1000+ miles of public charging - thoughts

[M3noob]

OK, understood, maybe leaving a car charging overnight and not moving it is fine... perhaps...
But leaving the car multiple days plugged in... not sure about that.
It's just a really pain when someone else comes along with a really low battery and there is several cars plugged in not charging.
When I had only our Nissan Leaf with it's fairly limited range it used to really annoy me, but with a LR M3 I don't worry as range anxiety is all most gone.

At the mo', it's the ICE drivers with range anxiety ;-)

 

[Peter 224]

If/When Tesla open up their chargers the £1.00/min idle fee may be a good teaching tool.

 

[IanMcL]

Exactly this - there are many locations with 7kw or 22kw chargers where the whole point is to leave your car plugged in. For example at train stations, or city centre car parks near offices.

I completely agree that leaving your car plugged into a rapid charger is wrong - but in my opinion the same does not apply to slow chargers. Obviously, unplug when you can, but it’s not feasible to be right by your charger e.g. at a train station as soon as it’s finished charging.

You can adjust your charge rate to meet your known timescale.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

You can adjust your charge rate to meet your known timescale.

What benefit does it give to anyone to slow down your charging so you finish closer to the time when you'll be back at your car? You're still plugged in

 

[markgyork]

I've also noticed the habit of EVs being parked without charging.
Do other networks not have idling fees?

Round these parts we see this a lot. Many public car parks offer free parking if you’re charging, so in a pinch it’s easy to pop over to a charger, hook up a cable, and you’ve got yourself a free parking space for as long as you’re there. Not saying I’d ever do this, but the system is set-up to be gamed in this way.

Not sure how best to police this sort of thing when it’s not easy to always see if a car is charging (some charge points make this much easier to see than others), but it’s only going to get worse with greater adoption of EVs.

 

[kelvin 660]

Maybe use the "Need to charge" app and the windscreen stickers will help to stop this problem??

 

[JonB]

Round these parts we see this a lot. Many public car parks offer free parking if you’re charging, so in a pinch it’s easy to pop over to a charger, hook up a cable, and you’ve got yourself a free parking space for as long as you’re there. Not saying I’d ever do this, but the system is set-up to be gamed in this way.

Not sure how best to police this sort of thing when it’s not easy to always see if a car is charging (some charge points make this much easier to see than others), but it’s only going to get worse with greater adoption of EVs.

I think it's a temporary problem. Once EVs are everywhere the free parking / free charging bonus will disappear (along with free road tax and tax free miles).

 

[kelvin 660]

Here is how to get the "NeedToCharge" app

NeedToCharge | The friendly way to share an EV charger

www.needtocharge.com