EV parking spot etiquette....

CSW · May 14, 2016

I think that you should not park in an EV spot unless you need to charge.
I would think this goes without saying.
Anybody agree? Disagree?
This has come up (in my 30k miles of EV life so far) about 3 times, where I need to charge, and the spots are blocked by EVs not even charging!
It even happens when the spots are not "up front" parking spots!
Also, if you are going to the store 5 miles away and just going back home, you don't need to plug in your car!
When you are driving an EV, you don't HAVE to park in the EV spots with chargers.

nikwax · May 14, 2016

In Oregon, the law says that only charging EVs are allowed to park in EV spots. It's really common sense/courtesy.

My sense is that some of the public level 2 charging infrastructure was installed before there was much study of actual driving and charging behavior. There are level 2 chargers around here at stores that have cobwebs on them, not much point in level 2 charging while grocery shopping. These days, for public charging, I think the thinking is:

level 1: long term parking, e.g., at the Portland Airport. Leave the car plugged in for days or weeks.

level 2: at offices and garages where cars can be left for hours to charge. Some of the hi tech campuses here have level 2 chargers for their employees.

DCFC: possibly the most useful general charging offering. Full charge in 20-30 minutes. Hang out or go have a coffee.

SparkevBlogspot · May 15, 2016

I think semantics matter here. Instead of calling it "EV parking spot", it should be called "EV charging spot". Signs at charging spots should use "charging spot" and nothing about parking.

nikwax · May 16, 2016

CSW said:
I think that you should not park in an EV spot unless you need to charge.
I would think this goes without saying.
Anybody agree? Disagree?
This has come up (in my 30k miles of EV life so far) about 3 times, where I need to charge, and the spots are blocked by EVs not even charging!
It even happens when the spots are not "up front" parking spots!
Also, if you are going to the store 5 miles away and just going back home, you don't need to plug in your car!
When you are driving an EV, you don't HAVE to park in the EV spots with chargers.

just doing a bit of research, it looks like California enacted a law in 2011 that requires EVs to be charging while parking in an EV spot. It could be AB 475.

e.g.:

http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0451-0500/ab_475_bill_20110621_amended_sen_v95.pdf

http://gas2.org/2011/09/15/new-california-law-allows-evs-to-be-towed-for-not-charging/

Homer · May 18, 2016

I think some context matters.

There are a couple of new parking facilities built near us that are intended for people shopping/going to restaurants/movies etc. One of them put in EV parking near the door even though they don't have any chargers. The other also put EV parking near the door on the first level and does have chargers (but they aren't cheap). I think it's rare that someone using these garages will be in need of a few extra miles because it's mostly local people using them and the cars aren't even there for more than an hour or two. From my observations, the spaces are usually less than half capacity, and usually less than half the cars will be charging.

On the other hand, when I go to the airport, and I find a Tesla or a Volt in EV parking but not charging, and I really need to charge to get home, I get a little annoyed.

cwerdna · May 21, 2016

nikwax said:
just doing a bit of research, it looks like California enacted a law in 2011 that requires EVs to be charging while parking in an EV spot. It could be AB 475.

e.g.:

http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0451-0500/ab_475_bill_20110621_amended_sen_v95.pdf

http://gas2.org/2011/09/15/new-california-law-allows-evs-to-be-towed-for-not-charging/

Unfortunately, there needs to be proper signage for it to be enforced. And, AFAIK, they don't have to be charging, just connected.

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