Beef with Volt Alarm on Unplug of EVSE....

[cdherman]

Not that any of us will change this, but I think it SUCKS that a fully charged Volt will STILL sound its stupid, and very LOUD alarm when they are unplugged.....

Scenario is not uncommon. You pull up to a public charging station and its occupied with a Volt. And the Volt is fully charged (easy enough to tell if the station has a status screen, telling you if its charging or not). So you park in the next space and proceed to pull the Volt plug. And then you are greeted with the Volt alarm sounding loudly for about 90 seconds.

I mean, Get a CLUE Chevrolette. Especially if the Volt is done charging, the stupid alarm should not sound.

What amazes me is also the attitude I found when I searched this topic over on the Volt forums. They seem to have a "first come, I get the parking spot all day" attitude.

Anyhow, having been blared by a honking horn today, and having researched the topic a tad, it just seems rather stupid.

 

[TomT]

FYI, the vehicle owner can program it not to sound when the EVSE is unplugged...

 

[davewill]

...What amazes me is also the attitude I found when I searched this topic over on the Volt forums. They seem to have a "first come, I get the parking spot all day" attitude. ...

Which is why so many of us over here don't believe in free charging or even free parking after you're done charging any more.

 

[JeffN]

As a Volt owner, I completely agree that the Volt honks its horn waaay to much. I have the charge cord alarm disabled on mine but it's impossible to tell if it is enabled on another car so I'm annoyed with this issue as well on other Volts.

The 2013 LEAF now has a charge cord alarm. It will be interesting to see how much of a problem that becomes with unplugging LEAFs that are done charging at public charging stations. On the LEAF, the alarm is controlled by a mechanical switch to the left of the steering wheel. I don't have any real-world experience yet with how easy it is to tell what position the switch is in when looking into the car from outside.

 

[ebill3]

The 2013 LEAF now has a charge cord alarm. It will be interesting to see how much of a problem that becomes with unplugging LEAFs that are done charging at public charging stations. On the LEAF, the alarm is controlled by a mechanical switch to the left of the steering wheel. I don't have any real-world experience yet with how easy it is to tell what position the switch is in when looking into the car from outside.

I don't have a 2013 LEAF, but I understood they added a charge connector lock, not an alarm. Anyone confirm that?

 

[smkettner]

Horn does not bother me. Makes the Volt look stupid not me.

 

[thehelix112]

I have a 13 SL, there is no alarm, there is a lock. It has two modes: auto and lock.
Auto would seem to be for public stations as it will auto unlock when finished. Lock is for your home where the charger might be street accessible.

I really like this feature.

Dave

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
I just looked at the manual, there appears to be 3 modes: auto, lock and unlock.

I did see the early build '13 Leaf a few months ago and am a bit concerned the locking mechanism can be easily broken by force, like by someone who doesn't know about the lock. The latch looked like it was plastic or nylon.

If I had a '13+ Leaf, I'd probably leave it in unlock.

 

[JeffN]

I have a 13 SL, there is no alarm, there is a lock. It has two modes: auto and lock.
Auto would seem to be for public stations as it will auto unlock when finished. Lock is for your home where the charger might be street accessible.

I really like this feature.

Dave

Okay, thanks for clarifying that!

 

[toasty]

i hate it when the horn goes off, (because your power went off) yet plug is still plugged in.

 

[leafdriver90]

Ford suggests the polite thing to do is give preference to the all electric vehicle (Ford Focus Electric, Nissan Leaf, etc) over plug-in hybrids and Volts: