Advocates Band Together To Clean Up Tesla’s Supercharging Stations

A group of EV advocates are using Twitter to launch a coordinated effort to keep Tesla’s Supercharging stations clean. With most Supercharging locations being little more than a group of charging stalls in a parking lot, some have become dumping grounds for people looking to take advantage of the pitstop to clean out their cars, but too lazy to find a proper trash can. (Seriously.)

The effort is being coordinated by @TeslaAdopt and has already accumulated a handful of helpers ranging from Southern California to Maryland to Austria.

Thank you @liftsrock @NuovaRealta @IheartTesla for your recent signups to AdoptASupercharger. We now have 12 adopted stations! Thank you! 👍😎 Keep up the great work. #awesome pic.twitter.com/a7dAAJsrRV

— AdoptASupercharger (@TeslaAdopt) August 1, 2019

The effort is a great opportunity for EV advocates to get involved by signing up to formally Adopt a Supercharger by replying to the account on Twitter with the station you are willing to support. That will get you added to the formal register of accounts. Though, it doesn’t sound like any Adopt a Supercharger police will be looking for you if you don’t follow up with regular checks.

Another option is to just keep this in the back of your head when you visit Superchargers (or any EV charging locations, for that matter) and pick up any trash in the area. As quickly as it feels like it is ramping up to those of us who stay in touch with the market, the reality is that the rEVolution is still very much in its early stages. The growing pains of turning parking lot EV chargers into full blown EV service stations is even less mature, and gaps like this are surfacing.

I recommend packing a bag and some reusable gloves and taking a few minutes to pick up a few pieces of trash when you plug in. Bonus points for parents who are able to task their mini-minions to pick up a few pieces of trash after charging. I make a game out of it and see if I can get them to pick up 5 pieces of trash before we leave the area. Pro tip: This life hack also works well on trails when hiking.

We are on a trajectory towards electric vehicles and EV charging being much more mainstream, but the more we can identify the gaps and band together to bridge them until robust solutions are put in place, the better.

Thank you to @TeslaAdopt for kicking off this initiative and to all the volunteers who have jumped in already to Adopt a Supercharger near them. We all appreciate it and are (hopefully) doing our part as well!