Pay to Park at new Supercharger

[Bumper]

There is a new 12 stall SuperCharge station opening shortly in National Harbor Maryland (just outside DC). It is a great location, right off major highways with dining, an outlet mall, a Gaylord convention center, and MGM's new casino. I do notice the charger stalls are marked differently than other places. First, only 8 spots have signs reserving for Teslas. The other 4 are marked "30 minute parking". Also, there are markings on the pavements numbering each parking spot, and a "pay to park" kiosk at the entrance.

Are there other SuperCharge stations where we have to pay for parking? I was under the impression the cost of this was built into the car for those that have it free, and that the Idle fee was put in place to discourage long term parking abuse.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

There are a number in pay lots.
In almost all cases the parking lots give you an hour free when there's an attendant there to validate, but outside of those times you have to pay.

One hour of free parking might explain why the parking spots have numbers. Or maybe it's just a psychological ploy to discourage ICEing.

 

[boaterva]

Also nothing new about the 30 Minutes general parking sign for some slots. It's all about how many slots they could get 'free' or 'dedicated' from the location. Some slots are reserved for Tesla parking, some are shared with the 'normal parking lot' usage. People aren't supposed to part there all day, of course. And at this location, I can't see anyone popping in and out for 30 minutes. Other places (like Hagerstown Mall), maybe!

 

[Drewflux]

Pay to park is one of the things that killed the superchargers in the Star city casino here in Sydney Australia. It was once free, then changed to 1 hour parking. Nobody local knows the truth why it was shut down. Tesla just lost its second Supercharger station in Sydney

 

[kort677]

There is a new 12 stall SuperCharge station opening shortly in National Harbor Maryland (just outside DC). It is a great location, right off major highways with dining, an outlet mall, a Gaylord convention center, and MGM's new casino. I do notice the charger stalls are marked differently than other places. First, only 8 spots have signs reserving for Teslas. The other 4 are marked "30 minute parking". Also, there are markings on the pavements numbering each parking spot, and a "pay to park" kiosk at the entrance.

Are there other SuperCharge stations where we have to pay for parking? I was under the impression the cost of this was built into the car for those that have it free, and that the Idle fee was put in place to discourage long term parking abuse.

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at the savannah airport the SpC is in the pay lot, however if you go to the service desk they'll mark your ticket and the first hour is not charged, at chattanooga lot they have a similar scheme, in colorodo springs they are supposed to let you park for the first hour for free but when I was there they made me pay.
so finding a SpC that is in a pay lot is not unique to the one you found.

 

[Brass Guy]

The new "Urban Supercharger" at Boston's Prudential Center is in a pay garage. According to the site Parking Boston | city parking | Prudential Center Garage it is $12 for up to one hour, $20 for up to 2 hours.
The Validated Parking page Parking garage | boston shopping | Prudential Center Garage indicates if you spend $10 at a Prudential shop, you can get your parking validated and you only have to pay $14 for up to 4 hours.

This is not a supercharger I'd advise anyone use if you're just travelling through Boston. I think there needs to be some differentiation in the car's maps for these Pay-To-Park superchargers.

 

[TaoJones]

Surprised they don't leverage the info area to advise of fee-based parking in the small window that appears when one taps upon the SC icon.

Savannah validates when there's someone at the desk. There wasn't in my case and the nice lady at the parking exit let me go anyway as I hadn't been there over an hour.

Trying to remember where there's another one other than those mentioned. Might have been Marathon Key, FL as the SC is also on airport property same as Savannah.

They use the info sections for destination chargers - seems reasonable they'd do likewise for SCs.

Still patiently waiting for the implementation of an associated feature request - to change the red and grey bars per SC location to green orange yellow red and grey to reflect relative pedestal health. Only thing worse than being on the clock for parking $ is having to move from pedestal to pedestal when 1 or more are bad. Having that information in advance can save hours per day of sleep-robbing hassle.

 

[kort677]

The new "Urban Supercharger" at Boston's Prudential Center is in a pay garage. According to the site Parking Boston | city parking | Prudential Center Garage it is $12 for up to one hour, $20 for up to 2 hours.
The Validated Parking page Parking garage | boston shopping | Prudential Center Garage indicates if you spend $10 at a Prudential shop, you can get your parking validated and you only have to pay $14 for up to 4 hours.

This is not a supercharger I'd advise anyone use if you're just travelling through Boston. I think there needs to be some differentiation in the car's maps for these Pay-To-Park superchargers.

if it's not a supercharger location why did you place this comment in a thread about superchargers?
there are many pay to park garages with L2 chargers. this is not anything new.

 

[idoco]

On the plus side...having to pay to park makes it less likely the SC will get ICE'd.

 

[alcibiades]

Free one-hour parking should be built into the contract with lot owners. Otherwise there is nothing, as far as I can tell, preventing every lot owner from instituting a fee. We Tesla owners have no choice but to use SCs on trips, and the lot owners surely realize this.

 

[Az_Rael]

if it's not a supercharger location why did you place this comment in a thread about superchargers?
there are many pay to park garages with L2 chargers. this is not anything new.

The chargers they are referring to in Boston are superchargers, they are just the new "urban" format and in an expensive garage.

 

[Jays200]

I remember my car coming with free, unlimited supercharging. It definitely didn't come with free, unlimited parking.

Really people. Fair use policy obviously applies.

 

[alcibiades]

I remember my car coming with free, unlimited supercharging. It definitely didn't come with free, unlimited parking.

Really people. Fair use policy obviously applies.

I don't think anyone is asking for free unlimited parking. I think they are asking not to have to pay to have access to the charger while/for charging.

I think Tesla owes it to its customers to protect us from this practice.

 

[alcibiades]

The chargers they are referring to in Boston are superchargers, they are just the new "urban" format and in an expensive garage.

Same with the "urban"-superchargers in Chicago. You have to pay to enter the garage to have access to charge. Better hope no one entered right before you and took the last spot.

 

[Bumper]

On the plus side...having to pay to park makes it less likely the SC will get ICE'd.

Not true at this location. Everywhere is pay to park and these are really great parking spots. ICE drivers will more likely take over the great spots because they "paid" for them.

 

[scaesare]

The chargers they are referring to in Boston are superchargers, they are just the new "urban" format and in an expensive garage.

Correct. Not L2 chargers. Different format in that they are dedicated 72KW slots rather than shared 145KW pairs, but superchargers nonetheless.

 

[Bumper]

I remember my car coming with free, unlimited supercharging. It definitely didn't come with free, unlimited parking.

Really people. Fair use policy obviously applies.

I'm not asking for free parking just because I own a Tesla. I'm suggesting it should be free parking WHILE you are charging. If you are plugged in and your charge cycle ends successfully, the idle fee can kick in. I would even be OK with double the idle fee and give half to the property owner as parking payment. If a Tesla is not plugged in at all, they are subject to a tow truck just like an ICE car.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I'll try this for size:

I don't understand what people are complaining about. If the charger is in a pay-to-stay place, then it is. I can choose to charge somewhere else, it isn't like Teslas can only charge at Superchargers. Now, having this information available somewhere easily accessible beforehand would be nice, of course, but other than that I don't see a problem as long as the markings in the area are clear. In some areas it is not realistic to put free "parking" spots anyway, they'd be ICEd in no time...

I find the unpredictable idle charges much more annoying. I can time accurately how long I am away from the car (a minute/hour based parking fee), I can not time accurately when my charge will end (current idle charge)...

 

[Galve2000]

As SC locations proliferate, particularly inside metro areas, we should expect to see more "pay to park" locations. I'm not a fan of these by any means, but this whole "Tesla needs to protect its customers from parking fees at SuperChargers" is misguided, even as Tesla has -- at least thus far -- done a decent job of helping their customers avoid these.

its basic supply and demand. when there are way way more parking spots than cars you can give these away "for free" but as the ratio of cars to parking spots rises so do the parking fees. in some places, like central NYC, these figures are staggering. but again there are simply not enough spots for the amount of cars that need them and there is little room to "build more spots" (in fact there is actually a growing effort to remove spots from buildings here in NYC -- I shudder to think what that will do to the already exorbitant parking fees!!)

It's a rude awakening for sure.. especially when you are so used to paying nothing for parking.

my experience with Savanah SC was interesting.. driving down from NYC 2 years ago we had to use the facilities at the airport so we validated at the information desk. On the return trip north we didn't need to use the facilities so we figured we would just pay the $5 or whatever the parking fee was to avoid trecking all the way into the terminal, but the very nice lady at the toll booth simply asked to see my Tesla key, and let us go without paying. I think its a good system and am sure it can be mimicked at other locations.

(as an aside -- at the Southampton NY SC you get 10% off your purchase at the liquor store at the SC location when you show your Tesla key..) those Tesla keys are valuable

 

[AnxietyRanger]

(as an aside -- at the Southampton NY SC you get 10% off your purchase at the liquor store at the SC location when you show your Tesla key..)

Well, you have to have something to do while waiting for the charge... AP2 will drive you home...