how to manually unlock charger on 2016 model

This has happened to me every time at a public charger.
My car is off. Plug in the charger. Car charges. all good. But if I stop the charger before the car is done charging then
charge plug lock will not unlock. You can press the open charge compartment button on the dash, turn the car on off but it still will not unlock.
The only way I have found to unlock it is manually. So open the hood. Look above the charger compartment. There is a round plastic slug that covers the locking mechanism for the plug lock. Pop that off and then push the metal hammer back. Now you can unplug the charger.
seems like a software issue. Because when the car gets a full charge it turns off it's charger and then allows me to push the open charge compartment button on the dash to unlock the charger.

Did you try lock/unlock doors ?

As reported by others, I have found that locking the car after the charger is plugged in will lock the charger handle in as well. So returning to the car you need to unlock the car first to release the charger handle.

What is interesting is that if you lock the car first, then connect the charger handle, the charger handle remains unlocked, thereby enabling it to be removed when fully charged while the car remains locked.

2016 Soul EV (Canada)

JimGord said:

What is interesting is that if you lock the car first, then connect the charger handle, the charger handle remains unlocked, thereby enabling it to be removed when fully charged while the car remains locked.

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I don't know about the Soul EVs for the Canadian market but on my 2016 US Soul EV+ the locking pin deploys every time the car is locked. This pin extends above the locking latch on the handle. When the doors are locked and the charge handle is plugged in it doesn't insert all the way because the locking pin doesn't allow it to. This creates a potential problem since the pins don't fully insert into the sockets. This can create a higher resistance on the high current connections which results in increased heat. Also, there is the potential for micro-arcs at the compromised connections which will degrade the contact points further.

To verify that the plug does fully insert on your car:
1. Open the charging door
2. Lock the car doors with the fob
3. Plug in the charge cord as far as it will go
4. Without pressing the release button on the handle attempt to pull it out. If the handle comes out then it wasn't inserted all the way to begin with because the latch didn't catch.

If this is how your car works I do not recommend you charge this way. The "convenience" isn't worth the risk.

The best thing Kia can do is to create a software update that allows the locking of the charge cord to be disabled. It needs three options, always lock (as it does now), never lock, and don't lock/lock just this time. This last one is merely a "do the opposite of the current setting this time" option.

Presumably, 2015 has none of the above. I have never had trouble pulling the charge plug out of the vehicle no matter what status it's in.

From other posts on this topic I get the idea that it is a new feature on the 2016 models.

GizmoEV said:

From other posts on this topic I get the idea that it is a new feature on the 2016 models.

Click to expand...

correct. the new model has a lock which can be unlocked by unlocking the car doors with on the remote.