Supercharger is NOT your personal parking spot

[cpa]

I see a lot of anger here and I agree that we should all be courteous. But it's not a hard-and-fast rule that you must always move the car after it is done charging. For example, I park and charge at Gilroy on occasion and do some shopping. Maybe an hour or two. And of the ten Supercharger stalls, I'm very often the only one there, and sometimes there are only one or two other cars. There's really no immediate need to move and vacate the space.

I think therein lies the rub: A lot of activity could transpire in 1-2 hours, after one is fully charged even though upon arrival I am the only one there. I Supercharged all the way to Denver and back in June, hitting 13 different Superchargers with 16 visits. I saw 3 other Teslas; my stays were 30-45 minutes. Contrast that experience with my two most recent journeys: Oxnard had one car charging when I arrived, and six cars (including mine) when I drove off 35 minutes later. Rancho Cucamonga had 3 cars charging when I arrived, and 8 when I left 40 minutes later. Ft. Tejon had two cars charging when I arrived; I stayed with my vehicle for 50 minutes; two drove off, and three more arrived.

Yes, it is a hassle to walk a quarter-mile to shop or eat, interrupt your activities after 45 minutes just to move your car, and then walk back and resume. But you know, in the bad old days of parking meters, many had a one-hour time limit, so we were forced to return to our cars every hour to put another dime into the slot if we still had unfinished business, or risk a $25 parking violation (a lot of money for most) in the '60s.

 

[TexasEV]

I see a lot of anger here and I agree that we should all be courteous. But it's not a hard-and-fast rule that you must always move the car after it is done charging. For example, I park and charge at Gilroy on occasion and do some shopping. Maybe an hour or two. And of the ten Supercharger stalls, I'm very often the only one there, and sometimes there are only one or two other cars. There's really no immediate need to move and vacate the space.

But you wouldn't do that without leaving a contact note on your car if there were only two stalls, would you?

 

[Bugeater]

It would be so nice if Tesla would notify you (text message?) when your car was charged. And include how busy the charging bays are in the message. They have this info. Chargepoint does the first part at least. It's really handy!

 

[TexasEV]

It would be so nice if Tesla would notify you (text message?) when your car was charged. And include how busy the charging bays are in the message. They have this info. Chargepoint does the first part at least. It's really handy!

The iPhone app does that (the first part at least). If you have Android you just need to look at charging status once in a while.

 

[SW2Fiddler]

The iPhone app does that (the first part at least). If you have Android you just need to look at charging status once in a while.

My app even told me today when my charging was "nearly complete." This was I think around 240ish miles of rated range.

 

[Karma]

For me the bottom line is the supercharger is free. Sure it's part of the negotiated price of the car, but it's not costing anything. If you know it's going to take 30-45 minutes for the charge you need, don't go shopping for 2 hours and potentially take a spot from someone who is about to brick.

Just remember, Karma can be a real pain, and it always comes back around...

 

[Merrill]

I really do not understand how you could leave your car parked and plugged in when it finished its charge. When I use a supercharger I always look at my iPhone app to see the SOC and when I have enough charge, not always maxed out I move my car or leave. Simple courtesy to others.

 

[kbrandes]

I really do not understand how you could leave your car parked and plugged in when it finished its charge. When I use a supercharger I always look at my iPhone app to see the SOC and when I have enough charge, not always maxed out I move my car or leave. Simple courtesy to others.

+1

Thanks

 

[Mnlevin]

I really do not understand how you could leave your car parked and plugged in when it finished its charge. When I use a supercharger I always look at my iPhone app to see the SOC and when I have enough charge, not always maxed out I move my car or leave. Simple courtesy to others.

+2!

 

[Krugerrand]

I see a lot of anger here and I agree that we should all be courteous. But it's not a hard-and-fast rule that you must always move the car after it is done charging. For example, I park and charge at Gilroy on occasion and do some shopping. Maybe an hour or two. And of the ten Supercharger stalls, I'm very often the only one there, and sometimes there are only one or two other cars. There's really no immediate need to move and vacate the space.

Since you're not at your car for that period of time (1-2 hours) how do you know how many people have come and gone? How do you know that all the stalls didn't fill at one point and people were waiting? Isn't it a hard and fast rule that one should be courteous and think of others? Superchargers are not parking spots, they are fueling spots.

 

[bonnie]

I see a lot of anger here and I agree that we should all be courteous. But it's not a hard-and-fast rule that you must always move the car after it is done charging. For example, I park and charge at Gilroy on occasion and do some shopping. Maybe an hour or two. And of the ten Supercharger stalls, I'm very often the only one there, and sometimes there are only one or two other cars. There's really no immediate need to move and vacate the space.

Then just leave your contact information on the car. What you cannot account for is a group of drivers coming through (and it does happen), on a road trip - and they all need to charge.

Good example: Last summer the TeslaRoadTrip.org group traveled cross-country for TMC Connect and would swarm superchargers. Leaving your car unattended at a virtually empty supercharger would have delayed the group unnecessarily. No one wants to be 'that guy'. Leave your contact information on your car if you're not coming back when it finishes charging.

 

[RiverBrick]

Same thing happened to me at this same location back in September. I spoke to the employees inside the Tesla Gallery and left a note for the drivers who were so disrespectful of other drivers. I ended up going to Woodbridge to get the charge I needed, but it was out of the way and at rush hour to boot.

Did the Tesla staff ask the mall to make a public service announcement asking the offending driver to move?

A spot well-marked as being for (6kW L2) charging was ICEd at a local mall and customer service refused my request for an announcement. However, you'd think the Bethesda mall would take a request from their Tesla tenant more seriously.

 

[Lanny]

Then just leave your contact information on the car. What you cannot account for is a group of drivers coming through (and it does happen), on a road trip - and they all need to charge.

Good example: Last summer the TeslaRoadTrip.org group traveled cross-country for TMC Connect and would swarm superchargers. Leaving your car unattended at a virtually empty supercharger would have delayed the group unnecessarily. No one wants to be 'that guy'. Leave your contact information on your car if you're not coming back when it finishes charging.

Another example of a swarm of cars suddenly showing up at a Supercharger is the upcoming Tesla Kerstrally from Amsterdam to London.

As Bonnie says, please leave contact info. :smile:

Lanny

 

[bonnie]

The long-term solution to this isn't going to be hoping people rely on common sense (because unfortunately, it just isn't that common). And proper signage is only going to take the excuse away (because a lot of people don't bother reading signs or willfully ignore).

Long-term it's going to be a slow education effort of owners like those here on the forum. Those who leave (hopefully polite) notes educating other EV drivers. Share stories with your work colleagues - as in 'Can you believe this guy did this??? How rude!!'- because eventually they'll drive electric and they'll already know better. And then maybe we'll start seeing a sitcom or two that has getting ICE'd/EV'd woven into the story line. And people start to learn that This Is Not What You Do.

Everyone grew up with gas station etiquette. They didn't grow up with this. The collective knowledge just isn't there, but it's getting there. We're in the growing pains cycle. Just by leaving contact info on our cars, we educate others that it's the right thing to do if we won't be back promptly.

 

[rlang59]

...Everyone grew up with gas station etiquette...

And yet they still leave their car at the pump and go into the mini mart for 20 minutes.

 

[bonnie]

And yet they still leave their car at the pump and go into the mini mart for 20 minutes.

Can't fix stupid.

 

[rlang59]

Can't fix stupid.

I'd say inconsiderate not stupid.

 

[ggr]

I'd say inconsiderate not stupid.

Inconsiderate is a proper subset of stupid. I believe that being considerate is a net win for all concerned, so not doing it is ...

 

[mknox]

My app even told me today when my charging was "nearly complete." This was I think around 240ish miles of rated range.

Yeah, I got that too. I was waiting in the car and it seemed to come about 5 to 10 minutes before it actually finished. This maybe a feeble attempt to prod drivers to start heading back to their cars.

 

[TexasEV]

Yeah, I got that too. I was waiting in the car and it seemed to come about 5 to 10 minutes before it actually finished. This maybe a feeble attempt to prod drivers to start heading back to their cars.

I think the idea is to notify at 80% charge when the rate becomes really slow with the taper-- so those who don't need the last 20% will move on and make space for others. Many drivers are still in the gas station "fill 'er up" mode and wait as long as it takes to get to 100% even if they don't need it. They don't even realize how slow the last few miles of range are, because the display gives the average rate for the session not the instantaneous rate. (Look at the Paramus NJ thread to see new owners insisting the displayed miles/hr rate is instantaneous and telling me to go away when I tried to correct their misconception.)