It's a way to stop other EV drivers (or kids) from unplugging your car before the charge is finished. The full "lock" option, if still there, is often abused by people who park in charging spaces all day. The "auto" position unlocks the port as soon as charging finishes.
^^^
Yep on the above. It's also a way to sort of prevent theft of one's L1 120 volt EVSE (or possibly an L2).
Unfortunately, at least on '13 to '17, the charging lock is easily bypassed w/a comb w/pointy end, 2 coffee stirring sticks (I keep these in my Leaf) or a long enough screwdriver. Haven't tried to see if the '18+ charging lock is an easy to bypass since I don't have one.
Pardon my ignorance, but if you have to turn the car off to charge, how do you get to the auto lock screen?
You turn the car off, start the charge, turn the car on, set it to lock and then turn the car off again???
Seems a little hinky.
Morning,
I too had theb2016 and now have a 2019.
There are some new features as well as the control being hidden in the instrument, cluster menus. Not too hidden actually once you get familiar.
I set it to auto and forget it. The port will lock when you lock the car and unlock when you unlock the car. It will re lock if you don’t pull the cable after some seconds. The key fob port door open switch will also unlock the cable.
Another new feature is the “Only trigger timer charge at home”. This is handy when you are using public chargers. The car uses gps and even I. A basement garage it works well. I have forgotten to disable the timers more than once at a public charger. I always look for the charging lights so I would catch it but it saves another thing to think about.
