Idle fees cannot just be nominal ( a la "eh, it's only x") or even reasonable (the Freakonomics "I'm paying for it"). They ought to be truly punitive. I don't normally advocate for this sort of thing, but the heart and soul of the SpC is that availability--get in, get what you need, and get out. Yes, there can be emergencies, but that can be handled by providing drivers with a reasonable number of "emergency waivers" per year or something along those lines. As long as idle fees are not even an issue unless the SpC is 50% full, I don't see how anyone can complain without sounding like an inconsiderate jerk.
Frankly, I would like to see the "idle fee" be more of a "sitting fee" where the meter starts running as soon as you pull up to the station but waived if you move the car within five minutes of the end of the charging session.
I do agree that deferring payment for idle fees until you visit a SC is pretty poor, but I also understand how Tesla wanted to impose these before having the infrastructure to collect on the fly. Since there already will be a credit card on file for SpC for post-1/15 orders, I expect this will change sooner rather than later.
On that note, though, does anyone know if the Tesla app will alert you if circumstances change such that an idle fee would imposed? I can see a scenario where someone leaves when their car is the only one at the station only to come back to find they are subject to an idle fee when they return. Alerting them of the change not only would be fair but also good, in that it lets them know that there is an actual need to move.
With regard to shooing off local chargers, the charging fee just needs to be more than the rate one would pay to charge the car at home. Right now, supercharging is free. Regardless of what it says about someone's character, it's easy for someone to think "why should I pay for this at all, when I can get it for free at the mall?" It makes no difference whether it's only pennies, people do crazy, selfish stuff for "free," no matter what it is.
As the SpC network expands and the unlimited superchargers become a smaller and smaller portion of the fleet, the local charger problem likely will become less an less severe. Honestly, I don't at all mind if Tesla makes money off the SpC network, whether through idle fees or charging fees. I applaud Tesla stating that it intends never to treat supercharging as a profit center, so long as they properly expand and maintain it. There's no reason it cannot eventually sustain itself as a business unit. If you bought your car with unlimited supercharging, that won't change. If you didn't, you can expect costs to vary. The website is quite clear that the current complimentary credits "apply to Model S and X ordered after January 15, 2017," so we can expect it to change and, likely, fade away. I wouldn't be surprised if substantially fewer or no credits come with the Model 3.
