Plug-In Parking Abuse Hall of Shame: Post Pic's Here

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Agreed, especially if I was paying for the charge. My understanding is that the cost is per hour, and I'd hate if I paid for an hour of charging and only got 5min of that hour.

 

Don't care, it would still be done.

Paying for charge is different. If I wasn't clear, this is just for the free parking and charge places. If you pay for your charge, then it is yours. But if it is free it is for those that need it.

I have charged maybe 15 times total "in the wild". And all but 2 of those were L3 which PHEVs can't current use anyways. The other 2 were in abandoned areas essentially. But the Volt's blocking access to long term parking is the big annoyance factor. Most people park at the airport for a while so to clog an EV charger with your PHEV is just arrogant. I usually fly out for the weekend and those vehicles that block the chargers when I arrive are almost always there when I leave. So that's 2-3 days of being plugged in that I could see where it was not charging meaning it was either full when it got there or was parked for longer than that even. Then there are Leaf and Tesla vehicles parked close that aren't using it because it is plugged into a Volt that hasn't moved in days.

 

Isn't that akin to walking up to someone thats pumping gas at a gas station and shutting off their pump and sticking the nozzle in your car because you dont feel like waiting in line for them to get done..?

I dont have a pip or an ev so I dont know all the courtesies or common practices or apparent lack thereof…


Edit: The second paragraph explaining your reasoning was not added to your original post when I quoted your statement fyi.. I just saw your explanation.

 

Well, if I came back to the car and saw that my car was not fully charged but you had unplugged mine selfishly for your own car, I'd simply unplug your car and leave. You're being very inconsiderate, and I'm not above being inconsiderate back. Bottom line, you bought a car that has certain limitations, but that doesn't mean you get a free pass for being an nice person.

Furthermore, just because some other people might abuse these spots doesn't mean everyone does. If the car is still charging then you must give that person the benefit of the doubt.

It is similar, except the difference is that the fillups take up a lot longer.

 

Two issues here:
1) It was a local car, so there was no need to get enough charge to make it to the next SuperCharger. He could have done it at home.
2) The owner of the charging station has the right to say who and how it should be used. Whole Foods installed it to attract customers. So they specified that it is is for charging while shopping at the store.Strictly speaking getting a charge contrary to the owner's conditions is STEALING!

 

No. And it is not a "waiting for them to get done". It is using a refuelling station for no reason. I see public chargers as emergency chargers. You never charge at one unless you are for some reason needing that charge because generally you charge at home all the time. A PHEV by definition NEVER needs that charge because it already has a backup plan. A BEV may need that charge.

There is nothing common about the practices yet, it is still as bisco put it a bit like the wild west.

You wouldn't be able to because it automatically locks the J1772 handle into the socket until it is done charging. If you could unplug it, then it was done charging and you are welcome to use it.

Any car with an engine backup is abusing the spot meant for EV charging. It is like me driving to a gas station with only 1 pump 50 miles from the next nearest station and parking my hypothetical PHEV i3-REX with a 2 gallon tank infront of the station fueling and walking away for a few hours or days. You come in needing gas for your pure ICE vehicle Prius and the PHEV is using the one and only pump with no intention of returning anytime soon. Well now the pure ICE will have to either leave and hope they have enough range to get to the next station or wait for the other driver to come back.

 

Interesting!

I can't own an EV where I currently live so I don't really care all that much, was just wondering the mentality of folks on the subject as I have never been in that situation. It sure seems a lot of people are on both sides of the fence here..

Truth be told, personally it just seems like a pain in the butt having an EV or plug in in this day and age, with limited range, limited charging stations, people that would unplug your car while your "fueling". Ill keep my good 'ol reg Prius and save myself the strife.

But hey... if it works for you, more power to ya. no pun intended..

 

It's not meant as a lock for the charger. It's quite easy to remove it according to Teh Intarnets if it's a Leaf. The lock is just to prevent inadvertent removal, and so says Nissan itself.

One could justifiably argue that you made the mistake of buying a car that doesn't suit your needs if you MUST have that charge at the public station.

 

Like I said, I can count the number of times I have publicly charged using just fingers and toes and I have gone about 11K miles. 99% of the charging is done at home as an EV should be. And of those public charges, all but 2 have been on the CHAdeMO connector. If I need juice, I don't want to wait 3-4 hours, I only want to wait 20-30 minutes. The CHAdeMO chargers have evolved the same sort of mentality I and many others are applying to the L2's now. The difference is that no Volts or PiPs or other PHEVs can take advantage of the CHAdeMO so it truly is an emergency only charging or if you are going to need it and plan for it. If you are plugged in, you are generally also in the car or nearby and leave a phone number by the charger of where you can be reached. When your vehicle reaches 88% to 92% (depending on vintage of Leaf) the charger power drops to L2 levels. So therefore the L3 gets disconnected and put into the next vehicle that needs it if any, and you are plugged into an L2, all very normal.

 

So why did just talk about unplugging PHEVs for the last several posts then?

The bottom line is you don't seem to give a crap about anyone else. You are approaching this very selfishly, and now are changing your tune about what you're unplugging. Now if you're really around and the other are really around for the emergency charging, you can simply ask them, and nicely.

 

Yes and that would be messing with the car. Most people will leave it alone. Unplugging versus sticking stuff into the lock mechanism to make it release are very different.

Not at all. Buying for 100% usage leaves you with something sub-par. Buy for 99% usage and rely on infrastructure for the 1 or 2 times per year you may need it.

I don't drive my Leaf to the airport because it is at about 100% range (86 miles of highway driving). I drive the Prius and park in the hybrid spots always to find Volts hogging spots that Teslas and Leafs cannot use and are parked close by not charging while the Volts are parked also not charging.

It is not selfish to use the infrastructure as it was intended and on an as-needed basis versus a first come first serve basis. Many others agree, and those that dont drive Volts.

 

And I'd strongly considering doing it, if you're not going to be polite about charging etiquette.

Like I said, if the Volt is charging, leave it alone. If it's not, take out the charger, and that's fine with me.

 

My version of charging etiquette is shared by the majority of BEV drivers versus your PHEV centric view. If there is a PHEV in an EV space, I would gladly have it towed.

That's not the point. It is taking up a spot and a charger for those that do need it. A PHEV never needs it. Likewise I don't park my Leaf in a spot to charge when there are charging spots unless I need it, and I rarely if ever do.

 

It's simple, if a PEV (BEV or PHEV) is plugged in and actually charging, then that driver deserves to be using the charger (free or paid). You only unplug a car if it has completed charging. If you went outside your round trip radius from your home with your BEV, then you need to plan accordingly and understand you may be stranded (either waiting for vehicles to finish charging, or due to chargers not actually working).

It can be argued that a PHEV owner can get home on gas, but at the same time a lot of BEV owners using public stations (especially the free ones) could get home on their remaining charge, but use public ones for opportunity charging. In this case, it would be better for the PHEV owner to charge so that the vehicle would be able to continue on electricity instead of being forced to switch over to gas, which there is no arguing is better for the environment. Order of priority ideally should be BEV without enough charge to get home (or destination), PHEV with a depleted battery, BEV and PHEV opportunists. However, it's impossible to enforce this. It's also unfair for a PHEV owner not to use an available public charger on the chance there is a BEV who needs it, since it's impossible for the driver to predict whether or not a BEV will come along. In the case no BEV comes along, then it's better for the PHEV to charge up to minimize pollution.

I have a problem with those who don't move their cars after finishing charging (although at certain places like airports this is understandable to a certain extent since you can't fly back to move your car to fly back to your destination), and those who park in a charging spot and don't even bother to plug in thus preventing someone who would from doing so (this seems to be the case at Disneyland every time I go, with Teslas occupying the charging spots but being too cheap to pay the fee to plug in, effectively ICE'ing the spots even though they are BEVs).

The solution is to get rid of all free chargers and replace them with paid chargers. The key is to set a price higher than home rates without setting them so high that nobody ever uses them (these might be great for emergencies, but what's the point if they are NEVER used, like the Blink stations and Chargepoints at Walgreens locations at 49 cents/kWh).

I own both a PHEV and BEV, so I have somewhat of a balanced opinion.

Would you prefer them to run more gas and contribute more pollution to the environment?

And how would you judge which BEVs actually NEED the charge?

Either way we can all agree there needs to be a significant increase in charging stations, and installations have significantly stagnated behind PEV sales.

 

I'd be more concerned about the other guy being armed. People have killed over just parking spots without chargers.

 

Every motor vehicle operator is armed with a weapon -- the motor vehicle itself. And out here where a large number of us have long been licensed to carry loaded guns in public, all the parking lot dispute injuries I've heard about were committed with motor vehicles, not with guns.

And not just guys either. The most prominent local cases have been between gals.

So far, I haven't heard of any local cases involving plug-ins escalating to such a level.

 

Well you can't put a plug-in in drive while it's still plugged in, so it requires that extra step to run someone over

 

A classic.