What to do about someone who unplugged my car

[RickMachE]

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.

It's totally unreasonable to expect people to act like they would want someone else to act.

On a recent hotel stay, we were the only guest using the charger over the days we were there. We parked there, and connected, when we were in the hotel, regardless of charge status. Our room overlooked the chargers, so had others shown up to charge, we would have moved it. This was true in both hotels we stayed in, and the norm for hotels we have stayed in - no one else using the chargers.

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[nor3bo]

The button inside of the charge circle stops DCFC charging. It has no effect at all on AC (L1 or L2) charging. I honestly think that it should just stop any charging, but Ford didn’t think it was important enough to force stoppage of AC charging since it’s at lower voltage and amperage than DC charging is. ?‍??

So I've only ever used DCFC once and did NOT use the little unlock in the charge circle, but instead just stopped the session on the DCFC UI.

Is there any difference in how we end the session (that makes one better than the other)?

 

[nor3bo]

Interesting. I don't think it would cross my mind to touch someone's car even to do something considerate like plugging them in when I finished charging. People are too crazy. If this happened to be known EV etiquette, I'd be happy to oblige but until then, I don't think i would touch the car. I think it's great that you do it though.

I've returned my car once to find note asking to plug in the Leaf next to me when I leave. The Leaf was parked next to me with the charging flap open.

As a general rule though, if the charging flap is open, I'd say it's the polite/right thing to do

 

[Deleted member 9461]

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

(B) yes the answer is (B)

 

[HuntingPudel]

So I've only ever used DCFC once and did NOT use the little unlock in the charge circle, but instead just stopped the session on the DCFC UI.

Is there any difference in how we end the session (that makes one better than the other)?

Sometimes the car will throw an error if you stop the session at the charger’s UI. People on the forum have found that using the stop button in the 5 segment charge ring does not result in the car throwing errors. ?‍?

 

[TheSteelRider]

The button inside of the charge circle stops DCFC charging. It has no effect at all on AC (L1 or L2) charging. I honestly think that it should just stop any charging, but Ford didn’t think it was important enough to force stoppage of AC charging since it’s at lower voltage and amperage than DC charging is. ?‍??

If you lookup the J2772 spec, there is a "short pin" for sensing the connection. It will be the last pin to make contact when inserting, and the first pin to lose contact when disconnecting. As soon as the EVSE sees the sense pin go away, it disconnects power. This happens at the speed of electricity, so probably no human can be quick enough to cause orcs / etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#Safety

 

[jonkMACHE]

You sound like a very grumpy, and unreasonable, person. If you leave your car on a public charger after it is finished charging, other EVers have the right to unplug you. If you're going to get bent out of shape about that, you are the problem. Sorry, but not gonna sugarcoat this.

Oh, you think I'm a grump! ?

Try this on for size:

--edited to be a little nicer---

 

[TheSteelRider]

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..

Not at all! The OP is an a-hole (or a saint). His car was almost bricked from being so low on charge (or it was at 100%), and the person who unplugged it was a self-absorbed elitist pig who was already at 99% charge (or his wife of 20 years was dying of cancer and the only way he could make it to visit her one last time was to get a few more % of charge).

See, clear as mud

 

[MyLittlePony2022]

I've returned my car once to find note asking to plug in the Leaf next to me when I leave. The Leaf was parked next to me with the charging flap open.

As a general rule though, if the charging flap is open, I'd say it's the polite/right thing to do

I purchased, via ETSY, a note to put on someone car, if I need a charge. I think most people are good and will help out, since we all need to get our "juice" to make the car run. I also purchased plastic hangers, also from ETSY, to put on the charging plug. This will let other know that I am just topping off or I am low and really need the charge. As far getting ICE'd, I created a PDF and will print a few out to put on peoples cars. I hope to educate people and try to help them understand. If I get through to someone, then we all win. I may not change the people to do not care, but no is probably going to change their bad attitudes. They are the same people who probably park in handicap spots too. See below on the note I created.

 

[available_username2]

Oh, you think I'm a grump! ?

Try this on for size:

We are talking about a dozen FREE L2 chargers installed by the City of New York to encourage EV ownership. You have absolutely no more right to the spot than the person who's currently parked there. If you want a right to it, buy the real estate and go set up your own charging station. Additionally, what you also don't know, is there was an additional 4 DCFC stations literally 20 feet away that are never occupied that cost roughly ~$2.50 for a 50% charge. And if you can afford a $60k EV you can easily afford that.


You want the same thing that I and everyone else wants: free electricity in a convienent parking location. So spare me your fake virtue. You have no more nobility about the issue than I do - the only difference between you and I is that I don't cry like a baby when the parking lot is full. If I see the L2 charging spots taken (often times it's an entire row of Teslas 100% charged), I shrug my shoulders and park somewhere else, and if I desperately need a charge, I go to the DCFC spot and pay $2.50. I would never take it upon myself to touch someone else's property - for liability reasons alone - if that Model X for whatever reason doesn't start up, he'll review the security footage, and you will be the one on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

I am not a jerk about moving my car. If someone asked me to, I'd move it right away, and I don't let a fully charged car sit there all weekend. However, I'm not going to set my alarm so that at 3am in the morning when the car is at 99% I wake up all groggy-eyed and move it. And if you think that gives you a right to yank the charging cord out of my car - I really hope you run into me while doing it. You'll think twice about doing it again, I guarantee you that!

you're being completely unreasonable. No on expects you wake up at 3am, but if you don't do that, there's no problem with someone removing the cable and using it. No one is yanking anything. There's zero damage to your car. In fact they aren't even touching your property. All they touch is the public charger. Hope you realize you're wrong.

 

[NovaMustang]

Oh, you think I'm a grump! ?

Try this on for size:

We are talking about a dozen FREE L2 chargers installed by the City of New York to encourage EV ownership. You have absolutely no more right to the spot than the person who's currently parked there. If you want a right to it, buy the real estate and go set up your own charging station. Additionally, what you also don't know, is there was an additional 4 DCFC stations literally 20 feet away that are never occupied that cost roughly ~$2.50 for a 50% charge. Not the same as free, but if you can afford a $60k EV you can easily afford that.


You want the same thing that I and everyone else wants: free electricity in a convienent parking location. So spare me your fake virtue. You have no more nobility about the issue than I do - the only difference between you and I is that I don't cry like a baby when the parking lot is full. If I see the L2 charging spots taken (often times it's an entire row of Teslas 100% charged), I shrug my shoulders and park somewhere else, and if I desperately need a charge, I go to the DCFC spot and pay $2.50. I would never take it upon myself to touch someone else's property - for liability reasons alone - if that Model X for whatever reason doesn't start up, he'll review the security footage, and you will be the one on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

I am not a jerk about moving my car. If someone asked me to, I'd move it right away, and I don't let a fully charged car sit there all weekend. However, I'm not going to set my alarm so that at 3am in the morning when the car is at 99% I wake up all groggy-eyed and move it. And if you think that gives you a right to yank the charging cord out of my car - I really hope you run into me while doing it. You'll think twice about doing it again, I guarantee you that!

This is hilarious. If I knew you, I’d follow you around and unplug your car day after day. You really gotta get over yourself and maybe act like you aren’t the most important person in the world dealing with a priceless piece of art.

 

[jonkMACHE]

If you lookup the J2772 spec, there is a "short pin" for sensing the connection. It will be the last pin to make contact when inserting, and the first pin to lose contact when disconnecting. As soon as the EVSE sees the sense pin go away, it disconnects power. This happens at the speed of electricity, so probably no human can be quick enough to cause orcs / etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#Safety

Everyone makes a good point about the auto-disconnect features. I was not aware of them and knowing that puts me more at ease. My primary concern is not damaging the car - I could care less about the free juice. Admittedly, I work around extremely hazardous electrical voltages so I'm a little jaded about the issue.

By the way - electricians typically use switching relays to disconnect power. The little 'click' you hear when the power turns on/off is the relay pulling in/out. The switch uses mechanical motion to separate the contactor, so while fast (10-20ms) it's not quite the same as speed of electricity. 99.9% of the time you won't have an issue, but relays do go bad after a certain # of uses, and there are scenarios where they can fail - so again, I would never risk damaging someone's property by pulling a charging cord out of a car.

 

[available_username2]

This is hilarious. If I knew you, I’d follow you around and unplug your car day after day. You really gotta get over yourself and maybe act like you aren’t the most important person in the world dealing with a priceless piece of art.

It basically has to be this location in NYC that op has described

edit: jonkMache got scared and asked that I remove this. So much for "I really hope you run into me while doing it ".

so if you're ever in new york and see a premium grabber blue charging in this garage be sure to unplug it!

 

[Jimrpa]

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.

Um, you were in Daytona. Be thankful they even had a charger ?

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