I am sooooooooo happy that Tesla is finally beginning to enforce the IDLE fee policy. This will save a ton of congestion and get all owners to use the facilities the way they were designed.
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I've taken 5 long road trips in our Tesla. I've rarely encountered other owners. On my eclipse 2017 trip, it was a nightmare. People jammed Superchargers charging to 100% and leaving their cars. Added 2 hours to my trip. I am glad Tesla is sorting this out. If owners are not considerate, then Tesla needs to have rules to ensure consequences.
It sucks but its also not a big deal to move your car after an hour or even 30 minutes. I mean, the first 30 minutes are where most of the charging happens. Past that and the charge rate slows tremendously. I never need to charge past 90% even with a lowly 75D (when I was a 60D there was one stop I had to charge to 100% but it was only 86% of my battery capacity and still charged above 40kw).
So I don't see a problem. OP could've moved his car but didn't and got penalized. He gambled and lost. If no one else showed up, he would've been fine. Its like moving your car when your meter expires -- if you wait, there is a chance the cop comes and tickets you. Sometimes, I suppose, its worth taking a chance but the risk is always on you based on your decisions.
It sucks but its also not a big deal to move your car after an hour or even 30 minutes. I mean, the first 30 minutes are where most of the charging happens. Past that and the charge rate slows tremendously. I never need to charge past 90% even with a lowly 75D (when I was a 60D there was one stop I had to charge to 100% but it was only 86% of my battery capacity and still charged above 40kw).
So I don't see a problem. OP could've moved his car but didn't and got penalized. He gambled and lost. If no one else showed up, he would've been fine. Its like moving your car when your meter expires -- if you wait, there is a chance the cop comes and tickets you. Sometimes, I suppose, its worth taking a chance but the risk is always on you based on your decisions.
If you are not looking at your phone you could still figure out when they started charging you. If he left the car there for 10 hours and was only charged for 6 hours it is safe to say that 6 hours before they hit 50%. They don't back charge you once it hits 50% full.
Don TLR
Active Member
Mods should change title to "Got what I Deserved, won't do that again.."
Let's say you arrive well after midnight and just want to get a few hours of shut eye just before leaving at 7 am. Are you telling me that you are going to stay up an extra hour and wait for charging to complete? Let's say there are 12 stalls at the site. Do you really believe 11 others are going to arrive in the middle of the night? If yes, show us proof.
In this case, go to bed, when you get up, go plug your car in, shower, breakfast, whatever and then depart as you normally would. You are fully charged and you have NOT blocked anyone else from charging.
No proof necessary. The rules are laid out and you follow them, irrespective of the edge cases you may encounter which in your mind may not justify the fees
Man, people are harsh... I am completely in line with the general concept that if you're not charging that it's best to not occupy the spot. But let me give an example of a very recent trip of mine. I was driving from St. Louis to Kansas City. We didn't get to leave STL until about 10:30pm getting us to the Holiday Inn Express where the SpC is located after midnight. We had to be up at 6 am the next morning to get to a meeting in KC. It takes a solid 90 minutes to get a 100% charge and there were zero cars at that SpC at 12:30am when we got checked in. While I could have, and per a number of posters her should have, gotten up at 3 am, dressed, gone down and moved my car to make a full 8 empty spots just in case 8 other Teslas simultaneously showed up sometime between 3am and 6am, that is just totally ridiculous.
Because Tesla recognizes that that is ridiculous they implemented the idle charging rule for >50% of chargers in use criteria. Let's not be pedantic here.
To the OP, if you're confident that there never were enough cars for 50%, then I'd call Tesla...hell, I'd call anyway and I suspect a simple apology would get you out of the charge. It doesn't appear anyone was inconvenienced by your choice and they, perhaps, were just sending a shot across your bow.
Because Tesla recognizes that that is ridiculous they implemented the idle charging rule for >50% of chargers in use criteria. Let's not be pedantic here.
To the OP, if you're confident that there never were enough cars for 50%, then I'd call Tesla...hell, I'd call anyway and I suspect a simple apology would get you out of the charge. It doesn't appear anyone was inconvenienced by your choice and they, perhaps, were just sending a shot across your bow.
JPP
Active Member
...maybe then UNplug your car but leave it at the Supercharger, but check back to see if the slots are getting filled up. If you are not plugged in or charging, you should not be accumulating idle fees. This of course is a suboptimal situation....
It's $24 per hour. Since he said he was sleeping that could be $200.
I just wish Tesla cared enough about this topic to do something about ICErs, they've been more of a problem than sleeping Tesla owners in my experience.
WhiskySTL
Member
What could they do? They can't do anything, except perhaps push for legislation so that ICE cars could be ticketed... Good luck with that.
DFibRL8R
Active Member
Some places have passed legislation that does just that.
Special Sign Needed to Enforce Rhode Island Anti-ICEing Law - PlugInSites - EV Charging Resources
Is Tesla renting the parking spaces for Superchargers? If so, they should be within their rights to have offending vehicles towed.
Wow, this has been an interesting thread. A few thoughts:
(1) Yes, they put in the 50% full thing before it even got implemented.
(2) Yes, it has always been per minute, not per hour
(3) Yes, this was not a good thing to do.
(4) However, their occupancy detection seems inaccurate at least as often as it’s accurate, so I have some doubts it actually got 50% full during the night.
(5) I like @croman 's wording: “He gambled and lost.”
I'll also give a partial hat tip to @efusco 's take on it. Yes, it seems like there are some times when it shouldn't be a problem, but it's not quite "totally ridiculous". You can try that, but you are gambling.
(1) Yes, they put in the 50% full thing before it even got implemented.
(2) Yes, it has always been per minute, not per hour
(3) Yes, this was not a good thing to do.
(4) However, their occupancy detection seems inaccurate at least as often as it’s accurate, so I have some doubts it actually got 50% full during the night.
(5) I like @croman 's wording: “He gambled and lost.”
I'll also give a partial hat tip to @efusco 's take on it. Yes, it seems like there are some times when it shouldn't be a problem, but it's not quite "totally ridiculous". You can try that, but you are gambling.
Graffi
Member
Last Tuesday week my wife and I traveled out of the area to visit a sick friend in the hospital. On the way there we stopped at a supercharger to get enough to make the trip home and went to get something to eat while charging. Before we finished we got a notice that the charge was finished and would start accruing the $0.40 per minute fee. I then remembered that I had left the charge level at the minimum so it did not take long to charge. I then used the phone app to change the charge level to approx. 95% and the charge restarted. Saved by the phone notice. Plus we would have had to wait once we got back to the car and realized that we needed more charge to get back home.
So zero parking spaces available, all Superchargers were available, and no ICEing? Wow, that’s incredible.
The solution is for the hotel to build a bigger parking lot, and for you to speak to the hotel staff, explain the situation and ask them to direct you to a parking spot that wasn’t a Supercharger stall. They would then get the message that their lot was too small. If I had been in that situation I would have made them come out to the parking lot with me and tell me where to legally park. I’m their customer and they need to find a solution.
You took a risk that during the night the Supercharger could get busy and you would incur idle fees. Apparently your gamble paid off. But it might not have worked out that way.
And that has been pointed out upthread by multiple people.
rpo
Member
I fully support the idle fees whether the charger is at 50% or not. A while ago, I was driving through Northern California in the middle of the night on a road trip. I got to the Mt Shasta supercharger which had 4 stalls at the time. They were all occupied...at something like 3 AM....by people leaving their cars plugged in overnight. I called Tesla and complained and someone came out and moved a car after 15 minutes, but I don't know if Tesla began calling owners who were there or that was just a fluke.
That has happened twice to me at that supercharger. I wish they were charging back then so it didn't leave me stranded at a charger in the middle of the night.
It does not matter if you were the only occupant at the supercharger when you plugged in or not. People drive at all times of the day/night, and there's no excuse for blocking a stall for an extended period of time while you sleep because you simply don't know if the supercharger is filling up, or if stalls are not working, etc. Just move your car.
That has happened twice to me at that supercharger. I wish they were charging back then so it didn't leave me stranded at a charger in the middle of the night.
It does not matter if you were the only occupant at the supercharger when you plugged in or not. People drive at all times of the day/night, and there's no excuse for blocking a stall for an extended period of time while you sleep because you simply don't know if the supercharger is filling up, or if stalls are not working, etc. Just move your car.
jelloslug
Active Member
How about you prove that they won't? Superchargers are for charging, not parking.
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