supercharger parking stall who owns them? How to deal with gas cars using them?

[YVR88]

I always seem to come across at least one car parked in a supercharger stall which is clearly not a tesla. normally someone thinking they are smart and want to park close to Starbucks.

Are these stalls not private property? Why are they not patrolled and cars towed. I am sure the local towing companies would be happy to town any non tesla cars away.

Tesla can you look into this and maybe update signage at superchargers.

It would be like a tesla parking at a petrol station pump which would block others from being able to refuel.

Any ideas?

 

[CalBlue 85D]

Good luck, until your state/province passes legislation that imposes a penalty for illegal parking in an EV charging space on private property (like they do most places for disabled parking stalls) it will continue to be ignored since it is really just an advisory. Even if they have tow-away signs, most places are reluctant to tow customer cars.

Squamish also has the unfortunate placement of the SC stalls close to other businesses, so people are going to ICE them for the convenience factor.

 

[Drone Flyer]

You can download fake parking infractions from various sites. Print them on yellow paper, to make them look official and input the make of car and plate number on it. This could dissuade them in the future.

 

[Tam]

I...Are these stalls not private property? Why are they not patrolled and cars towed. I am sure the local towing companies would be happy to town any non tesla cars away...

Tesla usually gets parking spaces from a private party such as shopping mall that has many customers.

Majority customers drive an ICE so private party don't want to offend ICE customers so they don't to make a scene at Tesla spaces.

Thus, as suggested by @KF94563, a law to tow in private/public EV parking spaces might help.

 

[Festerfeet]

Last three visits to SC's all spaces have been iced, we have been lucky enough to find an owner of at least one of the ice cars each time and ask them to move their vehicle so we can charge and be on our way. Each time it has been obvious from the conversation that this was not malicious icing but thoughtlessness and convenience driven.

I would rather see it as an opportunity to educate and explain our need while also use it as a stage to explain why we have an electric car and has w fabulous it would s in many ways.

I am not interested in propogating an us and them world. We have all been thoughtless at times and generating hostility does not help us with the transition from ice to bev that may be essential for us, our kids and those that come after us.

I think towing should be a last resort solution. If we become a negative to property owners there will be less enthusiasm to host charging stations and so we will lose out in the end.

 

[diesel]

Not advocating this as an approach but when I had problems with "guests" parking in my parking space previously I would use a cheap $50 wheel clamp on their car and a note with my mobile number.

At my convenience I would remove the clamp when I got home after being contacted.

Funnily enough it stopped happening very quickly!

 

[McRat]

At shopping centers, when you are done charging, put a couple of shopping cars in the stall. Most people will look for another stall rather than roll a cart out of the way.

 

[Chopr147]

The law is always slow to catch up. I'm sure we will start seeing EV parking violations put in soon enough.
For now we are at the whims of people being considerate. Not a good place to be
I often see Supercharger spots ICED but, in NY it's mostly not a problem. Not enough Tesla's to fill the spots..................yet.
Local Kohl's has 1 EV charging spot that is always ICED. When I asked about it I received a shrug.

 

[st50maint]

The Tesla sign in one of your pictures says "60 minute general parking".
So in this particular case, that Ford is "legally" parked.
At least for an hour.

 

[idoco]

^^This

Different SC's have different policies and signage. Some allow general parking for 30-60 mins. Others are more clearly marked EV charging only.

 

[Evbwcaer]

How can a law be needed to deal with ICEing of Superchargers? I believe every Supercharger is on private property.

If you park your car in a stranger's driveway without permission, they can tow your car without a law saying they can.

If you park on private property it must be within the rules of the owner, otherwise they can tow/remove it.

 

[azred]

The Tesla sign in one of your pictures says "60 minute general parking".
So in this particular case, that Ford is "legally" parked.
At least for an hour.

The Supercharger 25 miles away from us -- and no, I don't use it for daily charging! -- also has a general parking allowed sign. So even if an ICE driver normally wouldn't park there, the sign is like an invitation and once parked it seems unlikely the time limitation will matter. Oddly, there is tons of ICE parking closer to the restaurant nearby.

 

[NeverFollow]

 

[TexasEV]

How can a law be needed to deal with ICEing of Superchargers? I believe every Supercharger is on private property.

If you park your car in a stranger's driveway without permission, they can tow your car without a law saying they can.

If you park on private property it must be within the rules of the owner, otherwise they can tow/remove it.

You're missing the point. The owners of the parking lot (shopping center, hotel, etc.) don't want to tow cars. They belong to their customers.

 

[JRMW]

The Tesla sign in one of your pictures says "60 minute general parking".
So in this particular case, that Ford is "legally" parked.

st50maint beat me to it.

the only SuperCharger anywhere near the Twin Cities is at a HyVee Grocery store in Oadale, MN (so out of the way)

when I've gone there are usually 1 to 3 Teslas, and 1 to 3 ICE vehicles. once I thought about saying something but then realized that the sign says that it's 30 minutes of General parking.

as for who owns the land: My guess is it's HyVee in this instance. the Tesla sign even says something like "Electricity per HyVee".

I agree with others... we have to be careful about fostering an "us vs them" situation. thus we should be hesitatnt to take the law into our own hands. However, even if you've thought about that and decide to "do something" It's VERY important to read the red Tesla sign before doing anything to an ICE car or talking to the ICE owner.

 

[Gremlin]

I always seem to come across at least one car parked in a supercharger stall which is clearly not a tesla. normally someone thinking they are smart and want to park close to Starbucks.

Are these stalls not private property? Why are they not patrolled and cars towed. I am sure the local towing companies would be happy to town any non tesla cars away.

Tesla can you look into this and maybe update signage at superchargers.

It would be like a tesla parking at a petrol station pump which would block others from being able to refuel.

Any ideas?

That's one thing that irritates me . I have warning parking citiations in my car that I leave on the offenders windows (from some Tesla owner). Call Tesla provide the make and license plate number. It's common theme at the Potomac Mills Supercharger. If that occurs in other EV parking spots, I have a list of Arlington and DC police non emergency phone numbers in my phone. Once at MD live, I called on an ICE vehicle in an EV spot. They brought the police immediately :- P.

 

[Gremlin]

You can download fake parking infractions from various sites. Print them on yellow paper, to make them look official and input the make of car and plate number on it. This could dissuade them in the future.

 

[Chopr147]

How can a law be needed to deal with ICEing of Superchargers? I believe every Supercharger is on private property.

So are handicapped spaces which come with a heavy fine for violating on private property. Some states allow the request of police NOT to ticket cars in their lot. But I believe most want police presence so that defeats the purpose

 

[cpa]

IANAL, and I do not play one on television. I suspect that the law varies from state-to-state and north of the forty-ninth parallel. Here in California, we have what is called by me, "public access private property." The property owner has the right to notify the authorities on driving and parking infractions for enforcement, but is not required to do so.

Until such time that the various legislatures or city councils determine that ICEing an EV charging spot merits the same attention and hefty fine as parking in a handicapped spot, we are faced with this vexing problem.

 

[dgpcolorado]

The Supercharger 25 miles away from us -- and no, I don't use it for daily charging! -- also has a general parking allowed sign. So even if an ICE driver normally wouldn't park there, the sign is like an invitation and once parked it seems unlikely the time limitation will matter. Oddly, there is tons of ICE parking closer to the restaurant nearby.

This is what I typically see at Supercharger stations, especially the ones in hotel parking lots, the most common kind IME. The usual setup is to have half the Supercharger spaces marked for EV charging only and half for time-limited general parking: 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or 2 hours. This likely because the landlord is required to have a certain number of customer parking spaces by the municipality and Tesla negotiates to have half marked EV only and the rest posted for time-limited general parking. Not that the landlord is going to tow customer's cars even if they are parked in the wrong spots.

The only two Supercharger Stations, for which I have pictures, that are all marked EV only are Grand Junction CO (shopping mall) and Salt Lake City (Tesla owns the property). Others that have general parking allowed:

(pardon the low resolution, these were cropped from distant photos)

^ Glenwood Springs CO, hotel, 2 hours general parking (several of the stalls are blocked by traffic cones to keep them available)

^ Silverthorne CO, Starbucks parking lot, 30 minutes general parking

^ San Diego (Mira Mesa) CA, Qualcomm parking lot, 30 minutes general parking

^ Price UT, hotel parking lot, 30 minutes general parking

^ Green River UT, museum parking lot, 60 minutes general parking

^ Centralia WA, shopping center parking lot, 30 minutes general parking in seven of ten stalls

^ Moab UT, hotel, 2 hours general parking (ICEing is common overnight due to limited space in the hotel lot)

That's just the ones for which I have pictures; a split between EV parking and general parking is the most common setup I've come across on my road trips.