Unbelievably Bad EV Driver Charging Etiquette.

[nozferatu]

As EVs and hybrids become more popular and numerous, the number of idiots who drive them also increases. The lack of etiquette amongst EV drivers is pretty high as I've come to experience.

One particular location that has a really high number of morons who bring their hybrids and EVs to charge at is the Glendale Galleria in Glendale, CA.

The parking structure across from the Galleria and right next to the Americana is the one I'm speaking of and has 4 chargers total in the entire parking structure of what probably holds about 2000 cars at peak times.

Pretty much every time I go there, I swing by the charging stations and spots are almost ALWAYS taken up by Volts, Prius hybrids, or Fiat 500e's. There's one Volt in particular where this guy is there 24/7...fully charged or not he takes up a space almost every time I've visited this spot. Sometimes he's even sitting in the car (seen him do this a few times). It's truly pathetic.

Volt and 500e drivers seem to be the biggest jerks of the lot....leaving their cars plugged in even though charging has completed and Volt and Prius plug-in owners are too cheap to run their cars on fuel and give EV drivers the first in line chance to charge because we actually have a more immediate need.

With that said, I went to today and found a spot on the 5th floor...the 2nd bottom floor had 3 Leafs, 3 Fiat 500es, and a Volt parked and the Volt and Fiat500e were charging. At the 5th floor there was a black Fiat 500e that was charging and a gray one that wasn't charging and wasn't in the EV spot. So I plugged my car in, set my timer to 2 hours and headed out to do my thing.

Upon returning, I find the charge chord has been removed and is plugged into a white Fiat 500e that isn't even in a charging spot. No note, no sorry, no anything. I was furious. I had gained only 4 miles total...so this ahole had removed my cable about 15 minutes after I had arrived.

I was truly furious. I wrote a really nasty letter and returned the courtesy by removing the cable from their vehicle. I would NEVER ever do that to anyone else and I've gone without charging plenty of times even though I could have used it on some occasions...even when seeing EV's parked there fully charged. I never touched someone else's car.

It's gotten pretty bad. I don't know what it is about these 500e drivers but it's not the first time I've noticed they have some really crappy attitudes.

Anyway, thought I'd give some Spark EV owners a heads up as I've seen a couple parked there too

 

[Jedi2155]

One of the biggest reasons for the poor etiquette is that there is no industry standard for the charging indicators. For many EV's, Solid Lights means "DONE CHARGING" while blinking means "CHARGING." GM decided to reverse this by having "SOLID" = CHARGING and blinking = "DONE CHARGING". Not excusing them, but I'm with the old EV charging crowd where if you're done charging, someone else should be able to unplug you and use it on their adjacent vehicle.

What you said has happened to me too and really angered me too. The best way to handle it though is to leave a note on you EV plug each time...

 

[gra]

Agree that the lack of charging status indication standardization is a problem. as for the rest, investing in something like this http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098003_electric-car-do-not-unplug-notices-public-education-at-its-best

would at least separate the clueless from the selfish. A note on the dash or wherever (maybe on the hang tag) explaining how to interpret your car's charging status lights would also be useful.

 

[14Volt]

At least it's actual plug-in vehicles taking up the spots. Here in Texas, public chargers are commonly blocked by ICE vehicles, sometimes intentionally. In the Volt community, it seems to be commonly accepted that the cord is yielded to BEVs because they actually need it. I've sat in my Volt a few times at the public charger over lunch, but always got out of the way if a BEV showed up.

This brings up some good questions. At what battery capacity should an EV be given a pass to the front of the line? At what battery capacity should it not? I think most would agree that a plug-in hybrid doesn't need the charger, but should they not have the right to use it? One could argue that it's rude for a Tesla with an 85kWH pack to use public charging in the city because it might prevent a LEAF owner from getting home. One could also argue that the LEAF owner is driving the wrong car if that's the case. This is still a very new problem. I can only imagine early gas stations and people waiting to fill up :lol:

 

[KingUltra]

They can make them 1 or 2 hour limit where the Charger will turn off by itself. So if someone is waiting you need to give up the spot. If nobody, then you just reset the charger.
This is for the free chargers. If you pay, I guess you stay as long as you're still paying ..

 

[NomadMac]

I once disconnected a Volt that was using the wrong EVSE cord for his designated spot, rendering the other spot unusable since the cord wouldn't reach that far.
I was going to hook him up with the appropriate connector.
It set off an alarm when I did the disconnect.
Just a heads up since it startled me and people passing by looked at me like I was doing something nefarious.

(No card was required at that location.)

 

[Curyousgee]

Charged at Glendale too, saw all the fiats , then parked and checked out the pruis parked in the EV spot fully charged, not sure if it was charging or not, as i started walking i notice a girl walking towrds it and ask if she was leaving, then took her spot.

I have the charge alert set up to text me when its done so i can move it, but not everyone is that considerate, many full charged EVs hogging spots for the premium patking locations

 

[Sparkles101]

Can somebody develop an app that allows us to generate an individualized scanner bar code for our cars so that we could scan a sticker in a charging car's window and it sends a message to the car owner informing them that someone is waiting for the charger?

 

[sTeeve]

Can somebody develop an app that allows us to generate an individualized scanner bar code for our cars so that we could scan a sticker in a charging car's window and it sends a message to the car owner informing them that someone is waiting for the charger?

Check out Charge Bump: http://chargebump.com/

 

[NorthernSpark]

Can somebody develop an app that allows us to generate an individualized scanner bar code for our cars so that we could scan a sticker in a charging car's window and it sends a message to the car owner informing them that someone is waiting for the charger?

Check out Charge Bump: http://chargebump.com/

That is very neat - never heard of that before! My public charging will likely be kept to a minimum, but good to know!

 

[Sparkles101]

YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!

 

[agdodgerfan]

Now we need to print stickers telling people to download the chargebump app.

 

[nozferatu]

Too bad I can't use it as I have a Windows Phone.