T8 charger cable stuck locked to XC90
 

I was charging the car at home with a fixed wall charger on Thursday night and got an error message saying charging interrupted on the app. Not unusual I thought, it happens sometimes. Come Friday morning I go to unlock the car and pull the charger cable handle out and it has a red light above the port and the handle won’t release. Tried 30-40 lock and unlock cycles and no release. Called Volvo dealer, referred to Volvo roadside who said cover expired, referred to Lex who lease it, sent AA. AA man unable to release it. No emergency release of locking pin. Car now tethered to house. Any ideas short of cutting the isolated cable or disassembling the wall charger to unwire it. I can start and move the car using the seven second override, so if I can get the car detached from the wall it can go to the dealer. Help please!

NB. Take great care what you touch! This stuff can be dangerous.

Anyhow, here's how Tesla do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edTcHgtdz5o

Essentially, access is gained to the rear of the charge point and then it is manually unlocked.

Having done this, you would then be able to go to the outside of the car to pull out the charge cable.

Hmmm? But I would have thought the AA engineer you called out would have attempted to perform a solution of this sort, though?

Hi if you can remove the NSF wheel arch liner there is a small nut/ screw that you can turn and it will wind the locking pin back and you can release the charger cable
JK

I suspect you've tried this already, but have you held down the fob's Unlock button for 5 secs and then tried pulling out the cable?

Ours locked itself, had to go in the other car, then it just unlocked as normal the next day - not done it since...

Stupid question but did you try to push it in before pulling it out? Mine just needs a push in to release the pin before pulling it out.....

I've really not spent any time worrying about hybrids or electric cars. This post got me wondering; have automotive OEMs tried to reinvent the wheel as far as connecting 220 v AC to cars, the same mindset that has made many hybrid/ electric cars look totally stupid styling wise ? Toyotas and Hondas in particular.Boats have had perfectly reliable AC supply plugs and sockets for decades.

If you are referring to connecting a narrow boat to shore via a 16amp ac supply then no, they haven't reinvented the wheel for the sake of it. The design of the type 2 plug/socket combo does far more than a 3 pin 16amp connection. It needs to be able to lock in (amongst other things to stop someone stealing your cable), it needs to be able to charge at way more than 16amps/3.7kW (fast chargers can go up to 50kW - using 3 phase of course so 400v), it needs to be able to detect that it has been connected etc....

So the socket needs to be a lot smarter than a blue 230v/16amp connector or even a red 400v/32amp connector.

The physical connector is in no way smart.

It is tough, durable, has reliable pins for good connections.
But smart?
No.

The "smarts" are built into the controllers in the charging station and the vehicle.
But not in the connector/socket.

New chargers are capable of delivering more than 250kW of power, some 200 times greater than your typical boat might pull. High voltage DC requires different protection than AC, along with communication between the car and the charger.

They’re not actually all that complicated - I suspect the cables are locked in partly to prevent arcing in the event of inadvertent removal; partly to ensure that the electrical contact is as good as possible, but mostly to prevent yoofs from unplugging your car while you’re not there.