Charging Station Etiquette

[JQ]

My wife took delivery of her new EV on Monday. We're unlikely to use public chargers very often, so when we do, we'll be quite inexperienced.

I've been keeping my eyes on public charging stations over the last few months and they often seem at capacity or close to capacity - are there any unwritten rules with regard to queueing for a free charger? It always seems quite disorganised, with those waiting just parked in random bays around the charging bays. Does it cause any issues - someone taking your spot when you've been waiting longer than them, people hogging the chargers, ice cars parked in bays, etc?

I'm quite a relaxed person, but hate queueing, and they thought of sitting there eyeballing everyone around me making sure there's no queue jumpers would fill me with dread.

[andburg]

can't say I've ever had to queue to get on a charger but it would depend on the car park

i think the only etiquette of note is get off the charger when you're no longer actively using it but that's more about destination charging than en-route charging.

[TheDeuce]

Your car and/or app will tell you how many chargers are free as you approach - if none are free, or just one, I'll carry on. Or on a longer journey I might stop earlier than I to if there are a load of high speed ones available.

Hence - never had to queue.

I make it sound like I'm very organised but I'm really not. I hardly ever need to use a public charger and most times I haven't really planned, just found a 50kw or faster charger nearby and they're mostly available tbh.

[kambites]

I wonder if we'll ultimately see drive-through queues at chargers instead of drive-in reverse-out type bays to sort out the queuing problem.

At big charging stations they could even have a conveyor type system where you park your car in the queue and it automatically gets pulled forwards towards the charger each time a car leaves and then an attendant plugs in each car as it reaches the front of its queue. Of course it might be cheaper just to install more chargers.

[JQ]

It's good to hear it's not a major issue. I guess I may have experienced confirmation bias, where I've only remembered the few times there have been queues and forgotten the many times there have been free chargers.

[TheDeuce]

kambites said:

I wonder if we'll ultimately see drive-through queues at chargers instead of drive-in reverse-out type bays to sort out the queuing problem.

At big charging stations they could even have a conveyor type system where you park your car in the queue and it automatically gets pulled forwards towards the charger each time a car leaves and then an attendant plugs in each car as it reaches the front of its queue. Of course it might be cheaper just to install more chargers.

To make residents street charging work there will at some point need to be some sort of queuing/booking system to stop people hogging the spaces - with fines for those that do. None of that requires much tech, just legislation to make it happen.

I'd guess at that point the same sort of system could be used at general public chargers too.

[kambites]

It certainly feels like something is going to have to happen to make bank-holiday weekend type situations work. It wont be worth installing enough rapid chargers to deal with the demand of a few days a year, but somehow those few days a year need to be made to work.

[DonkeyApple]

kambites said:

I wonder if we'll ultimately see drive-through queues at chargers instead of drive-in reverse-out type bays to sort out the queuing problem.

At big charging stations they could even have a conveyor type system where you park your car in the queue and it automatically gets pulled forwards towards the charger each time a car leaves and then an attendant plugs in each car as it reaches the front of its queue. Of course it might be cheaper just to install more chargers.

Technology can solve all such potential problems. But so can paying Big Daz to hand out numbered tickets and beat with a stick the inevitable disabled parking knob who wants to queue jump or take a day trip while charging. Cheaper and much more fun.

The short answer is that of course the 'bummed by daddy' blokes who make everyone's life more difficult than it needs to be will be switching more and more to EVs and more and more systems will be needed to, as per usual, protect the perfectly normal and polite majority from the the usual losers.

[P675]

At my gfs work they only have a couple of chargers but there's an app where you book slots and get reminders to move your car for the next person.

I remember seeing something about Teslas being able to drive themselves out of the way when charged and the next car drives itself in, but imagine it would be a health and safety nightmare. Might be a new market for charger valets.

[DonkeyApple]

TheDeuce said:

kambites said:

I wonder if we'll ultimately see drive-through queues at chargers instead of drive-in reverse-out type bays to sort out the queuing problem.

At big charging stations they could even have a conveyor type system where you park your car in the queue and it automatically gets pulled forwards towards the charger each time a car leaves and then an attendant plugs in each car as it reaches the front of its queue. Of course it might be cheaper just to install more chargers.

To make residents street charging work there will at some point need to be some sort of queuing/booking system to stop people hogging the spaces - with fines for those that do. None of that requires much tech, just legislation to make it happen.

I'd guess at that point the same sort of system could be used at general public chargers too.

The finances just don't add up even then.

Typical resident street charger would just have one, maybe two customers a day and they'll be sitting there for hours and hours and hours not buying any electricity.

Commercial chargers have to be placed where there is high enough customer turnover blending with those customers having a reason to leave after half and hour to an hour.

To work around that for your typical residential street you'd need to swap levying a fee based on electricity use to instead charging a fixed hourly rate. Ie, people would have to pay daily to park outside their home. Those residents simply aren't going to tollerate that.

The other alternative is to allocate specific parking bays to specific properties and those property owners pay for the charger. That's not going to fly either.

But there is a really simple and ultra low cost, no brainer solution which is for the small number of car users who do not have off street or allocated parking to just charge their car when it is parked up away from home. These cars aren't static garden ornaments, they're all used to got to other places where they are parked and it is at those locations where they recharge.

As for the pricing disparity, that is a legal error by the government that has permitted the owner of the chargers to also be an energy vendor by acting as principal in their dealings with the end consumer. That needs to end as a priority. The owner of the charger must not be involved in the sale of electricity in any capacity other than as agent, a broker. The energy transaction must be between the client and their domestic energy supplier with the entities currently in the middle being made to FRO. And the commission these 'brokers' can charge needs to be legislated by the government.

The most important change to the EV market in the U.K. needs to be the simple change that gets the charging business out of the energy business. It's a real problem that needs to be killed off now.

[jeremyc]

[gmaz]

We could adopt a system where the car next in line puts on their hazard warning flashers to say "I'm next" and when a bay is freed up and they go to charge, the next in line puts their flashers on.

So if you arrive and all charging bays are full but no one flashing, you're next so put your flashers on.

If someone is parked and flashing, when they go to charge you see if anyone else puts their flashers on, if not then you're next so put yours on.

If two people put their flashers on, they need to resolve it between themselves

[fatjon]

Admittedly I’m only 5 months into EV ownership but so far I have never had to queue for a charger. There are numerous apps and even my EV6 nav system shows in real time usage status. I go straight to one that’s working, not in use and big enough to charge without spending hours plugged in.

I suppose I’m maybe lucky as I’m up north not in a major city but regularly on A1, M1 and major trunk roads plus rural Lincolnshire.