sub3marathonman
Well-known member
This was an interesting situation today, both spaces were taken at the Kohls L2 EVSE in Lakeland. So I pulled into the space next to the Fiat 500e, making three cars there. At first I didn't know the Fiat was electric, until I saw the lady pulling the L1 charger out of the hatchback area.
She obviously was not completely knowledgeable regarding this EVSE, so I got out and started talking to her. I told her there was no L1, and she was disappointed. She said that she could only charge on 120V, which was surprising. She meant, that is all she could do with her Fiat supplied L1 charger, but I thought she was talking about the car. I found out that her car could do L2, but there was a further problem.
She had just bought the car in Orlando, probably 60 miles away, and had found this charger on her app when she realized she wasn't going to make it to Tampa, another 35 miles or so. She seemed somewhat surprised, as it was supposed to be able to do it according to the dealership where she just bought it earlier today.
So, I told her she was in danger of getting a Low Battery Warning. This she already knew about, and said it had already come on. She had 13 miles indicated remaining. It was also starting to get dark, and she needed to get back to Tampa.
In the next spot was a Volt, happily charging. We didn't know if he got there five minutes ago or three hours ago. I said that she could wait, as the owner might come out soon. But I also said that it could be four hours, as that is the Kohl's limit now that others have taken advantage of their EVSE and were charging overnight on a regular basis.
There was another EVSE in the downtown garage, about 5 miles away, which she did not know how to get to. So I ended up leading the way to that EVSE, it was open, she managed to use her Chargepoint card, and had a couple of hours to charge before being to make it to Tampa.
So, the real question I have, as a matter of EV etiquette, in such a situation, would it have been proper to unplug the charging Volt?
It is a debate in this situation of convenience vs. necessity.
The Volt owner didn't know the situation, he/she might have been completely polite and said it would be fine to unplug. But the owner wasn't there to ask. The truth is though, I don't think they were in Kohl's either, which is technically a requirement, but we didn't spend the time to go in and page him/her.
Just as easily the owner could have been irate, and posting about the selfish EV owners who think they have more right to the plug than the Volt owners do. The lady shouldn't have let the situation become critical, but she was misled and truly didn't know, and was far from being able to get home. I wasn't happy either that she was down to 8 miles showing on the LBW when we got to the downtown EVSE, as it wasn't doing the new batteries any good.
She obviously was not completely knowledgeable regarding this EVSE, so I got out and started talking to her. I told her there was no L1, and she was disappointed. She said that she could only charge on 120V, which was surprising. She meant, that is all she could do with her Fiat supplied L1 charger, but I thought she was talking about the car. I found out that her car could do L2, but there was a further problem.
She had just bought the car in Orlando, probably 60 miles away, and had found this charger on her app when she realized she wasn't going to make it to Tampa, another 35 miles or so. She seemed somewhat surprised, as it was supposed to be able to do it according to the dealership where she just bought it earlier today.
So, I told her she was in danger of getting a Low Battery Warning. This she already knew about, and said it had already come on. She had 13 miles indicated remaining. It was also starting to get dark, and she needed to get back to Tampa.
In the next spot was a Volt, happily charging. We didn't know if he got there five minutes ago or three hours ago. I said that she could wait, as the owner might come out soon. But I also said that it could be four hours, as that is the Kohl's limit now that others have taken advantage of their EVSE and were charging overnight on a regular basis.
There was another EVSE in the downtown garage, about 5 miles away, which she did not know how to get to. So I ended up leading the way to that EVSE, it was open, she managed to use her Chargepoint card, and had a couple of hours to charge before being to make it to Tampa.
So, the real question I have, as a matter of EV etiquette, in such a situation, would it have been proper to unplug the charging Volt?
It is a debate in this situation of convenience vs. necessity.
The Volt owner didn't know the situation, he/she might have been completely polite and said it would be fine to unplug. But the owner wasn't there to ask. The truth is though, I don't think they were in Kohl's either, which is technically a requirement, but we didn't spend the time to go in and page him/her.
Just as easily the owner could have been irate, and posting about the selfish EV owners who think they have more right to the plug than the Volt owners do. The lady shouldn't have let the situation become critical, but she was misled and truly didn't know, and was far from being able to get home. I wasn't happy either that she was down to 8 miles showing on the LBW when we got to the downtown EVSE, as it wasn't doing the new batteries any good.