Gunfight at EV Corral

[braineo]

I arrived to my place of work this morning and found out 1 out of 2 Blink chargers was kaput. There was a white TESLA charging and I was down to less than 30% Soc which wouldn't allow me to comfortably get home from work.

Oh the sparks that were internally raised when I disconnected the Tesla to get an hour's worth of charge before I had to reconnect the Tesla.

Worst part - is that the chargers are for building tenants and this guy walks to another building probably 1/2 mile away.

What is the proper etiquette to handle situations like this? Start charging $5 per hour?

 

[davewill]

You can:

• Make contact with the guy and hope he is the reasonable sort.
• If they are really just for building tenants have the security folks kick him out.
• Get the second unit fixed.
• Keep unplugging him and hope the sparks don't catch things on fire.

Seriously, what were the "internal sparks"? Just your conscience, or did the guy raise a stink?

 

[Elephanthead]

If he is not a tenant or visiting the building get him towed. Those don't sound like public chargers. Would you call the cops on a homeless guy for putting his bed in the lobby? Same thing.

 

[Randy]

I would advocate a cooperative effort to get users to use a dash placard with their phone number and end time listed so you can communicate with them and determine when it is okay to unplug them when you need a charge.

The problem with what you did is that you might have disconnected him right after the top of his charging hour when his bill went to the next increment and he might have missed getting that hour's worth of charge that he paid for...

When you plugged him back in, it wouldn't start charging his car until he scanned his card, right?

Communiation is the key!

 

[Zythryn]

Charging cost at minimum would eliminate most of this.
However if the Tesla had a much longer drive and the driver needed the charge to get home, I would not see why someone who isn't a tenant use the charger unless the lot, or charger are labeled 'tenants only'.
Especially if the charger is listed as public on plug share or such.

If frequently using free chargers, I would have a card telling people to feel free to unplug me if they need the charger with a number they could text me at.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Another option would be to upgrade to the Tesla yourself so you can make it round trip.

 

[braineo]

Currently chargers are free at work.

It is 4 p.m. and the guy has been connected since 9 a.m. (minus 1 hr) . I reconnected and used my blink card to let him charge.

I think I will need to set up a charge per hour that I can get credited back (or any employee or visitor).

I will ask buidling management to probably have a sign of 2 hr max per session.

 

[davewill]

... I will ask buidling management to probably have a sign of 2 hr max per session.

Have you spoken with the Tesla driver? I would try that first unless you're determined to banish the guy. He may be very reasonable about the whole thing. Just leave your number on his windshield.

 

[adric22]

Did you ask you work if maybe there as a 120V outlet somewhere that you could use until the Blink gets fixed?

 

[braineo]

I left a message to contact me since I didn't have enough charge to make it home so I asked me to connect me. I also left a plugin red cardboard message CHARGE NEEDED on my dashboard with my cell phone.

Since we got lucky and the broken charger was fixed, this is just the preamble to the gunfight.

Hopefully I'll meet the guy soon.

How other companies handle this - other than charging per hour?

 

[apvbguy]

I left a message to contact me since I didn't have enough charge to make it home so I asked me to connect me. I also left a plugin red cardboard message CHARGE NEEDED on my dashboard with my cell phone.

Since we got lucky and the broken charger was fixed, this is just the preamble to the gunfight.

Hopefully I'll meet the guy soon.

How other companies handle this - other than charging per hour?

I think the answer has already been suggested, restricting the use of the charger to tenants of the building is up to the buildings owner, if he is so inclined he could restrict the usage of the charger to building tenants. another possible answer could be for the EV people to agree to limit charging of any one car to X hours, then they need to allow another to charge.
short of these solutions there isn't much that you can do, I would think that first come first served is in play.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

With ~6000 new EVs entering service every month, a growth rate seemingly far greater than the rate of charging facility installations, this kind of problem is only going to get worse.

 

[johnqh]

Don't Blink chargers belong to Blink? Who sets the policy, Blink or location owner?

 

[braineo]

There are two types of contracts a per hour charge via Blink or free for all, but that hasn't stopped Georgia Power from not allowing the public by installing the chargers inside their secured parking. My company wasn't aware of the two options and installed the units via ecotality using the per charge model, until I pointed out that model wouldn't work for employees. It got changed to free.

1. I will put back my 120v ESVE in the trunk with a long extension (I'm allowed to use a 110v plug)
2. Request to put a clear message that vehicles must leave contact information with security or be towed.

 

[BobGeisel]

We have two ChargePoint Level 2 stations installed at my office with four green "EV Only" parking spaces. My Office charges $0.50 an hour (pro rated) to charge. (I guess the electricity is free.) We have a very specific EVSE usage policy and the stations are only for employee use. They do not show up on the ChargePoint site and your ChargePoint card must be added to some database before the you can use the stations. There is a scrolling message about who to contact in my office to get access. This has worked well....so far.

In the last month, we have gone from 1 Volt and 1 LEAF (mine) to 1 Volt and 6 LEAFs. Today at lunch, I saw two LEAFs and the Volt all in the EV parking spaces. Two were charging and one was waiting. I have created an internal email distribution list and am adding all the EV owners to it. This way we should be able to notify each other when a station is free.

Cooperation is the key. EV infighting will only hurt the cause.

 

[apvbguy]

In the last month, we have gone from 1 Volt and 1 LEAF (mine) to 1 Volt and 6 LEAFs.

wouldn't such an increase in usage make "them" think about adding more chargers?

 

[kubel]

Car manufacturers should implement automatic charging locks with settings that the driver can modify:

Example:
Do not lock.
Lock until charging stops.
Lock until SOC is 50%.
Lock until SOC is 25%.

Or maybe make it intelligent by tieing it into car GPS.

Example:
Lock until I have enough charge to get home.
Lock until I have enough charge to get to work.

Unlock by carwings, unlock by keyfob. Lots of options.

 

[DoubleDownOn9]

If he has a Model S he's okay paying $5 per kwh to charge just to make you feel like a schmuck. I'm kidding of course but I have noticed a lot of Model S people know very little about such matters. I had thought about making a free little velcro tabbie to hang on the charge cable to let other EV'ers know it's okay to disconnect me if you need to charge.

 

[gaswalla]

Snarky comments about Volts and TESLA's are not needed. EV owners all have equal rights at public charging. On the other hand, if this is NOT a public charging station, and there is appropriate signage, then the other cars (regardless of brand name) are trespassers.

There are a couple sentinel issues:
1. Blink chargers have horrible reliability - why isn't anyone upset at Ecotality that the charger broke down.
2. The range on your LEAF is not adequate for what you comfortably need. What if someone needed a charge real bad (like you did) and unplugged you.. you'd be stuck at work for sure. You probably would have a lot less stress had you bought a Volt or Model S.

 

[EVDRIVER]

If he has a Model S he's okay paying $5 per kwh to charge just to make you feel like a schmuck. I'm kidding of course but I have noticed a lot of Model S people know very little about such matters. I had thought about making a free little velcro tabbie to hang on the charge cable to let other EV'ers know it's okay to disconnect me if you need to charge.

I had a Tesla owner unplug me and I came up to the car just after he did. He was showing off the car in the parking lot and I asked why he unplugged me and he said because he wanted to charge but he "really did not need it". He had no clue and just thought it was ok to pull the plug from my car to show others how to charge the car.

The best was the Volt owner that would not let me charge because he needed to charge while only "shopping for 10 minutes" after I told him I could not make it home and then he proceeded to swipe a credit card in front of a Charge Point station. Then he asked me for help as to why it would not work. He lived four blocks away.