There’s a rather startling trend going on in the Tesla world…well, two actually. The first is that some Tesla owners seem to use supercharger power stations as their personal parking lots, not even charging their vehicles while they are parked there. The second is the result of such selfish and entitled behavior.
According to InsideEVs, a media outlet for all things electric vehicle related, some Tesla owners are none too thrilled when they roll up to a supercharging power station only to find that the car parked there isn’t even charging or plugged in. And so they are taking the matter into their own hands, or at the very least participating in a little vigilante action that will get the not charging car’s owner to notice.
So what are they doing? No, they aren’t vandalizing the car or damaging it in any way. After all, that’s a good way to get arrested, and more than a few fines are headed your way.
Instead, they are simply plugging the not-charging EVs into the power station.
Now, for those who don’t know much about today’s electric cars or Teslas, it’s important to point out here that charging obviously costs money. You know, just like filling up at the gas station does for your gas-powered car.
However, since charging times can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on the amount of juice needed, the likelihood of someone leaving their car and running a few errands in a nearby vicinity isn’t unheard of.
Naturally, this means that cars will likely be done charging, having reached a fully powered level while the owner or driver is away. Unfortunately, it also means that the line of cars waiting for the limited number of supercharging stations can get really long.
Tesla started to notice this problem back in 2018, and so they implemented what they call “idle fees.” As the name implies, charging stations will begin to charge idle fees for parked cars plugged in once fully charged.
Depending on the demand in the area, these fees can be 50 cents per minute or $1 per minute. If half of the charging stations in the area are full, the price is 50 cents per minute. Those fees are raised to $1 a minute if they are all full.
As Tesla says about the fees, they were designed purely to be an incentive for drivers or owners not to hog the charging stations unnecessarily. As such, if there are plenty of spots left open, no fees at all are accrued. It’s only when at least half or more of the charging stations in the area are full those fees begin adding up.
After all, as the Tesla statement says, “A customer would never leave a car parked by the pump at a gas station, and the same thinking applies with Superchargers.”
Or at least it should.
But since some drivers don’t seem to think of anyone but themselves, a few of their peers have decided to remind them of their selfishness.
So when someone is parked in a supercharger station and not using what it was made for, the trend has been for other, obviously upset drivers to plug their cars in for them, ensuring that they receive some fees, whether that be charging or idle ones.
Apparently, it’s rather easy to open the charging port on a parked and even locked Tesla EV, as more than a few are finding out. Then, it’s a simple matter of attaching the charging cord. And voila, fees are accrued.
And to be clear, drivers of the newly plugged-in cars don’t have to wait until they return to their parked vehicles to learn of the trend. If you didn’t know, Tesla drivers get a notification when their car is nearly fully powered and another when it is fully powered.
It’s rather ingenious, right?
Maybe these entitled Tesla drivers will learn a thing or two yet…
