Just wondered if having your Prius plugged in and charging (or charge complete) will disable you being able to start or move your car. I would imagine this has been thought of as a safety feature. Still, I keep having this picture of my wife backing out of our garage with the charger still attached! Tell me this can't happen!!!
I believe the car won't start until it's unplugged but it's a strong educated guess until Toyota says so. It's been six months.
As per the J1772 standard, the car is not allowed to go into drive if the charging connector is connected to the car. There's a "proximity detection" setup (hall effect, etc) that detects if the charger is connected to the vehicle. Note, it does not matter if the J1772 connector even has a wire going to it, the car is not allowed to go into drive. There is also a "networking-like protocol" between the charger and the vehicle. If a proper connection isn't determined, then the charger will not energize the contacts and the vehicle will not allow any charging of the batteries. Someone asked what happens if the car is in motion (slowly) and the connector is attached. From what I remember of the standard, there's no "requirement" for a specific action. It is very possible to have the car moving at 1 mph and have someone walking along and plug in the connector. It would not be a smart thing to try since it could easily damage the connector on the car - and that would be very expensive to fix!
