Cannot disconnect ChargePoint charge cable

Is it the same ChargePoint charger cable you have been using in the past? Have you always used the connector locking system by pushing the small button inside of the charge port? (red arrow in the diagram) Did the SKS work with your key for the other doors (2 front doors and 1 hatch? I guess it is possible that the antenna for the charge port is specifically damaged. Maybe battery in the fob is weak???
IDK. I hope you can solve this mystery quickly, but whatever you find out, please let us know the solution.

 

Since the lock mechanism is responding to you manually pressing the switch, this may not help, but have you tried this emergency procedure?

 

Wow!, You must be glad it did not cause a fire or something. I wonder if it was the car or Charge Point charger that caused this. Obviously, the charger cord must be out of use as well. Is Charge Point doing any investigation?

 

Interesting. I had an extension cord fuse to the receptacle on my leaf blower a few years ago. Sounds like the same type of situation.

 

WOW!!
From that second picture showing the Charge Port part stuck in your charging port, it looks like the Charge Port pin was severely corroded.

 

Thanks for the update. Was repair covered by warranty or did you have to pay out of your pocket?

 

bummer. sounds like you are being blamed for either charge point or toyotas problem

 

Was that your comprehensive that paid for the repair on the car? Did you (or your insurance) have to pay to repair the ChargePoint EVSE too?

 

Corrosion in the ChargePoint J1772 increasing the diameter of the terminal? That might explain it getting stuck in there.

 

Thanks for the response. I'm unable to find the emergency release lever. I can't tell from the illustration exactly where it is. I've tried pushing in a few places, but I'm not certain that I'm pushing in the right spot since I can't see anything that looks or feels like the lever in the illustration. Attached is a photo of the area. Can you add more guidance?

 

I found the lever, but pushing it in didn't work. I called the dealership and I'm having the car towed there.

 

As a professional electrician who has worked with high voltage systems, and my forte as a troubleshooter I wanted to add my two cents worth. Sometimes it is hard to determine the EXACT root cause of the problem, but the symptoms can point us in the right direction. The charging port and charging cable connector are commonly referred to in my trade as a "Pin and Sleeve" style. They are often used in higher voltage and higher amperage situations where safety is important to avoid hazards. Looking at Mr. Powell's pictures of his damaged charging port and the corresponding cable connector, it appears that his affected "Pin" in his port is discolored, it is a different shade than his other unaffected pin. This leads me to suspect that exact pin and sleeve incurred excess heat, and this caused insulation (plastic or Bakelite or etc.) to expand/deform making it hard to be removed. I have seen this before with 480 volt welding pin and sleeve connections. The insulation around the damaged pin and sleeve had to broken apart to allow the parts to come away from each other. Usually a poor or bad connection caused excess heat which began to deform or corrode the affected parts.
"IF" you could cut open each side of the port and cable connector to see which exact section showed the most heat damage, you would have found where the problem started. It is just like tracing the beginnings of a fire, the worst burned part is where it started. "BUT" the how or why it started in that spot can have many factors. Maybe a previous loose connection that partially damaged things could have contributed to it all? That is, maybe a damaged connector left by another user with a bad port, and we see the final damage the next time it was used, which was on Mr. Powell's port? Maybe the cable connector was not all the way in? Maybe the wire-to-pin connection inside the Prius port was not made solidly, and it slowly was going bad with each use?
In my trade unless someone is demanding an exact cause, which can be impossible to tell without hours of research, I cut off both connectors and strip insulation back to expose undamaged copper metal wire and put on new "Pin and Sleeve" connectors on both sides.
The cost of the research, along with the cost of systems being out of service and workers standing idle waiting for repairs, almost always means we cut to the chase and get things repaired ASAP and move on.

 

Noticed this problem was in 2019.

 

And another similar issue reported in 2022 Still a good description of how to find the cause of why things like the EVSE getting stuck in the charge port can help others that read it troubleshoot similar EVSE, Primes charge port issues.