A few new Tesla Supercharging spaces in China have some added security thanks to a new parking protection system that was recently added. Twitterer JayinShanghai posted photos of the new devices, which come as a welcome solution to widespread reports of gas and diesel vehicles intentionally parking in Tesla Supercharging stations.
In China here is our creative solution to the ICEing problem. Well done to Tesla China for this great solution. Mostly all of the new Tesla Supercharger Station have these installed. Takes less than one minute of your time. #Tesla #TeslaChina #ICEing pic.twitter.com/gBPXVoORxU
— Jay in Shanghai 🇨🇳 (@JayinShanghai) January 13, 2019
The blue bars are commonly used across China to save parking spaces for the rightful owner and prevent unauthorized access. They are typically used with a manual lock that requires owners to come out to unlock the blue bar to allow parking. The new devices in the Tesla charging stalls make use of an electronic lock that is tied into the popular WeChat app.
WeChat is the proverbial Swiss army knife app in China and is used for everything under the sun there, from actually chatting with others to paying for parking. The new system that has been installed at the Tesla Supercharger stalls in the Rainbow Plaza Hall of the Moon takes less than a minute to use, unlocking the blue stall lock and enabling Tesla owners to charge.
As more and more people buy plug-in vehicles and charging stations become more prevalent in cities around the world, we expect to see more innovative solutions for protecting the right to use the stations for charging and not just parking. This solution simply merges an existing parking space locking solution with Superchargers, but still improves the overall functionality of the space. With most charging spaces having electricity and an internet connection, there is plenty of room for improvement and further innovation to solve the problem.
Until then, we have blue bars in China. To make this work in the United States, the bars would need to be double or triple the height to ensure that the oversized urban monster trucks wouldn’t just see it as a challenge and park in the space just to mock the diminutive device. Thankfully, that’s not an issue in China, and for now, access to Tesla’s Superchargers has been improved slightly.
Image credit: JayinShanghai Twitter
Source: Twitter via X Auto World via Reddit
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