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

Aw man, that's too much. At least you're taping it to their window so they know what's going on though. The way I make a point of it is to just take the charging cable and wrap it around their rearview mirror.

 

As an update to my rant, I'm wondering if all those Leaf and Fiat drivers are on this forum. For some reason over the last week and a half, the charging stations have been mostly unoccupied - lol. The last three trips there, I've gotten a spot on my first shot.

 

I arrived at an 'available' charging station once to find it populated by a Tesla that wasn't even plugged in.

 

I vow to remember the EV/PEV courtesy credo, and will never take up a space without charging. (And definitely when not plugged in!)

 

^ I like it!

 

Agree, more market driven pricing would benefit the public good making these charging stations more available and still very reasonably priced:

If I were king of the world, here is how I do it:

Low utilized stations:
-1st 1-2 hours free
-then ~local utility kWh pricing

Medium utilized stations:
-1st hour local utility kWh pricing
-2+ hour: 2-4x local utility kWh pricing
-municipalities bank earnings and recycle them into new EVSE installations

High utilized stations:
-1st hour 2-4x local utility kWh pricing
-2+ hour: sky is the limit, what ever market will bear
-municipalities flush with all this extra $$$ recycle it into new EVSE installations and these therefore become medium utilized stations

 

I dissent. Charging by the kWh at rates multiples of cost will result in decreased utilization, which results in decreased demand for public charging. On the other hand, free charging with no arbitration of space and usage opens itself up to abuse by a few.

We are at the beginning of a marked change in how we travel, and sometimes, incentives like "free" charging are just the ticket for pushing progress.

Then, look at the pricing policies of providing the power in the first place: for PHEVs with short ranges (<25 miles), pricing by the hour is inherently unfair, because these vehicles typically can't charge at the full capability of the EVSE's pipe. Pricing by the hour can strongly favor BEVs. Pricing by the kWh parallels actual costs, but charging usuriously (e.g., $.50/kWh equates to $5.50/gallon gasoline!) discourages everyone from hooking up. (The owner of such stations will then abandon them due to "no one uses them.")

That said, pigs that take up a charger while not charging (especially those who use EV charging spots as "preferred parking" at malls and businesses) should be penalized severely. So, "vehicle connected, not charging" should incur at least a $5/hr charge with no daily maximum. That takes care of this category.

So, the best model I can think of is one that still encourages use of PHEVs and BEVs with the economic incentive of being less than or equal to the cost of equivalent gasoline. Thus, charging by the kWh makes the most sense. That, coupled with heavy penalties for taking up space in a charging spot, would strike the best balance.

The post immediately prior to mine suggests a similar approach.

 

Since these stations (Volta) are ad supported, I'd like to see them do something along the lines of having you log on with their app and watch a short commercial clip with a question about the ad after. This way a couple of things happen:

-There's a real eyeball watching their client's ad with feedback which will allow them to charge more for the advertising; the interactive ads in-app are on top of their traditional advertising panels on the station.
-Limit the number of hours the user can charge at one of these free stations per day - charger doesn't operate when they're over their daily max.
-Charger is locked like Chargepoint so if a user is over their daily max, they can't even plug in to look like they're charging just so they can park in the premium spot.
-The station would have a display to show how long an individual has been parked there, including the elapsed time of when charging stopped that way there can be consequences for squatting on a space.

 

I wonder how many people would stop the free opportunity charging or just parking if the spots were moved to the back of parking lots instead of the front...

 

Fortunately, we are not in court. (Sometimes, quoting dissent might be advantageous in an appellate brief.)

One point: commercial rates are SIGNIFICANTLY lower than residential rates. By a LOT. Especially during times with human activity.
SCE TOU-GS-1 (commercial): Peak summer rates are $.23/kWh. Off-Peak summer rates are $.16/kWh
SCE TOU-D-T (residential, time of use, non-tiered): Peak summer rates are $.46/kWh. Off-Peak summer rates are $.11/kWh

If you compare off-peak rates you could conclude commercial rates are higher, but the huge delta during peak hours suggests per kWh charges at public chargers of $.50 is unjustified.

You also don't account for the fact that, in general, EV and PHEV owners tend to be wealthier and buy more merchandise at those stores that provide free or low-cost EV charging. Will losing free charging cause them to vote with their feet? If another business does offer it, guess whose business will suffer more: the one that charges $.50/kWh (essentially a 100% markup, minimum) or the one that provides it at or below cost for its CUSTOMERS?

 

To add a data point, our city wide utility monopoly charges $0.11/KWh for us residential people and $0.055 for commercial properties. All times of the day, no matter how much power you draw. We have no tiers or anything like that. The only difference is that if the commercial business has a power factor less than some number (92% maybe?) then they charge you a few cents more per KWh. But it is always less than residential.

To your second point, exactly. I go out of my way to visit places with EV charging infrastructure and I only go to places that are free. I don't usually (or ever really) use the charger but I will frequent the shops around them. About $100 an evening for dinner + movie at the theater with the charger, or a few hundred dollars to shop at the whole foods with a charger vs. the one that doesn't have it. I know there are quite a few people who do the same as I do, some are even coworkers...

 

there's always 2 open spots at our local whole foods. since they changed the free charger to charge point, people seem to have lost interest.

 

The Whole Foods around here don't even give us that option.

 

Ours does (western Philly burbs), and I think it's still free, but I don't have anything to charge (Gen II)

Amazon Prime Plug-In has an interesting ring to it!

 

it's the only one i've ever seen, and the only charger i've ever seen at a retail location. not even sure why it's there, but it was quite popular when free. there are tons of ev's around here.

 

Our Amazon Foods has 2 EV Charging spots with no charger. Never had one, no plans on getting one. Always ICE'd but everytime they repaint the parking lot they get the nice bright lines, handicap symbols and EV charging symbols. At least 4 years now. The other Amazon Foods shut down and it actually had 2 chargers but no EV markings on the spaces, so also always ICE'd. Now that the store is closed, the power is off and the charger is still there...

Amazon Prime Plug-In would be awesome.

 

The Stop & Shops around here that have chargers (and it is sort of hit or miss) never seem to be fully used and I have never seen an ICE parked in the charging spaces which are a little out of the way from normal spaces. One of the Stop & Shops has 12 charging slots and I have seen as many as 6 of them used. Maybe we should have an EV gathering just to fully utilize this facility so they feel good that they set them up. They are free at the moment.