There Needs To Be More Planning To Avoid Blocked EV Charging Stalls

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Picture it. Sicily, 1922. You’re driving hundreds of miles in your EV trying to take a long, long trip. You’re tired. You’re wired. Your caffeine system might have some blood left in it, but you’re not sure. There’s one charging stop left before you get to the hotel, and you’re looking forward to crashing out for a few minutes. When you arrive, you find something like this:

Unless my Google skills are rusty that pic was taken near Eastlake Blvd in El Paso, TX. @Tesla has @Starbucks listed as the host and the @ChickfilA drive thru just happens to be next door. If you check @plugshare you can see check-ins and photos that share the same frustrations. pic.twitter.com/VlbfSHCfzR

— Watermelon Jelly Bean (@WatermelonJB) September 24, 2024

As the reply points out, the station is located at a Starbucks. There’s nothing wrong with Starbucks, of course. If the drinks are your thing, they’re great. And, more importantly, who doesn’t like a cake pop? But, like most businesses, the majority of the customers drove there in a vehicle with a combustion engine. Everyone is busy and in a hurry in today’s world, and nobody wants to get a few extra steps in by parking toward the back of the lot (even if they’re like me and could use the extra exercise).

Meanwhile, Tesla has a lot of spare Supercharger capacity in many places. Things are crowded and hectic in the most densely-populated parts of California, where many people have EVs, but in many places the company had the forward-thinking vision to build more stalls than we need right now. This covers not only today’s biggest traffic surges, but the everyday EV traffic of tomorrow.

The downside to it is this: if you’re not an appreciative EV driver, all the empty spaces sends a very different message. “Nobody drives an EV,” they think. “It won’t hurt anything if I just park here for a few minutes.” So, they mosey on into the space, head inside, and sip on a venti something’r’other for an hour and a half with a friend.

That’s where the EV driver shows up and finds out that this story is playing out 8-24 times simultaneously. Finding no room at the inn and lacking sufficient range to make it out to the next station closer to the New Mexico state line, there’s really not much to do but sit and wait for someone to finish their conversation and maybe their latte, right?

Calling Tesla to report the cars parked in Supercharger spaces won’t do much to help in this case because Tesla doesn’t own the property. Tesla does own some of its Supercharger stations, like the diner everyone’s looking forward to and the Kettleman City Supercharger that has a lounge and solar canopies. Most stations are put on parking spaces and land leased from another business, though. Because Tesla is a paying guest on the property like you are, they can’t call for the tow truck.

At this point, most social media and forum replies would be mentioning something about valve stem core removal tools, tire irons, and the upcoming A2Z NACS extension cable (and all of the inconvenient things you could do to the dawdling frappuccino drinker in this situation). With those “solutions,” you might feel good for a few minutes and even get away with it, or you might end up in the El Paso County Jail (something that can happen in both Texas and Colorado, and nobody’s sure which is worse). So, I’d not recommend doing any of that.

From The Local Business Perspective

What would be even better is if you could go into the local coffeehouse named after either a mining town in Colorado or the first mate in Moby Dick and ask them to solve the problem. They could ask around and be like, “Is that your car in the charging space?” And then, they could see about calling in the tow truck. Problem solved, right?

But, the business is hesitant to anger its customers over something that seems trivial. Aren’t there other chargers nearby? They don’t know that the next station up the road you could probably reach is an Electrify America, and it’s often taken up by Bolts and LEAFs, with one stall or more often down. Plus, who wants to not just charge at a stall that should be empty. But the manager doesn’t know any of that, and they probably don’t have time to hear you out.

And the tow truck driver? He’s busy dealing with people who broke down on the side of the road, DWI calls, and wrecks. He’ll come tow the errant Chik-Fil-A customer’s car away when he gets around to it. And, that’s assuming the shift manager has any idea which towing company they’re even supposed to call.

At the end of the day, the local business doesn’t have a lot of motivation to take care of the problem, and solving it after you arrive means making a customer not want to ever come back.

The Six Ps

“Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.” I have no idea who first said this, sorry.

Here’s the thing: by the time you reach the charger and find all of the stalls ICEd up, a bunch of mistakes have already happened. Like the Mississippi River, it’s easier to get across early (at Lake Itasca) than it is to cross in the swamps south of New Orleans. The longer you wait to address a problem, the harder it is to correct it. Planning ahead can mean there’s no problem at all.

In the case of Superchargers on leased parking spaces, a lot can be done early on to prevent ICE from forming where it shouldn’t. Tesla needs to stipulate in the lease agreement that the business is supposed to look for non-EVs in the spaces and be proactive about getting customers to move the cars and have an established towing company ready to come quickly when they don’t. Tesla could even get permission from the company to call for the truck on their behalf. Either way, signs need to be posted indicating that vehicles WILL be towed away if parked there and not charging.

Even earlier, it’s a good idea for charging stalls to be located a little further away from the business. That sucks for us EV drivers in some ways, but at the same time, getting ICEd is even worse. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, many of us could use the exercise!

Featured image by Jennifer Sensiba.