What to do about someone who unplugged my car

[RickMachE]

What an interesting slice of society we have.

Removing a plug from your car, that is on a public free charger, doesn't involve me touching your car at all. Be courteous - remove the charger and move your car when you're done charging.

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[RMoore]

There is an approach that I don't think I've seen mentioned and it is fairly simple and something I would likely do if faced with this situation: leave a note. Just write something like "sorry I had to remove the charging cable, but it looked like you were done charging and there were no other ones available." On the flip side, I would leave a note on my car if I had to park for longer than necessary (which I would avoid doing), something like: "Please feel free to remove the charging cable if I am done charging, I should be back soon." Or something like that. I think a nice note can go a long way towards avoiding tempers flaring.

 

[timbop]

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.

You can't unplug DCFC while hot - there's a built in safety system that locks the connector in place while current is flowing. That's why you have to overtly stop the charge by pressing the button next to the connector on the car, in the car UI, or on the charger's UI. If you look in the user manual there is a procedure to manually release the locking mechanism in the event of a failure of the connector to be unlocked when current stops flowing.

For L2 there is that catch on the end of the connector that latches the connector in; when you press the thumb release it also immediately ceases current flow.

Nonetheless, if your car was still charging then the Teslarati was the d*ck. That actually doesn't surprise me; almost all of the times I've seen an EV blocking a charger (and not charging) it has been a tesla. One tesla bro (he was even wearing the tight-fighting tesla t-shirt) tried doing it in front of me at a CCS DCFC station and then lie about planning to plug it in when he came out of the store.

 

[ZuleMME]

It really is amazing how polarizing this issue seems to be. Let's change it up and see if anyone flips sides:

Bob parks his F150 at the gas pump and begins to pump unleaded into his truck. While pumping he wanders off to a hotel to stay the night and not check on his truck and it's fueling until morning. Afterall, it's parked right?

Is it fair game to return the gas nozzle and tow his truck?

 

[timbop]

It really is amazing how polarizing this issue seems to be. Let's change it up and see if anyone flips sides:

Bob parks his F150 at the gas pump and begins to pump unleaded into his truck. While pumping he wanders off to a hotel to stay the night and not check on his truck and it's fueling until morning. Afterall, it's parked right?

Is it fair game to return the gas nozzle and tow his truck?

If the pump is still running while the guy is inside the convenience store, then NO it is not alright to take out the pump and start filling your own car.

 

[Lord Polymath]

It really is amazing how polarizing this issue seems to be. Let's change it up and see if anyone flips sides:

Bob parks his F150 at the gas pump and begins to pump unleaded into his truck. While pumping he wanders off to a hotel to stay the night and not check on his truck and it's fueling until morning. Afterall, it's parked right?

Is it fair game to return the gas nozzle and tow his truck?

Not really apples to apples but I see your point.

Forgive my ignorance, but if you can remove the charger from the car while it is charging could someone steal your electricity? Just like at the gas pump if you left it pumping.

 

[SAM]

That's taking things to the absurd.

This is about common sense etiquette, not ridiculous. We have stayed in hotels with the car almost always taking most of the night to be done. I would never wake up at 3AM to unplug my car, because there is little chance that a person needing a charge has a clue when my car will be done, and normally people don't sit up all night waiting for a charger to be open.

In the morning, I check the car's charging status, and look outside to see the parking lot status. In my experience, there is almost always an ICE or handicap permit vehicle parking in charging spots when a hotel is full or there are no close spots. Most of the time I'm the only vehicle charging.

At a recent stay in SC, we were the only hotel guest using one of the two 2-port chargers. One day one spot was blocked by an ICE truck that was too long (I emailed their company, and on following nights they parked elsewhere), other days I noticed a local Bolt coming in to charge while mom read emails and the kid ate snacks in the back seat. And a handicap truck that parked in the closer charging spot that wasn't handicap indicated.

As things get more congested, I will make signs/tags to indicate that someone should or should not unplug me. But I will never get up in the middle of the night to move my vehicle. Sorry, but I always plan for backup charging solutions (nearby DC chargers), and so should you.

At our recent three night stay in SC (Charlotte, NC area), there were two Clipper Creek spots at the hotel that were never blocked, even though they were prime spots near the hotel entrance (that's asking for trouble).

On the first night, my car was going to be fully charged at 2:30 AM. I did not go down to unplug and move my car. The next morning, the other charging spot was still available, so no issue. During the rest of the stay, I never saw another EV charging, so I may have been the only one using the chargers.

When I was fully charged, I parked somewhere else.

Had to ask the front desk to switch them on every time I charged, so this may have kept random usage down. They were on until I unplugged, which shut them off.

 

[minjaep]

Not really apples to apples but I see your point.

Forgive my ignorance, but if you can remove the charger from the car while it is charging could someone steal your electricity? Just like at the gas pump if you left it pumping.

You should stop charging to unplug the cable. Or charging will be stopped if unplugged forcefully. So I think it's not possible to steal electricity.

 

[timbop]

Forgive my ignorance, but if you can remove the charger from the car while it is charging could someone steal your electricity? Just like at the gas pump if you left it pumping.

No. When you press the release button on top of the connector it ends the charging session. If it's a pay charger then the next person needs to start a new session with their own credit card

 

[machefan2022]

So what does the little unluck button do next to the charge port?

 

[HuntingPudel]

So what does the little unluck button do next to the charge port?

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.

 

[MachEMaster]

What an interesting slice of society we have.

Removing a plug from your car, that is on a public free charger, doesn't involve me touching your car at all. Be courteous - remove the charger and move your car when you're done charging.

Unlocking the charger from someone else’s charging vehicle, and just leaving the charging door open, constitutes an Di#% move, no matter what public space you are at. Oh and if you were courteous enough to close the door, you touched the car. See you on the road!

 

[Ravensfan1996]

Part of the problem is that Ford does not lock the plug into the charging port when the car is locked.

This fact worries me if I'm using my TeslaTap adapter and someone decides they want it more than I do then just unplug me and walk away with a couple hundred bucks of hardware.

You can buy locks to lock it to your car and to the charger cable.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Parking in a charging stall (it's not a parking spot) is as obnoxious and as much of a d*ck move as double parking. Don't do it. If you do it, YTA and your car should be towed.

 

[mkhuffman]

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.

I think we generally agree (no unplugging someone else's car when it is charging), but I wanted to clarify that you don't need to be concerned about people damaging your car.

As others have already posted, DCFC charging cannot be stopped by removing the cable. You have to turn it off and stop the charge, and then the car will unlock the receptacle. Only then can you disconnect, and there is no current flowing when you do it.

L2 charging is stopped automatically when you press the release handle. That is the normal way to stop a L2 charge. Pressing the little button to the right of the receptacle does not stop the L2 charge - test it if you are unsure. Press that button and nothing happens when L2 charging - it all continues until you press the release handle.

So nobody will brick your car if they remove the charger and your car is still charging. That does not make it right for someone to do it, as I have already posted, but your car is fine. So when you see that Tesla driver, just don't be too angry with him. He cannot hurt your car with his inconsiderate behavior.

All that said, we disagree about unplugging a charged car. If you don't want anyone to touch your car, don't leave it there fully charged. If you do, proper etiquette is to disconnect you. Like it or not. And there is no possibility your car will be damaged if someone does that.

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