Parking Etiquette Question

[TMobe]

I agree with everyone that the public EV spots should not be a VIP parking spot for the lazy. It is there to charge or don't park there (this goes for a super charger also). I am a fan (even though inconvenient) the 4 hr limit. Those spots are for everyone and if it has no limit it can easily be abused buy someone trying to get a full charge of 300 miles when another vehicle could be waiting in dire straights in the red. At my work I get free charging at some Clipper Creek units. We have that limit and it forces me to move my car at lunch everyday. This allows at the very least twice as many people access to those chargers. IMHO and it may not be popular but I think hybrid plugins that are also gas should have a limit of 2 hrs since electric isn't there only choice, they have a smaller pack to charge suggesting they will be done faster, and full electric vehicles should get priority. Us Tesla owners with such good range can skip a charge if needed. But I am kinda ticked or feel bad for the Fiat, Leaf, owners that can't get a charge since it is filled up by Volt's,etc.

I'd just ask that garage to set limit signs and enforce it.

 

[RAW84]

You're only supposed to park there while the car is charging. When it's complete, you should move, and you should never park there and not plug in. That's the etiquette.


However, I wouldn't make a big deal about this and it wouldn't bother me at all because of the ample EV parking in this instance. There's six spots and 3 employees have EVs, you're not really blocking anyone from charging, which is the spirit of this etiquette.

 

[GSP]

Why are EV drivers automatically better than ICE drivers? EV drivers might NOT know better. They might think "o look, a dedicated parking spot for EVs, cool, I'll park here"

The reason I think EV drivers are less likely to just be ignorant is that they need to charge their own cars. ICE drivers have rarely had trouble with blocked fuel pumps, and are more likely to think charging stations are really parking spots.

Personally, I am always looking for charging stations, just to know what PEV driver's charging options are. I never ever have seen an EV parking spot.

GSP

 

[HumanGenome]

Both ICE and EV drivers are the same except EV drivers spent a whole lot more for their vehicle which comes with all sorts of entitlement.

 

[green1]

This is why proper signage is so important for these stalls. I've found the number of properly signed EV charging stalls to be well under 50%.

Most have some version of a sign nobody has ever seen with some variation of "EV charging" "EV parking" or some such, none of which tell people NOT to park there. Tesla is actually one of the major offenders with those ridiculous red supercharger signs which don't mean anything at all.

If you don't want people parked there, put up a no parking sign, with a proper exception listed for "Electric vehicles while charging" If you haven't, you probably shouldn't complain when people park their car in a parking space.

 

[sdorn]

Can you set up some sort of charging-rota system? I read in another thread that anyone wanting to charge Emails and then folk above them in the list tell them when they have vacated the slot.

My building has three level 2 chargers and three 120 volt outlets that EVs can use to charge. There are over 40 EVs that park in our building (mostly Leafs but 2 or 3 Teslas and also a BMW i3 and a Ford Focus EV). We had to come up with a sharing spreadsheet with 2 hour time slots and a methodology for moving cars and swapping chargers between cars to coordinate it all.

 

[sdorn]

Both ICE and EV drivers are the same except EV drivers spent a whole lot more for their vehicle which comes with all sorts of entitlement.

My first Leaf was almost free. Total cost on a 2 year lease was about $7,400 including tax, tag, title and everything else. Georgia used to give $5k tax credits, and I got mine right before they stopped, so my total cost for the Leaf for two years was about $2,400.

Now my lease is almost up, so I ordered a P100D. Can't wait.

 

[Az_Rael]

Personally, I am always looking for charging stations, just to know what PEV driver's charging options are. I never ever have seen an EV parking spot.

"Clean Air Vehicle" parking spots are fairly common in my neck of the woods. No charging stations, just a marked space for parking.

 

[Alex D]

I would not go as far as reporting them right away, especially since there are 4 more stalls available, but maybe leave a nice note with your thoughts. Since they are EV drivers themselves, they should easily understand your point of view, even if they apparently don't as of now. Sometimes a friendly nudge is more than enough.

If they still persist in parking there without charging and more EV's are using the stalls over time, you can still report them later on if it's necessary.

 

[callmesam]

EV charging spots that are never occupied are a negative for EV overall acceptance.

Even a token plug-in would be courteous.

It's easy to see why people don't want to ACTUALLY USE charging for 4-10X more $ than charging at home?

 

[rolson1011]

I'm glad to see this conversation, it is terribly bad etiquette. As a driver for many years of non tesla EV's that barely erked out 100 miles per charge. It was always disheartening to see people parked in charging spaces that I needed and not charging. I've seen cars get vandalized because they were habitual offenders. Take it up with HR, they are not parking spots, but rather use the "gas pump" mentality. Would other drivers in your company be pissed off if their regular gas station had a whole bunch of cars parked there and they were running on fumes, you bet they would be.

 

[Pollux]

So I'm the happy owner of a MS P90D, and in my office building parking lot there are two other Model S's parked every day. In our large parking lot we have 6 spaces with ChargePoint chargers, with each space painted green with white words reading "Electric vehicle charging station". These spaces are also the closest spaces to the building entrance.

So everyday I park in a normal parking space, while the other 2 MS's park in the ChargePoint spaces, but never charge. And to my way of thinking, that's cheesy. To me, it's like using grandma's car to go to the grocery and parking in the handicapped spots, even though you don't need to. But maybe I'm old and crotchety. And no, no other cars ever seem to be charging outside my building, so there is always room to do so.

So I'm wondering what's the general consensus on that? Because we own Tesla's can we simply park in charging spots without charging? Seems wrong. Am I in the minority?

Hi, @RumRunner,

Congrats on your P90D!! An awesome car... I salute you!

I also salute your good manners. I, too, park in normal spaces rather than use the charging spaces. I admit, when I first acquired my P85+, I excitedly charged at local chargers, such as the ones at Whole Foods. But I quickly learned that I was accumulating maybe 6-10 miles of range during the time I spent charging there, against a battery pack that held 235 miles @ 90% charge. I decided that I only needed to use those kinds of chargers during emergencies, and so over the last 3 years have only charged outside my home at Superchargers during road trips and at a couple of Chargepoints and RV parks on other road trips.

I think there is an entire class of Electric Vehicles that rely on these slow L2 chargers just for basic, daily existence. Leafs and suchlike. So these chargers should be left to those vehicles.

Further, I believe that a Tesla Model S is a highly visible symbol. I hope an S owner takes pride and joy in his/her vehicle, and even stops to think about those he/she may be influencing through such a purchase. From that standpoint, squatting in an EV space without even bothering to charge practically shrieks "entitled"... and others will notice.

Alan

 

[Pollux]

My first Leaf was almost free. Total cost on a 2 year lease was about $7,400 including tax, tag, title and everything else. Georgia used to give $5k tax credits, and I got mine right before they stopped, so my total cost for the Leaf for two years was about $2,400.

Now my lease is almost up, so I ordered a P100D. Can't wait.

Talk about swinging from one end of the spectrum all the way to the other for price, performance and pretty much every other metric!

Alan

 

[scottm]

Take a picture, capture the license plates and post it here... in this thread.

Leave a note on the windshield with a link, and ask them to join in on the discussion.

Get their side.

 

[Max*]

Get their side.

It's either going to be
1. I didn't think about that way (ignorant)
2. I have an EV, I can park in the EV spaces. No one is using them anyways! (entitled)

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Take a picture, capture the license plates and post it here... in this thread.

Leave a note on the windshield with a link, and ask them to join in on the discussion.

Get their side.

The only bad thing about that idea is that the cars could belong to a supervisor or "mahogany row" employee and the OP probably wouldn't want to ruffle any feathers or threaten their employment status over this. Even if it's just a regular employee, the non-charging Tesla owners could report any action as a sort of harassment to HR. I once got sent to HR for "tracking someone's bathroom breaks". I had no idea what they were talking about but HR still wanted an answer because someone made an accusation against me. Of course they couldn't tell me who made the accusation so I had no idea how to defend myself against such an unfounded accusation from an unnamed accuser!

The best option would be to bring the issue up with HR or facilities and see if they could send out a reminder concerning parking policies. If nothing happens, they could try to escalate it but I wouldn't attempt to do anything about it on my own if I was in the same situation.

 

[Zaxxon]

I also salute your good manners. I, too, park in normal spaces rather than use the charging spaces. I admit, when I first acquired my P85+, I excitedly charged at local chargers, such as the ones at Whole Foods. But I quickly learned that I was accumulating maybe 6-10 miles of range during the time I spent charging there, against a battery pack that held 235 miles @ 90% charge. I decided that I only needed to use those kinds of chargers during emergencies, and so over the last 3 years have only charged outside my home at Superchargers during road trips and at a couple of Chargepoints and RV parks on other road trips.

I think there is an entire class of Electric Vehicles that rely on these slow L2 chargers just for basic, daily existence. Leafs and suchlike. So these chargers should be left to those vehicles.

As a not-yet-Tesla owner who has one of those other EVs that relies on these slow chargers, I salute you, sir. My current vehicle is a PHEV with around 18 miles of real-world EV range (save the jokes--I know it's a stopgap ). Even when puttering around town to the grocery store/mall/etc, I can use an L2 charger, and it may actually impact whether I need to kick into the old dinosaur juice on the way home or not. When I come to a station and see a Leaf or Tesla plugged in at Kohl's or something, I'm not upset--they're certainly entitled to charge there just as much as I am! But it does occur to me that it's highly likely they didn't need the charge. Or perhaps it would be better expressed as: their charging probably didn't impact their ability to continue about their day on electric, where my vehicle very well may avoid running back to gasoline usage by sneaking in a 30-minute charge while I shop.

But then I realize that running into other EVs more often is a good thing, and I move on with life. One example--earlier this week I had to take a one-day business trip. Our airport has two garages--east and west. West has 5 L1 charging stations and 10 L2 stations. East has 5 L1 stations. Since I was to be gone around 12 hours and an L1 station fills my vehicle in about 9 hours, I went east, hoping to snag an L1 charger. I didn't want to hog an L2 since I would be done charging in 2.5 hours but not back to the car for 10 more hours.

I arrived at the airport at the wonderful time of 4:50 AM to find all five stations filled with Teslas and Leafs. The implication is that these cars all hooked in for at least an overnight charge. Did they need that? Possibly. But it cost me 18 electric miles.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I arrived at the airport at the wonderful time of 4:50 AM to find all five stations filled with Teslas and Leafs. The implication is that these cars all hooked in for at least an overnight charge. Did they need that? Possibly. But it cost me 18 electric miles.

Sadly, I instantly knew you were referring to DIA.

 

[Zaxxon]

DIA.

One burrito for you.

 

[green1]

"Clean Air Vehicle" parking spots are fairly common in my neck of the woods. No charging stations, just a marked space for parking.

We have a couple places with those... they're usually occupied by large pickup trucks and SUVs...

(some of the "clean air" vehicle signs specifically include diesels! (I'm looking at you Ikea!))