Best Practices for Public Charging

EV charging etiquette. Bottom line is they may feel entitled, but aren't.

Electric Vehicle Charging Etiquette | PluginCars.com

All of that said, if a BEV came up to me and showed me they had little to no range left, I would give up the spot to them as a gesture of good will.

 

Excellent read. I do use my app. I try to move the car once it tells me the charge is complete. I was really mad the other day when one of the parking structure attendants had their truck parked in the EV parking. The nerve! But seriously, those EV owners are going to have to get over it. I just wish my PiP had the option of locking the plug into the car, so no one could remove it.

 

plug it in and take no prisoners. if they whine, tell 'em you're out of gas.

 

I would be nice for the manufacturers to establish a standard for a charging indicator. I think the PiP's light next to the plug is the way to go. This can be in addition to some sort of proprietary indicator, such as the Leaf's three light level indicator in the wind shield.

 

Why would you need that? Every charging station I've ever been to shows, at a minimum, a "CHARGING" indication on the station itself.

 

If you plug in publicly then just move when done or close to done. No hostility then.

What makes hostility is like last weekend when I went to the airport in the Leaf, and when I get there all the EV spots are blocked by Volts that are not charging. Every spot. Then there are 2 hybrid spots available, and another Volt pulls into the spot closest to the charger (cord would have barely made it) and refuses to move 1 spot over when I asked. Parking a PiP or a Volt at long term charging is a bad choice.

I do not believe the PiP or Volt or even i3-REX should park in EV spots, because they aren't. Bigger problem is that there just needs to be more charging stations everywhere. Getting away from the gas station central fuelling mentality into fuelling everywhere you park will take time, and this transition period will be rough in places.
If you

 

Presumably the only reason to charge publicly, is because you are out of the EV range of your vehicle. If you have a backup power source like a gas engine, then why hog an "emergency" spot? There are lots of stories of diesel truck owners getting irate over petrol car drivers because they park infront of the only diesel pump at the station to fuel up with regular petrol while there are multiple non-diesel pumps available. That takes 5 minutes, and has been the cause of much anger over many years. As long as a BEV driver sees a PHEV driver plugging in and there are no other spots, the BEV owner will most likely be upset.

I am more upset at the Volt situation (PiP isn't sold here, only 2 in the state I think) because they were parked at EV spots and NOT charging while blocking numerous Tesla's, and my Leaf. If the spots were completely full of Tesla's (which has happened before) then it would have been the same outcome for me (no charge) but it would at least make sense. Tesla is a BEV, so it can park there.

However there are some on the Leaf forums that think even Tesla's shouldn't park in public chargers. "They can go 200+ miles, I need that to get home!" And to that I say, never count on public charging. The charging is for fully electric vehicles, if your vehicle qualifies, then use it. Never go out of safe home-return range with the expectation of making it back guaranteed.

 

It's for whomever the charging-station owner chooses to serve. In virtually all cases, the purpose for installing them is to increase patronage at their establishment. So, there is no solid audience to identify or a even generalization to make.

If I drive to that place using only electricity, what difference would it make what kind of vehicle I drove? A right-sized battery can be just as relevant as any particular technology. In fact, some may even say not driving as far in the first place is a better choice.

Needless to say, there is no clear answer.

 

You have the choice of when & how to be notified.

ChargePoint sends a text to me when the charger draw drops to 0 kW, to indicate charging is complete.

 

When you setup your ChargePoint account you can pick email and/or text messages and you can pick what events send a message. You can configure to send a message when charging is done. But there is no mystery with the PIP. It takes about a max of 90 minutes to get a full charge. Anyone who has charged with an L2 charger more than 10 times should be able to estimate within 5-10 minutes when charging will be done based on EV miles remaining or empty to start with.

Mike

 

Here's my take on public charging station protocol

Public Charger Protocol : EV WORLD.COM [1288]

 

[/QUOTE]

Presumably the only reason to charge publicly, is because you are out of the EV range of your vehicle. If you have a backup power source like a gas engine, then why hog an "emergency" spot? There are lots of stories of diesel truck owners getting irate over petrol car drivers because they park infront of the only diesel pump at the station to fuel up with regular petrol while there are multiple non-diesel pumps available. That takes 5 minutes, and has been the cause of much anger over many years. As long as a BEV driver sees a PHEV driver plugging in and there are no other spots, the BEV owner will most likely be upset..[/QUOTE]

That's not the reason for public charging at all. The reason is to facilitate the adoption of Plug-in Vehicles as an alternative to gas guzzlers. Public charging allows people who don't have access to a plug at home to still drive a plug-in.

[/QUOTE] I am more upset at the Volt situation (PiP isn't sold here, only 2 in the state I think) because they were parked at EV spots and NOT charging while blocking numerous Tesla's, and my Leaf. If the spots were completely full of Tesla's (which has happened before) then it would have been the same outcome for me (no charge) but it would at least make sense. Tesla is a BEV, so it can park there.[/QUOTE]

In this area Tesla drivers are the biggest offenders when it comes to blocking EV charging stations. Volt drivers and the heaviest users of public charging.

[/QUOTE] However there are some on the Leaf forums that think even Tesla's shouldn't park in public chargers. "They can go 200+ miles, I need that to get home!" And to that I say, never count on public charging. The charging is for fully electric vehicles, if your vehicle qualifies, then use it. Never go out of safe home-return range with the expectation of making it back guaranteed.[/QUOTE]

There are always those who think they are the "Chosen ones" and public chargers are their reserved parking spaces. I've even see someone write that prices should be set to discourage PIP drivers from using the chargers. The guy was a Volt driver who seemed to thing that because he had a bigger battery he had more right to the chargers. My view is that he can get 30 miles I get 11 so I need a charge more than he does.

In the end people just have to accept that every plug-in driver has a much right to use a public charger as they do. As someone else said earlier in the thread, if I found a BEV driver that needed to to charge to get home I would let them use the charger but if I got the "you have an ice and I don't attitude then I would tell them it's first come first served.

 

In my anecdotal experience (n≈30), talking to those plugging-in or -out at local public stations, I have yet to come across someone who was out of range and therefore had to use the particular station. This doesn't seem surprising as these stations are known to be routinely fully occupied during business hours. More so, there are other open paid stations within a few miles that are seldom occupied.

What I do hear from most patrons, instead, is that it's an unnecessary charge, but a convenient perk. It's a bit amusing that two BEV owners I have spoken with use these public stations as their personal charging stations. Both find it worth their time to bring a book to read in their vehicle or use their smart phones while they charge up for 2+ hours.

It all comes down to economics. If the stations are priced correctly, they will be used as such. Meanwhile, best to avoid the mayhem.

 

at least with ev driver mayhem, you don't have to worry about being shot, like you might if you block the diesel pump.

 

It might be closer to check the charging plug for a light and it is better shielded against ambient light which could make the charging station display hard to read.

 

Yes but what does the light mean???

The BMW's blink a light on the rear-view mirror and the Nissan Leaf on the dash when charging. They go solid when done charging that stage, and then finally turn off after a period of being done charging.

The Volt has a flashing dash light too. Except when it is flashing, that means it is DONE charging! And when it is solid, it is charging.

The Ford PHEVs and BEVs glow around the charger when charging, and then turn off when not charging. The Tesla Roadster glows one colour when charging and glows yet another colour while done charging, you guess it, around the charge port. The Tesla S flashes while charging and turns solid when done charging. EXCEPT, if it is locked and then there is no light at all and it could be charging or discharging, it is a guessing game.

And there are more ways to display it too. So unless everyone should have to know all the little stuff about every car, which lets face it won't happen, then the easiest way is to look at the charger itself. The charger very clearly and always indicates charging or not charging. It doesn't care what the car is doing, it just tells it like it is.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]