EV Charge Station Etiquette

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dcxplant

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2014
Messages
20
Hi folks,

Yesterday, I pulled into a popular lunch/shopping area that features 220v chargers in their garages. The chargers in both garages were occupied by three Volts and a Ford something-or-other I'd never seen before that has a battery… some sort of four-door sedan about the size of a Taurus.

All four of the cars were done charging, as I had looked up the fully charged indications for those cars on a website (GM Volt owners forum). I don't know about that Ford, but I do know the Volt has a small battery that must charge up fast. All of the cars/chargers indicated that they were done.

I waited :30 minutes, and no owners. So, I pulled next to the most convenient spot and unplugged one of the other cars and plugged in my RAV4 EV.

I was going to go have lunch while it charged, but I stayed in the car b/c I wasn't sure how they'd react. I didn't touch the car, I just pulled the plug. After an hour, I pugged their car back in… Not sure why, it wasn't taking a charge, but I felt like I should leave it like I found it.

Which brings to mind:
So, could/should I have gone to lunch instead of wait in the car in case the other owner showed up?
If one unplugs another's car, close their hatch or not?

My thinking is; if the car pugged in is not charging/finished, unplug and use the plug, don't touch the other person's car, leave the charger door open, and place a card/note explaining the situation.

The only thing is, an EV owner is probably more understanding than on of these plug-in hybrid types, but I'm not sure, I've never met one yet.

Thoughts?
Erich
 
You should have no qualms about unplugging an EV/PHEV that's done charging. You're lucky that you were able to find a spot within reach. These people who left their cars parked at a charging station with full batteries are the bad actors in this situation.
 
fooljoe said:
You should have no qualms about unplugging an EV/PHEV that's done charging. You're lucky that you were able to find a spot within reach. These people who left their cars parked at a charging station with full batteries are the bad actors in this situation.

Thanks, I agree. Just looking for some validation before I go around town unplugging people!

Those crazy plug in hybrids charge in seemingly, minutes, but the drivers are gone all day, or stay for hours, which is selfish.

It seems the Volt drivers are the worst offenders in my area. I wonder if they have apps that tell them their car is finished charging…. Another factor is the "choice" parking of EV charge spots. Some owners feel they can park there all darn day just for the fact they drive an EV/plug-in. Kinda like the hanging handicap tag crowd; you know the ones that pull up, hang the handicap tag on the mirror and skippy-di-do-dah into the store in work out clothes and no sign of any disability :-O

I'm printing business cards with EV info to leave. I'm not sure the plug-in hybrid folks are clued in.


EDIT:
I just realized this thread was posting in Modifications and Accessories, my apologies.
 
dcxplant said:
It seems the Volt drivers are the worst offenders in my area. I wonder if they have apps that tell them their car is finished charging….
Yes, we do have such an app. It's called "RemoteLink". It's part of GM's OnStar service. One thing to keep in mind while a VOLT is actively charging, unplugging will set off an alarm. I'm not certain, but this may happen even when the car is done charging if the security system is set (doors locked). I have inadvertently set off the alarm in my VOLT many times myself forgetting to unlock the doors (and thus disabling the alarm system) with the key fob before unplugging the EVSE. Hopefully, this should not happen if the car is already done charging.
 
Dsinned said:
dcxplant said:
It seems the Volt drivers are the worst offenders in my area. I wonder if they have apps that tell them their car is finished charging….
Yes, we do have such an app. It's called "RemoteLink". It's part of GM's OnStar service. One thing to keep in mind while a VOLT is actively charging, unplugging will set off an alarm. I'm not certain, but this may happen even when the car is done charging if the security system is set (doors locked). I have inadvertently set off the alarm in my VOLT many times myself forgetting to unlock the doors (and thus disabling the alarm system) with the key fob before unplugging the EVSE. Hopefully, this should not happen if the car is already done charging.

Thank you, that is valuable info, and I don't mean to offend Volt owners! This one spot has a high Volt population, so I notice it.

How long does a Volt take to charge from empty? From 50%?

thanks!
Erich
 
The Volt battery's actually very respectable for a PHEV - it holds up to about 11 kWh (pretty soon my degraded Leaf battery won't hold much more than that!), and I believe it charges at 16 amps (just 15 maybe?), so at a 208V station I'd figure a complete charge would take about 4 hours.

That Ford you mentioned was probably a Fusion Energi. It and the similar C-Max Energi, and just about every other PHEV including the ubiquitous Plug-in Prius have much smaller batteries (the bare minimum to qualify for carpool stickers I guess) and would probably take not much longer than an hour for a complete charge.
 
The "JLong" J1772 extension cord will save your butt in this situation! When you're at a public charge station and it's blocked, and also for charge stations where the cord won't easily reach the back of the car to plug in, JLong makes life easy:

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/JLONG-40-Amp-J1772-extension-cable-JL40A.htm
 
FoolJoe is correct. It takes about 4 hours to completely recharge a VOLT from a Level 2 EVSE. While a charge is in-progress there is big, domed, green LED illuminated on the middle of the dash.
 
Dsinned said:
dcxplant said:
It seems the Volt drivers are the worst offenders in my area. I wonder if they have apps that tell them their car is finished charging….
Yes, we do have such an app. It's called "RemoteLink". It's part of GM's OnStar service. One thing to keep in mind while a VOLT is actively charging, unplugging will set off an alarm. I'm not certain, but this may happen even when the car is done charging if the security system is set (doors locked). I have inadvertently set off the alarm in my VOLT many times myself forgetting to unlock the doors (and thus disabling the alarm system) with the key fob before unplugging the EVSE. Hopefully, this should not happen if the car is already done charging.


If you charge your Volt in a shared charging situation, you should completely disable the alarm on unplug option. You can do that from the settings menu. I have done that to mine.
 
MANY workplaces with EV charging have a strict policy of "don't touch the plug or the other car". I leave a note telling people how they'll know my EV is done charging and PLEASE take the plug. In years of doing this, I've only had one LEAF take me up on this.

People get teed off by odd things - no way to tell how they'll react. I used to work for a Volt driver who went BALLISTIC when someone took the plug out of his fully charged Volt.
 
The company EvExtend makes a series of magnets (including one for the RAV4 and the Volt) that explains the meaning of the charging lights, and invites people to unplug when the lights indicate the charge is completed. You can find the magnets at:
http://www.evextend.com/Charging-Reference-Magnets.php
I have purchased magnets for my RAV4 and my Volt, and they are of good quality.
 
srl99 said:
MANY workplaces with EV charging have a strict policy of "don't touch the plug or the other car". I leave a note telling people how they'll know my EV is done charging and PLEASE take the plug. In years of doing this, I've only had one LEAF take me up on this.

People get teed off by odd things - no way to tell how they'll react. I used to work for a Volt driver who went BALLISTIC when someone took the plug out of his fully charged Volt.

...which is why I stayed in the car. All this is still very new!
 
Michael Bornstein said:
The company EvExtend makes a series of magnets (including one for the RAV4 and the Volt) that explains the meaning of the charging lights, and invites people to unplug when the lights indicate the charge is completed. You can find the magnets at:
http://www.evextend.com/Charging-Reference-Magnets.php
I have purchased magnets for my RAV4 and my Volt, and they are of good quality.


Useful! Thanks
 
fooljoe said:
The Volt battery's actually very respectable for a PHEV - it holds up to about 11 kWh (pretty soon my degraded Leaf battery won't hold much more than that!), and I believe it charges at 16 amps (just 15 maybe?), so at a 208V station I'd figure a complete charge would take about 4 hours.

That Ford you mentioned was probably a Fusion Energi. It and the similar C-Max Energi, and just about every other PHEV including the ubiquitous Plug-in Prius have much smaller batteries (the bare minimum to qualify for carpool stickers I guess) and would probably take not much longer than an hour for a complete charge.
Yes on all of the above. On my work's 208 volt L2 Chargepoint EVSEs, Volts seem to pull only ~3.1 kW from the wall. I've started sessions for many Volts before.

We have C-Max Energis and Fusion Energis (along w/PiPs, FFEs, 500es, Leafs, Model S, and Spark EVs) at my work... PiP is done in less than 1.5 hours.
srl99 said:
People get teed off by odd things - no way to tell how they'll react. I used to work for a Volt driver who went BALLISTIC when someone took the plug out of his fully charged Volt.
Bizarre and idiotic, IMHO.

At my work, we don't have strict policies and it's all pretty much self-governed/self-policed along w/an internal not-so-voluntary list of plug-in vehicles, license plates and drivers. At my work, it is TOTALLY fine to unplug completed cars. We also have a table of how to tell if a car is done charging via the lights (not as comprehensive as http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=307888#p307888) and we can tell via the displays on our Chargepoint EVSEs, as well... but one may have to wait for the right messages to scroll by.

We also have the convention of leaving your charge port door open == waiting for a charge, please plug me in if you see an open plug.
 
cwerdna said:
Bizarre and idiotic, IMHO.


You are so right. Some people have a "you better not touch my car" attitude. Well guess what...I'm not touching your car. I'm touching the public, shared charging cable.

Where I work, people are a little more grown up. I bring a portable 220 EVSE (3 kW). If a 3 kW car is using the wall mounted 6 kW EVSE, I will take that for myself and plug him in with my portable. He's still getting the same charge as before and I'm getting twice what I would if I used the 3kW myself.
 
michael said:
Where I work, people are a little more grown up. I bring a portable 220 EVSE (3 kW). If a 3 kW car is using the wall mounted 6 kW EVSE, I will take that for myself and plug him in with my portable. He's still getting the same charge as before and I'm getting twice what I would if I used the 3kW myself.

Doesn't that give problems with cars on timers ?
Normally I have my car charge only at night.
When I pull up during the day for a charge up, I have to press "charge immediately" when I switch off my rav4. When I plugin the J1772, and someone would "exchange" the J1772 for another one, my car won't continue charging with the other J1772.
I wouldn't be happy when I return to my car to find someone stopped it.
Mightbe rav4ev only behaviour though ?!
 
Ford, Chevy, Nissan no problem to do that. Are you sure the RAV really works that way? What happens if there is a power interruption? Surely it starts charging again when power is restored?? I would have expected the car to return to charge timer mode only if it were started or when changed manually.

Need to give that a try....

But of course nobody would have reason to switch a RAV from a 6 kW EVSE to a 3 kW since it's capable of running a the larger unit's capacity. This is to avoid wasting a 6 kW EVSE on a 3 kW car.
 
I have a 3.3 kW Leaf with the timer set, and if I'm charging in public I need to push the timer override button to initiate a charge in public. I can confirm that if someone were to unplug me and then plug back in the car wouldn't start charging again - I'd need to initiate again either by pushing the button in the car again or through Carwings (Nissan equivalent of Entune.) I can't speak for other 3.3 kW cars, but I imagine the same thing would apply. Unfortunately there's no external indicator you can use to determine if a car has a timer set or is in charge immediately mode.
 
fooljoe said:
I have a 3.3 kW Leaf with the timer set, and if I'm charging in public I need to push the timer override button to initiate a charge in public. I can confirm that if someone were to unplug me and then plug back in the car wouldn't start charging again - I'd need to initiate again either by pushing the button in the car again or through Carwings (Nissan equivalent of Entune.) I can't speak for other 3.3 kW cars, but I imagine the same thing would apply. Unfortunately there's no external indicator you can use to determine if a car has a timer set or is in charge immediately mode.
fromport said:
michael said:
Where I work, people are a little more grown up. I bring a portable 220 EVSE (3 kW). If a 3 kW car is using the wall mounted 6 kW EVSE, I will take that for myself and plug him in with my portable. He's still getting the same charge as before and I'm getting twice what I would if I used the 3kW myself.

Doesn't that give problems with cars on timers ?
...
I wouldn't be happy when I return to my car to find someone stopped it.
This is why we tell people on our internal EV/PHEV driver's web page to disable their timers. Sometimes people also need to shuffles cables at my work, to ensure optimal usage.

The Leaf does indicate whether or not a timer has been set, but not until after the fact. If the lights go 1 on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 3 off and so on... in sequence, that means it's got a timer set and won't charge until the associated event has been hit.

On the above internal page, I did list how to tell if a Leaf has a timer set, preventing charging. Again, since our internal page lists the car, license plate and driver (except for some "mystery cars"), we can email the driver, if we run into a problem after shuffling or attempting to start a session.
 
michael said:
Are you sure the RAV really works that way?
What happens if there is a power interruption? Surely it starts charging again when power is restored?? I would have expected the car to return to charge timer mode only if it were started or when changed manually.
Need to give that a try....

Pretty sure it stops after interruption/power failure when "charge immediate" was pressed and a timer is/was set.

But you are right, you would want to change a rav4 to a lower power evse.
I was more referring to a possible problem with "Charge Station Etiquette" because not all charging behavior is the same. If the rav stops, there might be others as well.
 
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