Something unexpected is happening, some of the Tesla owners are now getting charged.
Regardless of its evident pitfalls, owners of electric cars can appear to be a group of like-minded individuals who have money to spend and are eager to adopt the EV lifestyle. However, it’s just a sneaky way of getting revenge, as there’s no camaraderie to be found — when it comes to Tesla owners who abuse the company’s Supercharger power stations.
Tesla drivers who use Tesla Supercharging stations as private parking lots without even getting power are receiving their own brand of justice, from the website InsideEVs, a publication devoted to the electric vehicle industry.
It turns out that choosing to turn a power-use area into a parking space is a wonderful way to annoy other Tesla drivers.
You see, when a car simply parks in a location, it obviously makes it harder for everyone else to recharge their batteries. And that aggravates some Tesla drivers who, according to the customer review website SolarReviews, already have to deal with charging times that range from 15 minutes to more than an hour.
They are aware of how to exact revenge and how to connect the offending vehicle to the charging station. Tesla will start charging idling penalties of either 50 cents or $1 per minute for however long the scenario persists if the vehicle is fully charged.
Found someone else who’s parked without charging, since they “forgot” to plug in I plugged it in for them so they can get some idle fees since there’s a 5 car line. Love helping the community. pic.twitter.com/QPKRf5cNff
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 21, 2023
Well, it’s apparently a piece of cake for any passerby to open a Tesla’s charge port but it probably comes as a surprise to non-Tesla owners.
For those wondering, yes you can open the charge port of a locked 3/Y by pressing the button on the charger. It worked. Good deed done for the day! pic.twitter.com/i6Lh9amX2U
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 22, 2023
This is not a strategy intended to target someone who just left a vehicle plugged in and became preoccupied with other tasks while charging continued, just to be clear. Tesla owners get a notification when their cars are almost fully charged, followed by another when they are. This refers to Teslas that were never plugged in, to begin with, where the space was only being used as a practical parking location.
It may get expensive very quickly when irate Tesla drivers choose to plug the offending vehicle in. The firm begins to charge “idle fees” of either 50 cents per minute or $1 per minute if all charging ports at a charging station are in use and when a battery is full. In the year 2018, the fees were introduced.
Tesla increases Supercharger idle fees to improve wait times | by @fredericlambert https://t.co/FB02yYgkzG pic.twitter.com/VkFRt6JrnB
— Electrek.co (@ElectrekCo) September 20, 2018
In a statement, Tesla said that the tariffs were put in place to encourage users to avoid using charging stations as private parking spaces rather than to generate revenue for the business. They do not start working until at least half of the available spaces at a Supercharger station are filled.
The company states, “Idle fees only apply when a Supercharger station is at 50% capacity or more. Idle fees double when the station is at 100% capacity. To be clear, this is purely about increasing customer happiness and we hope to never make any money from it.”
According to the statement, “A customer would never leave a car parked near the pump at a gas station, and the same principle applies to Superchargers.”
Though, it might not be such a bad idea to find another way to make money, as the way things have been going at Tesla lately.
Yes, to that. It would be unimaginable for a driver to leave a gas-powered automobile unattended at a petrol station. That would be difficult at peak hours due to the continual, fluid motion that characterizes a busy gas station. It is almost unimaginable that the vehicle could be abandoned due to the close proximity of filling up a tank of gas, which keeps the driver and vehicle together for whatever many minutes it takes to finish the activity.
But oh well, without a car, where are you going to go anyway?
Sources: WesternJournal, Insideevs, Tesla.com, SolarReviews
