Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Quartz claims that internal combustion engine vehicle drivers are bullying Tesla owners by parking their ICE vehicles in Tesla charging station bays.
Tesla owners are being “ICE-ed” out of charging stations by trucks
By Michael J. Coren
December 25, 2018First, there was rolling coal. Now there’s ICE-ing. As electric motors encroach on internal combustion engines, some truck owners are getting angry. And Teslas are a favorite target.
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One of the most recent incidents was at a North Carolina convenience store called Sheetz. Reddit user Leicina posted her account of several pickup-trucks pulling in to block all the Tesla supercharging station’s spots.
“I’ve never had a supercharging experience like this one,” she wrote. “These trucks blocked all the chargers, chanted ‘F’ Tesla, and were kicked out by a Sheetz employee.”
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Read more: https://qz.com/1506901/trucks-are-ice-ing-tesla-owners-from-charging-stations/
Is ICE-ing Teslas actually a thing? Are ICE drivers randomly bullying Tesla drivers because they can, or is there a genuine problem with Tesla charging stations crowding out available parking?
Perhaps the solution is to provide Tesla charging stations for all the parking bays, to end the segregation of Tesla and ICE vehicles. If Tesla really is the future, green minded owners of shopping centres and other parking venues should be happy to completely Tesla up their premises.
I don’t think that what has happened at Sheetz is fair. But I was choking with laughter. Good idea for Fool’s Day.
Perhaps this gave them the idea
That image should be sent to Lolcats and made fun of. It’s just begging for it.
Straight out of Michael ‘I am being persecuted’ Mann’s playscripts.
It was a fairly stupid article. But as long as people like Eric Worrall and WUWT are willing to increase their click-revenue by drawing attention to them, they’ll carry on in the same way.
Central France, had a hotel room with view over the backyard parking lot inclusive 8 tesla superchargers.
Quite a nightmare, those emmit a permanent quite loud hum, think noisy powerful cooling fans. Round the clock. Very nasty situation for those legally required to clock that much sleep/rest in optimal well aired conditions such as open windows.
Every morning a white S would show at about 0615, connect and the driver would wait/smoke for about 1h.
Guess he too could have clocked one more hour of rest by driving an ICE car.
This is but the tip of the charging/parking problem which will exponentially bedevil the system as the number of EVs increases. The subsidy angst will always be there unless sorted out and the lines of EVs waiting for their turn to get a charge will become a norm. Never mind allowing for traffic problems. How do you allow for charging problems when deciding the start time for your journey? Also the cost of parking will escalate greatly purely on the basis of supply and demand.
All in all there will be some very frustrating times ahead. Never mind the duff grid reliability in the background.
It’s a bit like us all having to wash our cars every 150 miles or so.
I’ve never seen it happen, here in North Carolina.
It’s just the opposite: sometimes when I’m looking for a parking place I spot an open one, but when I get there it is a charge station reserved for an EV, so I can’t park there. Ugh.
Perhaps that’s what the truckers were mad about (if the incident really happened), though Sheetz always seems to have big enough parking lots that they’re never full.
Here in North Carolina, not only do electric cars evade the road tax on motor fuels, the DOT has been running a program to prepare signage to label “ZEV corridors” (Zero Emission Vehicle routes), where there are plenty of charging stations for electric cars to take long trips. The purpose is to reduce “range anxiety,” and advertise charging station locations, to encourage people to buy electric cars. (Gov. Cooper wants to raise the number of electric cars registered in NC from 9000 to 80,000 by 2025, to “fight climate change.”)
I wondered where they got the money for this program. AFAIK, the Republican-controlled State Legislature didn’t authorize it.
It turns out that they financed “Phase 1 plans for ZEV infrastructure” with Volkswagen Air Quality Violation lawsuit settlement money.
I guess that, to subvert the legislature’s authority and oversight, the Democrat lawyers who did the settlement with VW wrote the agreement so that the Democrat administration would get the money, directly, rather than having it go into the state budget.
If that’s not illegal, it sure ought to be.
From the referenced story:
Seems a far cry from the implied claim in the headline: “… Tesla Owners Being Harrassed …”..
Flash: “Some People Can be Jerks” — hold the presses! (another formerly common phrase which has become an anachronism). Even the comments on the original story don’t find anyone else reporting a similar experience. Sounds like a few people were obnoxious and a store employee took prompt and appropriate action.
This incident says nothing about the viability of EV technology or the appropriateness of various policies to encourage their adoption.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.
… and my New Year’s resolution is to stop making markup mistakes when posting WUWT comments. The intent was to just embolden the “s” at the end of “Owners”.
That chick who got “harassed” missed a golden opportunity. She could have had those boys wrapped around her little finger if she had let them know she was a NASCAR driver and she’d sign their baseball caps if one of them moved. I guess you can be a NASCAR driver these days and not understand the fans.
Not directly Tesla related, but a somewhat humorous illustration of electric vehicle charging point etiquette.
On dropping off a passenger at Perpignan Airport, France (on Saturday September 16th 2017 at approximately 14:30, if some dumba.. electric vehicle promoter wants to check his or her records) I noticed that all the charging points in the car park next to departures were occupied by identical demonstration vehicles emblazoned with promotional material for electric vehicles. Not exactly a wise move if claiming ready access to charging points.
So why not mount a dummy hatch with a dummy EV socket, park the (ICE) car, insert the plug and leave?
Bruce Rayn & Chris
Yeah all those subsidies…
Uhmmm you are wrong.
https://csimarket.com/stocks/XOM-Return-on-Investment-ROI.html
It wasn’t until I had my first cup of coffee this morning that I realized the “ICE” in the headline had nothing to do with Immigration & Customs Enforcement. After all, why would the Immigration folks be pissed off at Tesla owners?
I’ve got to start drinking coffee earlier in the morning.
Wyoming is not EV friendly. Too far to go to get to just about anywhere and no big cities to commute around in. Friend of ours bought one and they use his wife’s ICE vehicle to go places. Takes half as long to get there compared to the EV due to charging time required for the new virtue/ “look at me” symbol. Though some folks like to try new stuff, just because it’s new.
I remember that right after Trump was elected, numerous muslim women claimed they’d been “assaulted” by crazed Trump voters in places like NYC, San Fran, Minneapolis,etc. Voters so bold as to attack people in hugely leftist strongholds.
All of those stories were proven false, usually by the admission of the plaintiff.
I find this story every bit as believable as those.
It seems far more likely that there are a ton of these spaces in this location, none of them are ever in use, and other drivers have taken to parking in them because they are the only spots (regularly) available.
Just a thought, the AGW story is one thing. Electric cars, except in the minds of a few, is another. Why some of the posters hate electric cars on this forum is strange. I think it comes from misunderstandings and misconceptions. The biggest issue and the one I have problems with too is the idea that poor people are helping rich people buy electric cars. First, poor people do not pay income tax. Rich people pay poor people (in effect). Subsidies are everywhere in American life. Farmers get subsidies, children get subsidies, Churches get subsidies, cigarette companies get subsidies and smokers get taxed, liquor companies get subsidies and drinkers get taxed, it never ends, the list is voluminous.
Most of the posters don’t have anything other than misconceptions on which they base their disgust, unfortunately, they spread the misinformation much like a virus.
Yes we are all a bunch of thickos, thanks for reminding us.
Your condescension is noted.
I don’t think I saw anyone here that wrote that they “hate electric cars”. But commenters here have stated their viewpoints about how the problem of Tesla owners is being overblown and that they feel no sympathy for them. That’s not the same thing by any means.
I have no problems with EVs. I just haven’t come across any that meet my needs. When they become available at a price I can afford I might buy one. Until then they are of no use to me.
Why some of the posters hate electric cars on this forum is strange
Which posters have claimed to hate electric cars? sorry, but that is a strawman (and a very poorly made one at that).
First, poor people do not pay income tax
The middle class certainly does. Why should the middle class be paying the Rich for their toys?
Subsidies are everywhere in American life.
And they should be eliminated as well. The “they’re doing it too” excuse doesn’t work. It didn’t work when you were misbehaving as a child, and it doesn’t work now that you are (at least physically) an adult.
“If they don’t have any diesel, let them drive Teslas!”
Tesla is the epitome of the problem of 20+ years of regressive tax systems in the West.
The Gilets Jaune are protesting exactly this. Subsidies and lower taxes for the rich while the rest of the serfs get yearly tax increases on basic essentials like diesel (essential to get from a cheap suburban home to your place of work or essential to deliver services for transporters and tradespeople)
Amazingly, despite all the smartphones, no one has video of the supposed chants?
Tesla owners in action, …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4aYK8fO-2Q
Let me get this straight. The range on Electric cars is supposed to be enough, but somehow they get worked up due to a NORMAL car parking in their charging spot? If the range is enough then why not charge at home with your own electricity!?
For what it’s worth, there are two dedicated electric vehicle parking spaces in Temple Place just by Temple Underground station on the Victoria Embankment in London. https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5113547,-0.1133639,3a,75.000000y,75.237694h,66.959778t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1smnPFbWWqHjREeJXqYCQuFA!2e0?shorturl=1
The two spaces are on the left of the street in the goggle photograph just past the motorcycles. I have never ever seen an electric vehicle parked in either of the spaces even though I have walked past them many times.
Where I live (Central Ohio), I’ve never seen a Tesla Charging Station.
From the post, it sounds like these are in the parking lot of a convenience store?
Are these regular parking spots that happen to have a charging plug? Who pays the electric bill for the charge?
Are they set up like a vending machine? Insert your credit card to pay the bill?
And how long does it take to recharge? I’ve never spent hours browsing a convenience store. Or a gas station that has stuff to buy. Not even hours at a Truck Stop (they usually have lots of stuff to peruse) and a restaurant.
As I said, I’ve never seen one of these things. If they are parking spaces, I don’t see the problem.
Where I work there are dedicated parking spots sufficient to charge 4 electric vehicles. The owner pays $1/hour for the first 4 hours then $4/hour thereafter. I don’t know the charging rate they provide, but I do know it isn’t a supercharging station. They are usually empty.
Having read through the comments, it seems that a lot the comments report little or no usage of the charging stations.
If the charging stations aren’t being used by EVs, someone needs to make some portable appliances that can be given to the homeless to cook their meals, make coffee, zap some ramen noodles or mac ‘n cheese, plump up a hot dog, or maybe distill some hooch.
Might as well get something useful out of those charging stations.
In Valencia, CA there is a quite large set of charging spaces, including several of the Tesla-exclusive Supercharger type in the parking lot of a shopping plaza at the corner of McBean and Newhall Ranch. I’ve seen no evidence of misuse by ICe drivers. In fact, I’ve seen very little use of the facility at all. In the year it has existed my shopping takes me there at least once a week and I can only recall seeing a charging space in use on two occasions. The row of charging slots isn’t positioned to make them more desirable in terms of distance from the shops, so the place would have to far busier than I’ve ever seen it for any ICE driver to want one of those spaces.