I guess this was inevitable, but I was quite surprised to see it happen. I was visiting the Prudential Center in Boston and when I arrived almost all of the stalls were full but I was fortunate to find a spot. The surprise was when I left after about 30 minutes of charging. All of the stalls were occupied by Tesla's and over half of them were unplugged. As I left - my nav screen indicated that 5 of 8 were available - which is consistent with the ICE'ing that was going on.
As a bit more background - this lot is expensive - $12 for the first hour with store validation of a purchase in excess of $10. I think it is $27 for the first hour without a purchase. The charging stalls are optimally located - close to entry and exit and close to shopping. I am assuming people who parked in the spaces started charging, hadn't finished shopping and didn't want to move the car but also didn't want to get dinged with idle fees so the re-visited the car and unplugged it without moving it.
I didn't stay around to see what happened, and I am hopeful that these were very short overstays but it did me make wonder how effective the idle fee charges will be when it is inconvenient to move the car. If I had been desperate for a charge - pulled in having seen on-line availability - and then seeing the Tesla ICE'ing it would have driven me nuts.
I know ICE'ing is common - but Tesla's????
As a bit more background - this lot is expensive - $12 for the first hour with store validation of a purchase in excess of $10. I think it is $27 for the first hour without a purchase. The charging stalls are optimally located - close to entry and exit and close to shopping. I am assuming people who parked in the spaces started charging, hadn't finished shopping and didn't want to move the car but also didn't want to get dinged with idle fees so the re-visited the car and unplugged it without moving it.
I didn't stay around to see what happened, and I am hopeful that these were very short overstays but it did me make wonder how effective the idle fee charges will be when it is inconvenient to move the car. If I had been desperate for a charge - pulled in having seen on-line availability - and then seeing the Tesla ICE'ing it would have driven me nuts.
I know ICE'ing is common - but Tesla's????