Greetings - new Prime driver here. Headed to the airport for a 5 day trip and have a question regarding rules/etiquette. I notice that at SEATAC airport there are a number of charging stations up front close to the terminal. Are they first come first served? Seems awkward to leave my Prime plugged in for 5 days while I'm travelling. Also very much do not want to be towed while away... Appreciate any thoughts...
Welcome! Yeah, it's the Wild Wild West out there - when it comes to charging etiquette. By awkward, do you mean because somebody without a gas engine could possibly be hosed? Yeah, there is that, but that's just the way it is - some will be gracious & forgo snagging a spot in order for those more in need, while others don't care so much, & since some airports seldom if ever says otherwise, you can do what feels right. Maybe ask your lical airport if they have any multi-day requirements because some will post their rules & other airports won't set any rules. .
Rules or not, it would be really rude at a minimum to occupy a charging spot for five days. It might not get towed, but you might come home to four flat tires or some interesting changes to your paint job if someone figured out how long your car had been there. For what little gas it would cost, I'd not hog a spot like that.
Appreciate these responses very much. It would be interesting if others chimed in with their thoughts as well. I'll probably not charge for the five days (when I only need a few hours) but I will start taking notice of who is there when I park, and if they are still there when I leave. When I've walked past before it is mostly fancy-pants Tesla's taking the spaces. Quite sure they don't have to concern themselves with the riff-raff
Hang on now ... the last time I looked down, yep ... wearing cargo shorts ... not too fancy - these pants. Seen some 5yr old model S's on eBay that sold used in the $30k range ... less than a new/fully loaded Prime. Here's some Tesla charging fun facts; - they have an option to home charge at variable speeds - from just barely over 1kW all the way up to 19.2kW's ... thats a charging rate varying between 3 miles/hr to nearly 60 miles/hr!! - deliberately charging at the slowest speed, the largest battery Tesla could take FOUR days to refill - teslas can L2 charge faster than airport chargers can deliver - so depending on whether airport chargers use 208v versus 240v .... that charge rate is is about 2X more power than what the Prime is capable of accepting, but the Charge units talk to the car to determine the max power level that each can receive/deliver. Personally, just because airport chargers are invariably clogged up, we don't bother to even look for them, because odds are, someone else will likely have a greater need, so we plan around it. CONGRATS on your new plugin! .
i don't really see the point of stations in places where you will be gone longer than it takes to charge up. but if they keep charging you after you are finished charging, more power to them.
Yeah, camping on a public, free-charging spot, for five days, with a plug-in (perfectly capable of driving off without a charge up) seems beyond selfish. You shouldn't have to ask.
Short term is meant for a few hours at most. Then it becomes more expensive, but not a whole lot more. Short Term: Rates: Under 60 minutes is free; 61-80 minutes $4; each additional 20 min. $2 Max Charge: $22 max. per 24 hours Long Term: Rates: Under 60 minutes is free; 61-80 minutes $4; each additional 20 min. $2 Max Charge: $18 max. per 24 hours Then I looked some more and they have charing in all the lots except valet. Parking | Tampa International Airport
Off-topic, but all those numbers got me thinking about the wonderful world of YVR (Vancouver international airport) short-term parking . One time, knowing our daughter's eta was around 1:30~2:00 am, we drove their vehicle out to the airport, parked it in short-term parking around 10 pm, and skytrained home. Her husband told me they got in about as planned and when driving out were charged around $60, since they'D been there two days, a bit beyond the max for each day. I've pretty much given up on that city, mayor moonbeam can have it.
hmmmm .... "given up"? You're too kind. In fact - regarding certain BC drivers who continually ignore special purpose "RESERVED" signage ; there's a special RESERVED parking place in hell, waiting especially for them. .
even for bev's. can you imagine a row of gas pumps and gassers sitting there after full? there's simply no point to charging stations in places where the cars can't be moved after charged.
Reminds me of a "Touched by an Angel" episode long ago. I think that was the name; it's the one with Michael Langdon. I wasn't crazy about it but there was one scene that was priceless. Scumbag parks in a handicapped spot and starts toward the store. Angel says something to him about it. Scumbag tells him in no uncertain terms to mind his own business. Next scene. Scumbag exits store and sees his car still in the handicapped spot but upside down. And there's a cop writing a ticket.
This thread sounds a lot like handicapped parking. They will give you a ticket if you don't belong there. I can't imagine in the future where a big airport parking lot will have a charging station for every parking spot. It would look like the old drive in movies.
at some point, people will need to figure out how to get there and back without charging, like gassers do. and the courtesy van can supply a small charge for emergencies.
Our local CLT airport has Chargepoint chargers in the Daily lot and the valet lot. Daily is directly across from the terminal and parking is free for 1 hour, then up to 20$/day. Also charging is a flat $5. Both of those tend to keep out the riff/raff and there are always open chargers. That being said until about a year ago there was no enforcement and since the chargers had a "prime" location to the terminal many EV's (and occasional others) would park there but NOT PLUG IN (due to the flat $5 fee). Finally the airport put up signage indicating ALL NON CHARGING vehicles would be ticketed and or towed!. I occasionally use that lot for pick up or drop offs and would check out the chargers...after the signage went up the number of users not plugging in did drop. The valet lot will charge your car then move it so it is a non issue in that lot. BTW the flat charge is a good way to burn up the Chargepoint bonus as I will never use $100 on charging in 90 days!
DIA (DEN) has dedicated EV chargers and HEV parking spaces (separate). I find it extremely rude for things like the Volt or Prime to park in the EV parking spots and use the EVSE there. They should park in the hybrid spots, because they are. They are all L1 spots and share a tower, so they're probably a single split 120VAC/20A connection for the two cars. Which is fine, because theses are not for general use, they are for use while parking and flying away. I take lots of weekend trips, and many times the vehicles that are there Friday night, are still there Sunday. And the Teslas are usually still charging...
