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ICE'd....... Literally!

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Came across this in a parking lot nearby.... Used to see a Fisker Karma plugged in there now and then.

There are about 6 spots, almost always free although I have also seen a beat up Mustang parked there, presumably out of spite.
You'll see the tiny sign showing that these are all Plug-in/Hybrid vehicle spots behind the mountain of snow.
IMG_20140219_093748.jpg
 
No charging station though, right?

Our local Ikea has "EV/alternative fuel" spots, which usually have about 25% of the spots filled with conventional gas cars. But there are usually empty spots so I can park nice and close to the doors.
 
With the greater-than-usual amount of snow we've had this winter, the other things that has occurred to me is how vulnerable the superchargers are going to be to snow plowing damage.

When the folks are plowing "hot-n-heavy" during a storm, they aren't always the most careful with the plows, which could certainly damage a charger pedestal. But even if the plow blade doesn't make contact, just the pressure of a the snow/ice itself could damage one.

The number of road signs, fence posts, parking lot signage, etc... that I've seen down around here are evidence of that. Like those items, supercharger pedestals aree by necessity close to the curb. And, give the relative large cross-sectional flat frontal area of a pedestal it would likely have a lot of force acting on it as compared to the typical round sign post.

From what I can see, the pedestals have two rather beefy posts sunk in to a substantial concrete footing... but from what I can tell the casing itself is rather light gauge sheet metal. There are already reports of of the fasteners holding the skins on having a bit of a difficulty with the thickness of some of the (newer?) cable assemblies.
 
I regularly attend an EV club meeting in Hamilton, Ontario that has 10 CS-30 chargers on site. All winter, the majority of the spots have been blocked with snow pushed in to them by the contractor who ploughs the parking lot. We've mentioned it twice to the staff on site, but nothing gets done about it.