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Supercharger is NOT your personal parking spot
- Thread starter Cerie
- Start date
mknox
Well-Known Member
LagunaHJames
Member
I have encountered this twice in the last month. The first was at the San Juan Capistrano location which I already posted about on a separate thread. Four of the seven spots were occupied for more than an hour and a half with no sign of the owners. This was at 10:30 am on a weekday. I have my suspicions about local owners without home charging "dropping off" their cars to charge while they are at work but that seems so selfish that I hope I am wrong. The other case was at the Las Vegas SC where one spot was Iced by a Cadillac SUV and another by a Model S that again was there for well over an hour and a half. There were 3 of us waiting at the time. I have the app on my phone and it lets me know when charging is almost done. I suggested to someone the other day that Tesla reverse the charge by drawing power from the car if it is left more than an hour after reaching full charge.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
paulkva
part of the supercharge.info dev team
...to preserve battery life, of course. Not a good idea to leave it at 100% for too long, ya know.
Diabolical indeed.
breser
AutoPilot Nostradamus
Can't be done. The Model S is designed to prevent power being drawn from the car via the charge port.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
InTheShadows
Active Member
The way I look at it is it's common courtesy as well as insert your favorite proverb about karma and sowing and reaping. EV drivers should know better.
UberEV1
Member
Not sure if this idea has already been suggested elsewhere, but how about a simple display on each supercharger that counts down to fully charged, then starts counting up to show time sitting idle? It wouldn't solve the problem of those who don't care, but it would serve as a scarlet letter of sorts.
How about when Auto Pilot and the Auto Park features become available, the car can automatically move itself out of the SC space to another spot. Of course there is the issue of being able to unplug and put the cable away and the intelligence to actually find a parking space, but those are details. 
I don't yet own a Tesla (though my P85D should hopefully be built/delivered in the next few weeks). I've never owned any other EV.
As I am preparing to start driving a Tesla, I have been making an effort to check out the charging facilities at places where I park.
Two examples of what I've seen so far:
1) Garage near my office:
* Two J1772 charging stalls
* Located on lowest floor, closest to exit (ultra prime spot)
* Never ICEd
* Rarely an EV there, never two EV's
* Tesla's regularly street-parked
* When I do see a car in the charging spot, with the exception of one time, they have either been sitting there without the charging plug connected, or if they were connected, they were not charging (as indicated by the display of the J1772 device). I have seen Prius, and Chevy Volt in this setup. The one time I saw someone actually charging was a BMW i3.
* Nobody leaves notes with their contact info
* Power is expensive, but no worse than the pricing for filling an ICE car at a gas station.
Whole Foods:
* Ultra prime location, right next to front door
* Stall usually taken
* Not actively charging (J1772 plug connected, but not charging)
* Power is FREE
In any event, I agree -- these spots should be at the back of the lot, not the ultra prime location. I don't want to park next to all of the insanity anyway. I always parked my ICE car in the back of the lot, and think it's unfortunate I will have to change this behavior.
Unfortunately, it's very unlikely that signage will change for reasons already discussed -- and it's even more unlikely that towing will happen.
As I am preparing to start driving a Tesla, I have been making an effort to check out the charging facilities at places where I park.
Two examples of what I've seen so far:
1) Garage near my office:
* Two J1772 charging stalls
* Located on lowest floor, closest to exit (ultra prime spot)
* Never ICEd
* Rarely an EV there, never two EV's
* Tesla's regularly street-parked
* When I do see a car in the charging spot, with the exception of one time, they have either been sitting there without the charging plug connected, or if they were connected, they were not charging (as indicated by the display of the J1772 device). I have seen Prius, and Chevy Volt in this setup. The one time I saw someone actually charging was a BMW i3.
* Nobody leaves notes with their contact info
* Power is expensive, but no worse than the pricing for filling an ICE car at a gas station.
Whole Foods:
* Ultra prime location, right next to front door
* Stall usually taken
* Not actively charging (J1772 plug connected, but not charging)
* Power is FREE
In any event, I agree -- these spots should be at the back of the lot, not the ultra prime location. I don't want to park next to all of the insanity anyway. I always parked my ICE car in the back of the lot, and think it's unfortunate I will have to change this behavior.
Unfortunately, it's very unlikely that signage will change for reasons already discussed -- and it's even more unlikely that towing will happen.
Peter_M
Member
On normal days around home, unless you do a LOT of driving, you'll probably almost never need to charge away from home. I've never needed to charge my car in my home city other than at home, and I only charge to 75% every day. So you can continue to park at the back of the lot :smile:
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
As has been pointed out in the past, while we all agree with this, from an economic perspective it is typically more cost-effective to locate charging locations near existing wiring. And existing wiring is usually right next to existing structures.
To place the charging location in the back of the lot is (more often than not) the most expensive option.
For the Whole Foods example, that's perhaps true (though the lot isn't exactly huge anyway).
For the Office Garage example, the garage's electrical panels are in the "core" of the building, and the exit is at one extreme corner. The "back side" of the lot would have been just as expensive as where they built it out. I'm sure in at least some cases, they are where they are because people don't think things through, and just want to make it loud that they support "green" by having EV charging in the most visible spot.
Bugeater
Member
The problem is explicitly Tesla's. If folks buy their cars and end up stuck somewhere waiting hours for a charge, they will be upset at Tesla. There are lots of ways Tesla can help to alleviate the problem. For instance, ChargePoint can send you a text when your charge is done. Also, if someone is a frequent offender and folks complain enough to Tesla about them explicitly, they could / should contact that owner and provide them with the proper level of instruction.
In my experience, most folks really do behave better once they know how much their behavior is hurting others. But then there are those few... Those that need incentives.
In my experience, most folks really do behave better once they know how much their behavior is hurting others. But then there are those few... Those that need incentives.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
So yes, there are examples where it is not true. Which is why I said 'typically' and 'more often than not'. If we look at just one example, sure. But the majority of placements are because that particular location requires the least amount of wiring to be run.
Tesla does that also. As of v6.0 the car sends a notification to the iPhone/android app when supercharging has reached 80%.
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