EV parking at Costco rant

So I went to my local Costco yesterday. I saw 2 parking spaces that had big green signs that said "Reserved For Electric Vehicle Charging". Nice!

IN those two spots was a $#@^@ Range Rover and a Infinity G series. NOT so nice.

So I thought about what I will do when I inevitably come across that scenario again while driving my Leaf (and actually looking for a top-off charge).

Plan A) would be to go to the store manager and either ask for an announcement to have them move their car OR ask to have them towed. Yes, Mr. Manager, I'll wait. :twisted:
Plan B) would be to double park behind them, stick a note on the car that says something like "Since you are obviously not an EV needing a charge (and I am), and since I have to wait for you to leave before I can use that parking space, I have decided that YOU can wait to leave until I'm done shopping." I would then sit on a bench nearby and wait for them to come out to watch the frustration, ranting, etc., and after a few minutes I'd walk up and explain how annoyed I was and that they should learn a lesson from all this.

Plan B would be only if I had tons of time (never happens). I'm thinking Plan A would be best. After all, once plug-in vehicles become more common, stories of "My car got towed for parking in an EV spot" will change public behavior. After all, I'm sure when the handicapped parking spaces went in, people ignored the signs and parked there anyway. Once they realized that it would result in a ticket and/or tow, people stopped parking there. You almost never see someone park in a handicapped space without a sticker nowadays. I think the same thing would happen with EV charging spaces, ESPECIALLY if those spaces are premium parking spots!!!

Jimmydreams said:

So I went to my local Costco yesterday. I saw 2 parking spaces that had big green signs that said "Reserved For Electric Vehicle Charging". Nice!

IN those two spots was a $#@^@ Range Rover and a Infinity G series. NOT so nice.

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They should normally have a phone number to call (for towing). I'd call that - those guys are always happy to come and tow away and make some money :twisted:

BTW, what kind of chargers do they have ?

ps : In the local EV Project meeting - they were discussing this problem. They plan to put chargers in non-prime parking location to minimize this problem.

evnow said:

They should normally have a phone number to call (for towing). I'd call that - those guys are always happy to come and tow away and make some money :twisted:

BTW, what kind of chargers do they have ?

ps : In the local EV Project meeting - they were discussing this problem. They plan to put chargers in non-prime parking location to minimize this problem.

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I believe they were paddle chargers.

And next time I will call the towing numbers if they are listed. :evil:

First it's private property so if you have someone towed you can end up paying. Second, many of these are rarely used so the costco, etc allows this. Last, they are all going to be upgraded and I would bet the rules are going to tighten and be enforced more. It should not be an issue at that point.


Side note, when you park your Leaf there I bet you are going to hope you have 6.6kw charging and not 3.3kw, even more so in a paid lot. Mark my words, this will be be clear to Nissan and many Leaf owners once they see ALL the ramifications and lost benefits. I have done repeated 7.2kw charging while shopping at costco.

EVDRIVER said:

First it's private property so if you have someone towed you can end up paying.

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IANAL, but that doesn't makes sense to me. So, who is supposed to call the towing company & get it towed ?

See here: http://www.evchargernews.com/parkingnotice.htm

See here: http://www.evchargernews.com/parkingnotice.htm

Just let the air out of two of their tires. Its Costco, they can get help.

Jimmydreams said:

... You almost never see someone park in a handicapped space without a sticker nowadays. ...

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Some handicapped people I know, like my cousin, would disagree with this, but what I see more now is people with handicapped placards hanging on their mirrors, but no one handicapped getting in and out of the car. The placards are either counterfeit (big time industry here, I hear) or temp ones wheedled from a doctor due to some condition gramps had that is now cleared up and when it came time to turn in the placard, lo and behold, it seems it was stolen!

You're not alone. This happened to us in the UK not so long ago.



The car in question was a gas powered VW Golf. Certainly not the electric one I used to own nor the other electric one my friend owns!

Nikki.

WHo ever said Germans were green

EVDRIVER said:

Side note, when you park your Leaf there I bet you are going to hope you have 6.6kw charging and not 3.3kw, even more so in a paid lot. Mark my words, this will be be clear to Nissan and many Leaf owners once they see ALL the ramifications and lost benefits. I have done repeated 7.2kw charging while shopping at costco.

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I would rather have two dozen 3.3Kw in the general parking area as opposed to just two high powered dedicated supply spots.
I also would be fine if the general spots were back a bit so they were not used as heavily. I see no reason to have front row seats although the electric connection is probably lower cost to have close to the building.

7.2Kw is fine to get a full charge fast but when it is supplied free by the retailer I see no reason for the retailer to supply more than a few miles for the locals to actually get to their store while you shop. The retailer should not be expected to refill the whole battery for your daily commute during your lunch hour just because you stopped in for a hot dog.

JMHO and personal rant. Not intended to pick on quoted member.

I guess you ruled out Plan C):

Key the range rover and the infinity.

Jimmydreams said:

So I went to my local Costco yesterday. I saw 2 parking spaces that had big green signs that said "Reserved For Electric Vehicle Charging". Nice!

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Many of the Costco automotive garages use the EV slots to juggle cars for tire rotation or the likes as up till now, they are rarely used. I have checked in with them on a few drives and they moved the vehicles immediately.

Also remember that if you are local, another EV may NEED the charge to make a trip. I recommend putting a card with your phone number in the window so you can work out the best plan with your fellow EVdriver.

KeiJidosha said:

Also remember that if you are local, another EV may NEED the charge to make a trip. I recommend putting a card with your phone number in the window so you can work out the best plan with your fellow EVdriver.

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Yep: http://www.evchargernews.com/chargingprotocol.htm

I think it makes sense to put the stations farther away from the front of the lot of possible to help reduce the incentive for these spots to be ICEd.

I understand that there may be rules soon that requires stores to provide for handicap accessible EV stations as well...