohart]

On U.S. i3's, the charge plug is locked into the charge port if the car doors are locked and charging hasn't completed. When charging has completed, the plug is unlocked regardless of whether the doors are locked or unlocked. This behavior might not be the same in other markets.

You need to understand why the plug was locked so that you can avoid using the manual release cord because it's very breakable plastic not intended to be used much. The locking pin and/or its drive motor can corrode resulting in a failure to operate correctly.

Also, timed charging might not behave as you expect. Charging won't start until the start time that you set unless the battery pack won't be fully charged by the departure time that you set. Many i3 owners have been disappointed when charging occurred outside of their low-cost charging period because of this behavior. Also, I believe that charging can commence immediately for a brief period so that the charging logic can determine how long charging will take to reach a full charge. This has confused some i3 owners. Having never used timed charging, I might be wrong about some of this.