What to do about someone who unplugged my car

[mkhuffman]

I’m probably an @ss for my charging habit. I work for the railroad so when I get called for work I park next door in the public L1 chargers at Amtrak for about 36 hrs while I’m gone. I only do it about once a week when I get between 40%-50% and when I get back it’s around 70%-80% charged. There are 4 chargers there and I’ve never seen more than 1 car charging at any given time of day. I figure most people that would be charging there are getting on a train and leaving their car there for an extended period of time but probably not as long as me.

That does seem like a long time to occupy a public charger, but it is a L1 charger. It is pointless for anyone to use it for a short period of time, so just because it is so slow the general expectation should be cars sitting there for a very long time.

If you happen to hit 100% in hour 10 with 26 to go, then I think you should not be parking there. If you are still charging after 36 hours, it doesn't seem unreasonable that your car is still there. Just never let it sit there at 100%. There is no good reason to do that.

This reminds me of the airport solution proposed by The General to put in L1 chargers since cars sit for a long time waiting for their owners to return. Maybe Amtrak is doing what airports should be doing?

Sponsored

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

An awful lot of assumptions are being made in this thread about the op, the state of charge on his car and about the person who unplugged it..

 

[RickMachE]

Anyone who thinks that 3 hours on a hotel charger is worth doing hasn't charged at a hotel.

 

[skiingj]

Unplug and leave them a nice note. I printed some nice notes from this forum. I've yet to leave one but have come close to leaving a few rude inconsiderate folks know...

 

[MachEMaster]

I would move it before breakfast, not after. If you are not asleep, and are dressed enough for breakfast, you can move your car.

I don't think you need to wake up at 1 AM and move your car. However, if you arrive at 10 PM and will be fully charged in 3 hours you probably don't need a charge and don't need to occupy the charger in the first place. So you should not even park there at all.

The only time I used hotel charging I arrived at 10 PM and luckily there was a charging space available. The other charger was connected to a fully charged Tesla. A complete and total a-hole, obviously. I left the hotel at 6 AM the next morning, still not 100% charged but charged enough to make it 100 miles to the closest DCFC. (The Tesla a-hole was still there, of course.)

As I was pulling out of the space at 6 AM, a Tesla was waiting to take my place. Yep. Someone else actually needed a charge at 6 AM. So please don't take your time to move your car. Move it when you get up and dressed. Be reasonable and considerate. Unlike so many others who think they own the charger.

That’s the same wavelength I am on as well.

 

[emersonsdad]

That does seem like a long time to occupy a public charger, but it is a L1 charger. It is pointless for anyone to use it for a short period of time, so just because it is so slow the general expectation should be cars sitting there for a very long time.

If you happen to hit 100% in hour 10 with 26 to go, then I think you should not be parking there. If you are still charging after 36 hours, it doesn't seem unreasonable that your car is still there. Just never let it sit there at 100%. There is no good reason to do that.

This reminds me of the airport solution proposed by The General to put in L1 chargers since cars sit for a long time waiting for their owners to return. Maybe Amtrak is doing what airports should be doing?

I def only do it when I’m going to end up around 80% when I get back. The last time I charged there I plugged in at 26% and 34.5 hrs later I unplugged at 68%.

 

[Arjan]

What would be your thoughts on this senario: You roll into a free EV charging spot at a Hotel at 10pm. Your charging session will not be complete until 1am. Do you stay up/set an alarm to move your car? Or do you get up at 6am to move your car? Better yet do you go enjoy the continental breakfast, checkout of your room, throw your bag in the Frunk, and depart at 9:00am?

i would disconnect when i leave at the hotel, but this is at 07.30 anyway. I do not set a alarm at 3 am or something, there are limits to my energy and willingness to help others.

 

[Arjan]

Anyone who thinks that 3 hours on a hotel charger is worth doing hasn't charged at a hotel.

In our country the charging infrastructure is really great. The hotel i mostly stay at has 10 charging points of 11 and 22 kwh.
The hotel chain is also a tesla charging point (12 points at least), so we can even plugin there (offcourse then i need to move the car after an hour, because thats quickcharging)

Charge your electric car | Van der Valk Apeldoorn


But even then sometimes all 11 kwh stations are full, i just drive to the nearest ionity charging station and put the car at 90% while eating something from the yellow M. The weird part is that charging at the hotel is 40 (euro) cents per kW and Ionity is 31 cents

 

[mkhuffman]

In our country the charging infrastructure is really great. The hotel i mostly stay at has 10 charging points of 11 and 22 kwh.
The hotel chain is also a tesla charging point (12 points at least), so we can even plugin there (offcourse then i need to move the car after an hour, because thats quickcharging)

Charge your electric car | Van der Valk Apeldoorn


But even then sometimes all 11 kwh stations are full, i just drive to the nearest ionity charging station and put the car at 90% while eating something from the yellow M. The weird part is that charging at the hotel is 40 (euro) cents per kW and Ionity is 31 cents

Do the hotels charge idle fees? That's important to encourage people to move their car when charged.

The charging at our hotels is typically slower and typically"free" with no idle fees. Other than being considerate to others, there is no incentive to move the car when fully charged.

 

[Jimrpa]

put one of those "Parking Violation Stickers" on this stinking tesla next time...

https://www.amazon.com/Parking-Viol...ace0ff&pd_rd_wg=pVc5c&pd_rd_i=B07X59N7F4&th=1

Poor choice - apparently, they don’t use a adhesive that makes them difficult to remove, and leave a gooey mess. You need something that will take time to deal with.

 

[RickMachE]

A significant number of free level 2 chargers in the US are not part of any network and therefore have no ability to charge idle fees or anything else.

 

[Logal727]

What I’ve gathered from this thread so far is that if someone unplugs your car, you should be grateful or you should murder them

 

[i8iridium]

What I’ve gathered from this thread so far is that if someone unplugs your car, you should be grateful or you should murder them

Agreed. There's such a range of emotions. ?

There's also a lot of niche situations here. What if i pull into a hotel at 10pm with not very much range left, plug into a slow hotel charger, and it clicks over to 100% at 5am. Do i rush out at move my car before some other angry user pulls in at 5:01 and sees my car at 100%? Or do i wait until 5:30 and end up with a nasty gooey sticker slapped to my windshield for being inconsiderate?

 

[available_username2]

I did not realize this topic would generate the amount of passion it did ?. I will probably let the incident go, but the guy does park in the same garage as I do so I'll keep an eye out for him. I will speak to him (nicely) if I see him.

I've seen a lot of different opinions here, and that's all fine and dandy, but fair warning to anyone reading this who thinks it's ok to unplug someone else's car under any circumstances: if I catch you touching my car you will have one of the worst days you've had in a while. And if you, by chance, damage my car by improperly disconnecting it while charging, you will have a bad year. Fill in the details with your imagination.

Yes, it is a D-bag move to leave a fully charged EV/ICE car in a L2/DCFC parking spot for an extended period of time. Regardless, that does not give anyone the right to mess with someone else's property. When I DCFC there is often 30+ amps of current flowing through the charge port... you risk bricking the car(and potentially an arc flash) by yanking that out live. L2 is a much lower risk, but you're still dealing with 240V and several amps of current. I do not trust some random ya-hoo to do that properly. In other words - don't mess with someone else's car.

Also, we are talking about a public charging spot funded by the city... one individual does not have ANY rights to use it over the next person. Just be patient and plug it in somewhere else.

You are 1000% wrong. Everything is designed to be perfectly safe, there is no risk or arc flash or whatever you are thinking. The plug can not be removed if there is charge flowing. On a level two the button to release disrupts the electrical connection. If you had 100% SOC the tesla totally did the right thing. He doesn't even have to touch your car, just the charge plug. If you don't want people to unplug you don't leave your car fully charged plugged in.

I suggest you don't mention anything to this person, because the conversation is not going to go well. Because you are wrong.

 

[Logal727]

Agreed. There's such a range of emotions. ?

There's also a lot of niche situations here. What if i pull into a hotel at 10pm with not very much range left, plug into a slow hotel charger, and it clicks over to 100% at 5am. Do i rush out at move my car before some other angry user pulls in at 5:01 and sees my car at 100%? Or do i wait until 5:30 and end up with a nasty gooey sticker slapped to my windshield for being inconsiderate?

I was at a hotel in Daytona the past few days and they had free charging, but I was the only one who ever used it, I’m sure this would have been different on a race weekend, but there was also two nearby DCFC stations, so I take that into account too, just be reasonable and act like you would want someone else to act.

Sponsored