[luckymaf]

OK. On Friday (Sept 7th) I drove my white Bolt EV off of the dealer's lot. Then drove the Bolt about forty miles back to my home town. Even though the battery had plenty of juice, I wanted to try out the ChargePoint DC Fast Charge at our local Fred Myers department store to see how that worked. Of course I didn't bother to read the owner manual's instructions.
So I plugged the nozzle into the Bolt's charge port and made sure it "clicked". Then started the DC Fast Charge. After a few minutes of charging I figured I'd seen enough and tried to disconnect the nozzle. I thought "man this thing is really stuck in the charge port" so I yanked it out.
Later I decided to read the owner's manual and on page 235 under DC Charging - I saw "Caution - Do not attempt to disconnect the DC vehicle plug while charging... "
Although I don't think I did any lasting damage - however I do wish that this Caution was mentioned in the Quick Start pamphlet supplement to the owner's manual. Or that the dealer warned me about this, or that it was front and center in the owner's manual.
And don't hand me this "ignorance is no excuse" argument.

 

[Dimitrij]

OK. On Friday (Sept 7th) I drove my white Bolt EV off of the dealer's lot. Then drove the Bolt about forty miles back to my home town. Even though the battery had plenty of juice, I wanted to try out the ChargePoint DC Fast Charge at our local Fred Myers department store to see how that worked. Of course I didn't bother to read the owner manual's instructions.
So I plugged the nozzle into the Bolt's charge port and made sure it "clicked". Then started the DC Fast Charge. After a few minutes of charging I figured I'd seen enough and tried to disconnect the nozzle. I thought "man this thing is really stuck in the charge port" so I yanked it out.
Later I decided to read the owner's manual and on page 235 under DC Charging - I saw "Caution - Do not attempt to disconnect the DC vehicle plug while charging... "
Although I don't think I did any lasting damage - however I do wish that this Caution was mentioned in the Quick Start pamphlet supplement to the owner's manual. Or that the dealer warned me about this, or that it was front and center in the owner's manual.
And don't hand me this "ignorance is no excuse" argument.

Please remember to forward your message to the GM's Warranty Denial Department.

On a serious note, I think the warning has more to do with the safety of your circuitry rather than that of the car.

My dealer didn't tell me anything at all. Not even how to use basic functions.

 

[Bazinga]

Info like this is verbally noted at the dealer's discretion. Don't really expect much from them in that department when it comes to EVs...
Isn't the plug locked in when the car's charging?

 

[luckymaf]

On the Chevy Bolt EV's web page ( http://www.chevrolet.com/bolt-ev-electric-vehicle ) in 50 pt text it states: "Charging is as easy as plugging in your cell phone".
This led me to believe that you plug in the Bolt and un-plug the Bolt just like a phone.
And the nozzle isn't that locked in because I in-plugged the thing mid DC Fast Charge.
BTW, I apparently I didn't do any damage to my Bolt's plug, and I went back and looked at the ChargePoint+ nozzle that I unplugged and both visually looked undamaged. Also using the same nozzle I, DC Fast Charged (this time correctly) and everything worked normally.

 

[jimmyspeed]

On the Chevy Bolt EV's web page ( http://www.chevrolet.com/bolt-ev-electric-vehicle ) in 50 pt text it states: "Charging is as easy as plugging in your cell phone".
This led me to believe that you plug in the Bolt and in-plug the Bolt just like a phone.
And the nozzle isn't that locked in because I in-plugged the thing mid DC Fast Charge.
BTW, I apparently I didn't do any damage to my Bolt's plug, and I went back and looked at the ChargePoint+ nozzle that I unplugged and both visually looked undamaged. Also using the same nozzle I, DC Fast Charged (this time correctly) and everything worked normally.

I'm not sure what the failure mode is if the lock is 'broken', but if you had only just left the lot (was the car charged to full?) you might not have been charging at a very fast rate at all. DC power is in general more dangerous than AC power and DC arcs much worse than AC, which is why it needs to be locked in place.

I wonder if by clicking the button on the handle you effectively told it to stop charging, which is why 'ripping it out' didn't do any permanent damage. Have you tried using the DCFC station again? I wonder if you may have caused some damage to the locking mechanism. It might not be visually obvious... It probably wouldn't be apparent during 240/120V charging because the locking connector isn't engaged. Just a few ideas.

As a note about the procedure needing to be more obvious - the DCFC station should have either written or digital instructions on how to plug-in/disconnect the car. The Chargepoints that I have used say something along the lines of "tap card to end session" or "push stop to end session" scrolling across the screen when charging (cycles through a couple other messages too).

 

[David M O'Rourke]

the DCFast stations I've used all disengage the actual current flow once you "click" the release lever - I'm pretty certain it would be very difficult to cause any actual damage given the cutoff designed into the DCFast charging handles…but YMMV

 

[luckymaf]

I wonder if by clicking the button on the handle you effectively told it to stop charging, which is why 'ripping it out' didn't do any permanent damage. Have you tried using the DCFC station again? I wonder if you may have caused some damage to the locking mechanism. It might not be visually obvious... It probably wouldn't be apparent during 240/120V charging because the locking connector isn't engaged. Just a few ideas.

As a note about the procedure needing to be more obvious - the DCFC station should have either written or digital instructions on how to plug-in/disconnect the car. The Chargepoints that I have used say something along the lines of "tap card to end session" or "push stop to end session" scrolling across the screen when charging (cycles through a couple other messages too).

The HV Battery's SOC was over 80% charged when I began the DC Fast Charge session. And the ChargePoint display's digital message was almost impossible to read because it was facing west and in direct afternoon sunlight. Later when I went back to the same ChargePoint to test it out, everything worked normally. Although I don't have much of a "normally" comparison because this is the second time I've ever used DC Fast Charge.

As an aside, I went to a meeting this morning at a business located at a lower elevation than my house, and I actually arrived with more range than when I left my house.