In recent years, for measures against environmental problems, an electrically driven vehicle (for example, an electric vehicle (EV) and a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV)) that can travel by driving a motor by means of electric power of a storage battery (hereinafter, a battery) mounted thereon has been spread. Expansion of battery chargers has been achieved as infrastructure development for the spread. One example of a charging connector of the battery charger side will be explained with reference to FIG. 11.
As shown in FIG. 11, a charging connector 100 includes: a connector case 110 that houses a connector fitting portion 111 that is fitted to a vehicle-side inlet (not shown) as a counterpart connector; a locking arm 120; and a releasing lever 140. A locking claw 121 is provided at a tip of the locking arm 120, and the locking arm 120 is configured to rock centering around a rocking shaft 122 between a locking position where the locking claw 121 engages with the vehicle-side inlet, and a releasing position where the engagement of the vehicle-side inlet and the locking claw 121 is released. A coil spring 130 that biases the locking arm 120 toward the locking position is provided at the releasing lever 140, and when a user operates the releasing lever 140, the releasing lever 140 releases latching of the vehicle-side inlet and the locking claw 121.
When such charging connector 100 is inserted in the vehicle-side inlet, the locking claw 121 of the locking arm 120 comes into contact with an inner peripheral surface of the vehicle-side inlet to be pushed in the connector fitting portion 111. When the charging connector 100 is then inserted into a deepest part of the vehicle-side inlet (i.e., it becomes a completely fitted state), the locking claw 121 of the locking arm 120 projects from an outer peripheral surface of the connector fitting portion 111, and is latched to a concave portion (not shown) provided at the inner peripheral surface of the vehicle-side inlet. The charging connector 100 is locked to the vehicle-side inlet by the latching of the concave portion (not shown) provided at the inner peripheral surface of the vehicle-side inlet and the locking claw 121.
Meanwhile, when the charging connector 100 is removed from the vehicle-side inlet after electric power is supplied to a battery, the user performs pushing operation of the releasing lever 140, the releasing lever 140 abuts against the locking arm 120, and the locking arm 120 rocks to the releasing position. As a result of this, the locking claw 121 of the locking arm 120 becomes a state of being pushed into the connector fitting portion 111, and the charging connector 100 can be removed from the vehicle-side inlet.
By the way, when a failure (breakage or entry of foreign substances) occurs in the releasing lever 140, there is a possibility of causing a situation where the releasing lever 140 does not operate normally, the locking claw 121 of the locking arm 120 cannot be pushed into the connector fitting portion 111, and where the latching of the concave portion (not shown) of the vehicle-side inlet and the locking claw 121 cannot be released. Such situation leads to difficulty in removing the charging connector 100 from the vehicle-side inlet.
Consequently, in the above-mentioned charging connector 100, a through hole 112 is provided in an upper part of the connector case 110, thereby the user can insert a jig (not shown) into the through hole 112 to push the locking claw 121 of the locking arm 120 into the connector fitting portion 111, and the latching of the concave portion (not shown) of the vehicle-side inlet and the locking claw 121 can be released even when the failure occurs in the releasing lever 140. As a result of this, even though the failure occurs in the releasing lever 140, the charging connector 100 can be removed from the vehicle-side inlet.