Home charging cable does not lock. Normal?

[Hay]

I recently bought an MG4 and am loving it. Sofar I've only charged it with the standard slow home charger, which works fine, but I've noticed that it doesn't actually lock the plug in place. It's charging fine, but I can pull the plug out any time. Is the locking thing just for public/ fast charging or is something wrong with either my car or the plug?

 

[Rolfe]

Well, the granny lead definitely locks into my MG4 SE SR. Even if charging has finished it stays locked until I unlock the car. So there's definitely something wrong with the OP's car.

If you start a charge and lock the car, then realise you left your phone in the car (who, me? asking for a friend), when you unlock the car to get it the charge will abort. However it will (should) restart once you've relocked the car. Worth checking though. I unlocked mine twice one night, once to get my phone and once to get my house key, and it was only when I was in the house and thought to check the app I discovered the car was not charging. I was able to start it with the app though, didn't have to go outside again.

Yesterday (first time using the Zappi) I went out to disconnect when the car had finished. I unlocked the car (so I thought) with the door button, but the Zappi plug wouldn't come out of the car. I thought, maybe I have to unlock it from inside the car. That was when I discovered the car was actually locked. I must have left it unlocked when I started the charge from the car's infotainment screen, and locked it when I thought I was unlocking.

I don't know if the plug would have pulled out if I hadn't inadvertently locked the car. Nor do I know if it would have pulled out during charging, from the unlocked car. But for sure, locked car should be locked plug.

 

[kiwi]

@Coulomb both BYD and SAIC (for MG4) are using SiC MOSFETs rather than IGBTs for the pfc and inverter circuits. Advantages of silicon carbide include higher breakdown voltage.

 

[decrep]

I've worked on heavy duty contactors, designed to release at 0 crossing, and be self extinguishing. Even tungsten contacts need cleaning yearly to remove the arcing erosion.
I don't see a single arc as the problem, but the contacts aren't going to last very long with repeated removal at full power.

 

[Deleted member 2148]

Surely the pin arrangement in the plug will drop the control circuit before the power.
Large three phase plugs had a shorter pilot pin in case a plug was drawn out with the power still on, fifty years ago!
Still needs sorted though.

You are correct, one pin is shorter and switches off as plug is pulled.