Etiquette at public chargers

Just curious, as I've never done this...

What is the proper etiquette at public charging stations when someone is already hooked up?

Is there a way to know the difference between a car that is nearly done, and it is worth waiting a few minutes, or one that might be there all day?

Do people leave notes/phone numbers on their dashboard?

I imagine it is considered rude to disconnect another car, but what happens if it's been there too long.

What's the normal behavior here?

The rules aren't firm or well-established, but if you know for sure (as with a Leaf, because of the charging lights on the dashboard) that a car is finished charging, I suggest you give them 15 minutes to come unplug it, and then unplug it. A polite note saying that their car had finished charging would be helpful. If you don't know that a car has finished charging, then you shouldn't really unplug them.

This is one of the bigger issues with EV charging and I don't think there are any easy solutions.

I'm sure I'm not alone in having to deal with a very few belligerent EV owners who feel they have a right to hog the station for a long as they like. Worse are the people who sit in their cars, refuse to roll down the window to have a conversation, or won't even make eye contact.

Having said that, almost all early adopters are friendly and don't need to be told that it's not OK to charge for 2 hours while other people are waiting.

I've definitely noticed an increase in hostility coinciding with increased contention for charging. Unless technical solutions are leveraged to impose "etiquette", there will be wars fought at charging stations soon. Bottom line is that it's an honor system right now and some people have no honor.

For L3 charging, there are some technical solutions:

• Track VIN numbers so that back to back sessions for the same VIN are refused (i.e. impose a 1 hour wait period between sessions)
• Impose charging time limits, or as a deterrent impose progressively higher rates the longer someone charges
• Blacklist the VIN of abusers who plug-in and walk away for hours at a time - particularly repeat offenders

For "dumb" public L2 EVSEs, none of the above works because the J1772 protocol doesn't have the ability to read VINs nor to even track the state of charge. A charge limit, imposed by a timer, would sort of work but that wouldn't stop someone from unplugging, then immediately plugging in again to start a new session. This is why, long term, there will have to be so many public L2 EVSEs that contention isn't a problem because it's simply too slow to scale otherwise. It's another good reason to buy an EV with L3 charging capabilities

With respect to your question:

Is there a way to know the difference between a car that is nearly done, and it is worth waiting a few minutes, or one that might be there all day?

Click to expand...

Not with L2 EVSEs, but the state of charge is almost always displayed on L3 chargers, as well as the length of the charging session. As mentioned above though, there's no way of knowing if someone has been doing successive sessions.

Good to know

I wonder if the mobile apps that are used for the "dumb L2" charging stations could incorporate some kind of "user intended duration" or "contact me" functions.

I guess in the meantime I should get in the habit of writing a note on my dash if I go shopping for a couple hours.

Just my experience with other Leaf owners. At a QC, usually easy to see the charge status, level, etc. on the QC screen if active. When inactive, I assume it is done, and unplug gently, close the charge port door (not the big one that covers everything) get mine going. In the last 8 years, never had a problem with other owners doing that. I've had it done to mine as well, never made me angry or anything.

For L2 charging, a bit harder. At least with a Leaf, again, can see if it is charging on the dash, how many lights for charge level, etc. If it is a free L2 and the EV appears to be done, I do the same as with the QC, close the port cover, leave the hatch open, switch to mine. Never had any problems, evil conversations, etc. Now when it comes to *paid* L2, that one is better left alone unless you are sure it is done. You can usually tell on the *paid* L2 that either the session is active or not, same with the Leaf, looking at the dash lights.

There are times when everything appears to be *used* and no open spots to plug in, I move on to another place. If that is not possible, you just have to swing by at a later time unless you are nearly depleted, then you have some time to nap in the EV I guess. :?

In a "apartment/condo" style setup with a free public L2, the tradition I've seen is to pull into next to the EV that is still charging, leave your big charge door open and when the other person comes out to either unplug/leave/etc, they can plug what they had into your EV and drive off. I've done that for other Tesla, Bolts, etc. at a lot of places when visiting friends or family. The L2 is about the only "standard" plug here that everyone can recognize and know how to plug in.

There's no good universal solution.

One thing that works is if you are logged in and use PlugShare, and check-in to each station. Then someone who comes along can message you ("you seem to be done, can you move the car?").

It requires you both to use PlugShare, however.

This has worked for me *once* out of about 7 years.

In my area, I have seen various paid charging stations that provide an extra fee per minute or hour for cars that for stay connected after done charging. This is getting to be the norm here as more L2 stations are transitioning from free to paid.

For free stations, it's a matter of the honor system, as mentioned. Fortunately, I have mostly seen the good side of new and veteran EV owners in my area. I often go up and talk to them to see if they need help using the station or if they are too shy to ask me when I will be done charging.

When I see an EV charging at a free station that I want to use, I like to wave at the driver to catch their attention and ask them if they will be long. If I can't get their attention, then I'll politely knock on their window to catch the attention.

If the EV is unattended while charging, then I will check the Plugshare, ChargePoint, EVGo, etc app to see if they left a message, or if I can send them a message to ask if they will be long.

However, I mostly charge at home, so public charging is more of a "nice thing to have" -- instead of a need -- for my trips. So, I tend to not mind if I don't get a chance to charge at certain public spots.

Today, I experienced a total T-HOLE. Sorta near home, there's a site with about 2 dozen Tesla WCs, 4 Tesla-branded J1772 EVSEs + a ton of Superchargers. I went there to pick up a bit of free J1772 juice while eating a burger (In-N-Out across the street).

All four J1772 EVSEs were taken, three by Teslas even though there were tons of WCs open. The kicker is is that even though a Model 3 was finished, he used some 3rd-party J1772 adapter (not the stock one at https://shop.tesla.com/product/sae-j1772-charging-adapter) that unfortunately holds the J1772 plug hostage! He was #@$%#$% done and I couldn't unplug him. I've never encountered this before. Every Tesla driver at my work who uses J1772 uses Tesla's stock J1772 adapter which doesn't do that.

The other 3 cars (one was an EV6) were charging. I don't unplug charging cars.

I moved my car to a better spot to watch and noticed Volt was also in the queue waiting. I spoke to the Volt driver briefly about the situation and mentioned I wasn't sure if he was first or I was. About 30 minutes after I arrived, I left. The Model 3 driver still hadn't returned.

I didn't really need the juice, but the T-HOLE blocked the spot, prevented others from legitimately unplugging his finished car and didn't vacate the spot promptly. Who knows how long he'd been there already w/car already complete? It seems like he went out of his way to buy a J1772 adapter that would hold the J1772 plug hostage.

I always check in on PlugShare, but unfortunately it seems that (at least in my city) despite the number of EV owners visibly growing, it appears it's still the same group of us who actually have the courtesy to check in and contribute to PlugShare, rather than just being a leech.

I carry a sticky note pad and a sharpie in the glovebox, and if I'm charging at somewhere I know is in high demand that has only one or two chargers (such as this free DCFC that's right off a major highway) and will be away from the car, I will write a note explaining my situation and stick it to my window for those who don't have PlugShare.

i.e.
"Convenience charging. Unplug me anytime if you need to charge"
or
"Need 50% to make it to Red Deer. If I am above 50% and you need to charge, feel free to press stop and unplug me"

skylitdriven said:

I always check in on PlugShare, but unfortunately it seems that (at least in my city) despite the number of EV owners visibly growing, it appears it's still the same group of us who actually have the courtesy to check in and contribute to PlugShare, rather than just being a leech.

Click to expand...

I've been seeing the same thing over the last few years for a few DCFC stations in my area, especially the free 50kW station at the super market by me. I've spoken to a few users of this free station and some tell me that they were unaware of Plugshare or the check-in process. I'm sure most of these non-contributing users don't want to be bothered with it all. I'll just keep having the educational talks with them.

Here is another etiquette scenario- A free public charging hub of 6 plugs nearby is often full or almost full of plug in hybrids. What's the etiquette for all these RAV4 primes or Subarus with limited range when someone with a full EV needs to charge?

2022leaf said:

Here is another etiquette scenario- A free public charging hub of 6 plugs nearby is often full or almost full of plug in hybrids. What's the etiquette for all these RAV4 primes or Subarus with limited range when someone with a full EV needs to charge?

Click to expand...

I expect that 6-plug hub is made up of L2 charging stations. Charging on an L2 station can take hours, even for some hybrids.
The car owner on one of those stations may be out shopping or running errands nearby and will probably take a long time, so don't expect them to return any time soon.

Also, I think it depends on the usage conditions set on the stations. Are they totally free or partially free? I have seen a lot of L2 stations in my area go from "totally" free to "partially" free over the years. A "totally" free station lets you charge for free with unlimited time.

A "partially" free station lets you charge free for a specific period (e.g., 1 hour), then typically starts charging you a fee (e.g., parking, idle, etc.) every hour that you are still plugged in. If the car is on a partially free station, then I wouldn't be concerned since they may end up paying for charging anyway.

If they are on a totally free station, then other factors can come in to play.
* You can chalk it up to the scenario I mentioned above about running errands.
* The (charging) car owner should try to be aware of their state of charge (SOC) since they are holding up an L2 station for a long time.
* If the (charging) car owner is nearby, feel free to ask them how long they plan on using the station.
* If this is an area local to you (e.g., at your local library), and you see the same cars plugged in all of the time for long periods at a time, then feel free to go into the local business/establishments and ask if they know the owner of those cars. Sometimes a store employee may be using it for the day but is nice enough to get off the station so you can use it.
(I have seen the abusive side of this: a home owner would drive a few miles to the local library with their Chevy Volt, plug in to the totally free L2 station, drive away in a separate car with their husband, then return at the end of the day to pick up their Volt. The library picked up on this after it kept happening for months, and decided to change it to a partially free station w/ 1 hr free, $1/hr parking fee.)

Say it's at a recreation center and totally free. People generally park and charge for anywhere from an hour or two to several hours.

Say 5 of 6 chargers are full and a plug in hybrid with a 20 mile EV range pulls up to charge, blocking all others. Is that cool? Should that person just park with the ICE cars and let a true EV have the charger? It's an interesting questions to me...

Here's another scenario: At least one EVGo station I've visited has six L3 chargers. As you enter, the first two are dual CHAdeMO+CCS, the rest are CCS only. CCS drivers tend to just pull into the first spot available, without thinking about whether they are taking a rare CHAdeMO spot. I called EVGo and suggested that when they design a station, that they should put the CHAdeMO-compatible chargers the farthest from the entrance, and add a section to their "EV Etiquette" documentation in their app. Maybe also a sticker on the charger saying, "CCS users, please use a CCS-only charger if one is available."

I'm sure most CCS drivers would be willing to move, but it's another educational opportunity.

cxhansen said:

CCS drivers tend to just pull into the first spot available, without thinking about whether they are taking a rare CHAdeMO spot.

Click to expand...

This happens all the time at EA sites. A CCS car takes the lone charger with CHAdeMO and they leave. Car is unattended and there's no contact info. It's even worse if the station's located in a spot where a Leaf driver can't squeeze in to try to use the CHAdeMO plug.

If I see folks doing that and they're around, if I see a Leaf coming or if I see they're about to walk away, I suggest they switch to another DC FC, if available.