EV Charging Practical Issues

[michael]

It's pretty rare to find a 220 outlet at a hotel. Possible exception would be wall mounted air conditioners with 6-20 outlets. Better luck finding a place that has charging stations

I carried a J1772 extension cord. The idea was I could unplug someone already charged and hogging an l2. Charging station. Or someone ICEing one

 

[roundpeg]

I carried a J1772 extension cord. The idea was I could unplug someone already charged and hogging an l2. Charging station. Or someone ICEing one

So how does that work?

The Bolt comes with a J1772 cord but it's only line voltage.

EDIT: Looked it up, I think I see what you mean.

 

[michael]

This is the one I have..


http://tucsonev.com/J1772Extension.html

Some dork ICEs the spot, double park behind him and charge up!

 

[roundpeg]

This is the one I have..


http://tucsonev.com/J1772Extension.html

Some dork ICEs the spot, double park behind him and charge up!

You wouldn't really do the double park thing though would you?

 

[michael]

Preferably not, but if no choice and he is violating the law by parking at an EV parking spot, what choice would I have?

P.S. In three years I never needed to. I used the extension cord occasionally when the provided one wouldn't reach.

 

[roundpeg]

Preferably not, but if no choice and he is violating the law by parking at an EV parking spot, what choice would I have?

That would make a fine tombstone inscription my friend. :lol:

 

[michael]

Seriously....if you needed a charge, somebody was blocking the charger, and even with your extension cord there was no other place that would reach.... what would you do? Wait around for him to come back from the movie or whatever? Call a tow truck for your own car?

I'd double park, plug in, and call the cops to have him towed. Never had to, but I would.

 

[roundpeg]

At the risk of this being called thread drift (and for the record it seems to be on the topic of charging practical issues), I think I'd want to be pretty certain about the local parking regulations before I took such a stand as you might very well find yourself not being backed up by the police if things got heated. Anyway I do hear about being ICEd and I am sure that's annoying, but how often does it turn into a potential conflict?

 

[michael]

California Vehicle Code Section 22511 and 22511.1
22511 (a) A local authority, by ordinance or resolution, and a person in lawful possession of an offstreet parking facility may designate stalls or spaces in an offstreet parking facility owned or operated by that local authority or person for the exclusive purpose of charging and parking a vehicle that is connected for electric charging purposes.
(b) If posted in accordance with subdivision (d) or (e), the owner or person in lawful possession of a privately owned or operated offstreet parking facility, after notifying the police or sheriff’s department, may cause the removal of a vehicle from a stall or space designated pursuant to subdivision (a) in the facility to the nearest public garage if the vehicle is not connected for electric charging purposes.
(c) If posted in accordance with subdivision (d), the local authority owning or operating an offstreet parking facility, after notifying the police or sheriff’s department, may cause the removal of a vehicle from a stall or space designated pursuant to subdivision (a) in the facility to the nearest garage, as defined in Section 340, that is owned, leased, or approved for use by a public agency if the vehicle is not connected for electric charging purposes.
(d) The posting required for an offstreet parking facility owned or operated either privately or by a local authority shall consist of a sign not less than 17 by 22 inches in size with lettering not less than one inch in height that clearly and conspicuously states the following: “Unauthorized vehicles not connected for electric charging purposes will be towed away at owner’s expense. Towed vehicles may be reclaimed at________
or by telephoning (Address) __________.”
(Telephone number of local law enforcement agency)
The sign shall be posted in either of the following locations:
(1) Immediately adjacent to, and visible from, the stall or space.
(2) In a conspicuous place at each entrance to the offstreet parking facility.
(e) If the parking facility is privately owned and public parking is prohibited by the posting of a sign meeting the requirements of paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 22658, the requirements of subdivision (b) may be met by the posting of a sign immediately adjacent to, and visible from, each stall or space indicating that a vehicle not meeting the requirements of subdivision (a) will be removed at the owner’s expense and containing the telephone number of the local traffic law enforcement agency.
(f) This section does not interfere with existing law governing the ability of local authorities to adopt ordinances related to parking programs within their jurisdiction, such as programs that provide free parking in metered areas or municipal garages for electric vehicles.
22511.1 (a) A person shall not park or leave standing a vehicle in a stall or space designated pursuant to Section 22511 unless the vehicle is connected for electric charging purposes.
(b) A person shall not obstruct, block, or otherwise bar access to parking stalls or spaces described in subdivision (a) except as provided in subdivision (a).


In other words, if there is a proper sign, the car can be towed

 

[roundpeg]

Interesting, thanks for supply this. Double-parking to block someone who's parked in an EV spot illegally would not be protected under state law though, so be careful with that. It seems if an EV was unplugged while it was parked legally that it would then become towable. Hmmm.

 

[michael]

Again...what would you do? Drive away and hope to find another charging spot? Fine by me. I wouldn't. But as I said, never faced the actual need.

And...you are right....the way it's written, plugsharing doesn't work. Which is dopey because well designed EV charging locations are set up to facilitate plugsharing.

There are even people who are reluctant to unplug somone else's car even when charging is complete. This reluctance is not necessary. The charging station is a shared public resource. One is not tampering with someone else's car. It's well understood by most people that plugsharing is appropriate

There is a notable exception...If you read the Tesla forums, you will see a lot of "you toucha my car I breaka you face" BS. Those guys sometimes write that they plug in at a public station in the evening, set their charge timer to go off just before their planned departure the next day (in order to top off) and get hysterical because some lowlife in a Leaf pulled in late at night and unplugged their not-charging car. They think that getting the last 1% of range is more important the the Leaf guy getting any charge at all.

The rest of us manage to get along much better. Things one shouldn't do at a public charging station include:

Locking the "hose" to the car
Having alarm sound on unplug
Using a charge time to delay start of charge
Topping off needlessly because "it's free"
Hogging the spot after charging is complete

And, again, one huge benefit of the Bolt is that you get to carry so much energy with you, you will rarely need to deal with any of this. Charge up at home or work and you are done for the day.

 

[roundpeg]

Since you asked, what I'd probably do is park elsewhere and make the call to the PD and let them deal with it. Or if the parking lot was attended, have them handle the violation. I am definitely not into the personal confrontation thing. Too many whack jobs out there, and the chances that you'll encounter one in this situation seems roughly quadrupled.

Anyway, the etiquette aspects of public charger use I will have to learn about as I go. Even with a 200+ mile range, the temptation to "top up" is only natural if you happen to be in a parking lot where the juice is free, and those EV spots tend to be in prime locations. If the car is topped up in the middle of lunch you are probably not going to get up and run to the parking lot to move it. Every time you use a charger you risk ticking somebody off, I guess.

BTW, my use case for the Bolt isn't the same as most. I work from home. That means my car sits in the garage, sometimes for days, but when I need to drive, it could be for a 200-mile round trip. When I start straining the edge of that safe range, I will definitely want to know more about charging on the road. And as I mentioned, shortish road trips are also a possibility.

 

[SeanNelson]

Anyway, the etiquette aspects of public charger use I will have to learn about as I go. Even with a 200+ mile range, the temptation to "top up" is only natural if you happen to be in a parking lot where the juice is free, and those EV spots tend to be in prime locations. If the car is topped up in the middle of lunch you are probably not going to get up and run to the parking lot to move it. Every time you use a charger you risk ticking somebody off, I guess.

It's always seemed to me like the polite thing to do would be to plug in and leave a card with your phone number visible through the windshield that invites someone to give you a call if there are any issues. It might also be nice to jot down when you expect to return - that's information I'd sure like to see if someone was plugged into the only available charger and I wanted to use it.

 

[jjr]

It might also be nice to jot down when you expect to return - that's information I'd sure like to see if someone was plugged into the only available charger and I wanted to use it.

Maybe that's too much like saying "steal my car. You can work on breaking into it and hot-wiring it until X when I get back"

The phone number makes sense to me. The newly arrived EV can call or text and see what you need and when.....

what happened to the law about locking a charging cable to the vehicle? It just came to mind, but I thought a year or two ago the government was going to make it mandatory for EV owners to be able to lock their charging cable to their vehicle?

 

[Anonymous]

read the Tesla forums <snip>
Those guys sometimes write that they plug in at a public station in the evening, set their charge timer to go off just before their planned departure the next day (in order to top off) <snip>
one huge benefit of the Bolt is that you get to carry so much energy with you, you will rarely need to deal with any of this. Charge up at home or work and you are done for the day.

Tesla owners (like me) for the most part don't need or use public charging, they start each day with 380+km of range. You are either making this up, or finding the one in ten thousand owner example.

Then you finish your post by stating Bolt owners will charge at home because they have plenty of range for a whole days driving. Bolt owners will be no different from Tesla owners in this way.

 

[SeanNelson]

Tesla owners (like me) for the most part don't need or use public charging, they start each day with 380+km of range.

There seems to be enough Tesla owners who went a little crazy overdoing the whole "free charging for life" perk that Elon was forced to send out a letter to them asking that they only charge when they're traveling away from home. I'm not saying it's a majority, but it's apparently enough that it caused some issues.

 

[EldRick]

Tesla also recently started charging owners $.40/minute for occupying a supercharger for more than 5 minutes after full charge at busy stations.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/16/13990854/tesla-supercharger-electric-fee-model-s-parking

 

[michael]

read the Tesla forums <snip>
Those guys sometimes write that they plug in at a public station in the evening, set their charge timer to go off just before their planned departure the next day (in order to top off) <snip>
one huge benefit of the Bolt is that you get to carry so much energy with you, you will rarely need to deal with any of this. Charge up at home or work and you are done for the day.

Tesla owners (like me) for the most part don't need or use public charging, they start each day with 380+km of range. You are either making this up, or finding the one in ten thousand owner example.

Then you finish your post by stating Bolt owners will charge at home because they have plenty of range for a whole days driving. Bolt owners will be no different from Tesla owners in this way.

These posts were related mainly to Tesla drivers who checked into a hotel that had EV charging. They were obsessing about the fact that the miles available seemed to drop by a few overnight, so they wanted to be topped off at 11 AM checkout time. Accordingly, they felt entitled to plug in during the afternoon or early evening, and be plugged in all night long with the charge timer set to go off shortly before checkout for a final top-off.

When some poor guy showed up later and saw the Tesla plugged in and not charging, he naturally assumed the Tesla had completed charging and moved the "hose" to his car, this being the normal practice. Thus the term "plugsharing".

The proper action at public charging stations is to plug in and charge up immediately. Therefore, the next guy has a chance to plug in once the first car has finished.

Go look at the Tesla forums, you will see this sort of discussion. The kind of comments I saw were "..if some guy with a Leaf touches my car, he's going to have a problem..."

 

[dan2112]

First welcome to the world of EVs! It can be a little overwhelming at first I know. Some things to keep in mind - you can charge over multiple nights with the supplied Level 1 charger. Assuming you don't use up all the charge you added overnight you'll eventually get a full charge. Make sure you have a good outlet - don't use an extension cord if at all possible since it will being pulling amperage all night long (12-15 Amps). I got a Clipper Creek HCS40 and love it - super simple to install (two screws), American made and the company is super friendly and they stand by their products.

If most of your charging is going to be done at night - check your electric rates and see if switching to TOU (Time of Use) plan makes sense for your household. If nobody is home during the day it may be substantially cheaper to move to a different rate plan.

Dan

 

[roundpeg]

I just installed a JuiceBox 40 in my garage so I should be good to go, at home at least.