These Are The Rules Of Electric Car Charging Etiquette

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Human civilization functions largely because there’s a certain set of rules, unspoken and spoken, written and unwritten, that we humans all, collectively agree to abide by. I’d say about 75% of these rules are about where you can or can’t poop or which parts of your body you have to keep hidden under fabric. The other stuff is important, too, especially the parts that deal with how we interact with cars. Some rules are, of course, sacrosanct, like never fucking with another person’s vehicle. It’s against the rules. But times do change, and sometimes the set of rules needs updating. Currently, we’re in the early stages of a mass transition to electric vehicles, and as a result, I think we need to update and define how to properly interact with these electron-huffers. Specifically, we need to define the rules around EV charging etiquette, so let’s just take care of that right now.

There’s one specific rule that really needs defining, and that has to do with a particular reality about charging electric cars: it takes a while. Well, really, two realities: it takes a while, and there’s still not really enough chargers. The internal combustion cars that have heretofore dominated the automotive landscape had neither of these restrictions: fuel stations are plentiful and pretty much everywhere, and even if you have a massive fuel tank, you can fill up a car in, what, ten minutes, tops? It’s pretty much a non-issue.

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But, for EVs, that’s not the case! Sure, Tesla has a nice robust network of Superchargers, but even that pales compared to the colossal number of gas stations in pretty much any country, and EVs from other manufacturers have to rely on a patchwork network of chargers that often don’t, you know, work. If a parking lot has EV chargers at all, it’s often just a handful, crammed into some corner, and it’s very likely one of those charging slots is already occupied by a car. Is that car still charging? What if it’s done charging, but the owner is nowhere to be found, and it’s just sitting there, idly hogging a fat electron hose that you could be using?

What should you do? This is exactly the scenario our newest EV owner, David, encountered when attempting to charge his BMW i3 at the Autopian/Galpin West Coast HQ parking lot (David just got the i3 back from the dealer; he’ll show you what’s wrong/whether the battery seems new soon!):

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Did David do the right thing by unplugging a no-longer charging car and plugging that cable into his car? Was he in the right to close that car’s charge port door? Well, wonder no more, because I have consulted with the Egyptian god of thunder/lightning (and the desert, and chaos, and a few other side gigs, but lightning was the closest I can get to electricity), Set, who has provided the theological backing for these new Holy Rules for Charging EVs.

These will be the rules for EV charging from this point on; I’m willing to listen to suggestions and commentary and adapt the rules, but I’ll have to consult with Set, and boy is he cranky.

Some of these rules are for the EV owners, some are for the carmakers. Let’s get into them.

1. Thou Shalt Not Hog a Charging Point Without Charging

As much as possible, if you’re at a charger and plugged in, you damn well better be charging. It is the responsibility of the EV owner to at least make a good faith attempt to know when their car is done charging (many cars have apps that tell the owner this information) and when their car is done, it should be unplugged and, ideally, moved to make the charger available for someone else. Of course, you shall never park in a charging spot if you have no intention of charging, or are driving a combustion-only car. That’s just a dick move.

2. Thou Shalt Unplug A Fully-Charged Car From A Charge Point If Needed

Understanding that humans are fallible, and may sometimes leave a fully-charged car plugged in after it is done charging, it is deemed Right and Just for another EV owner to unplug a fully-charged car from a charger. This may only be done if the car is charged to at least 80%; any lower is not permitted. The 80% number has been chosen as that is the generally recommended regular charging level to use for optimal battery longevity, and most fast chargers are designed for maximum charging speed up to 80%. Charging from 81% to 100% takes longer, and while this is permitted at a public charger, that last 20% is not a protected right.

3. Carmakers Must Build Cars With External Charge Indicators And Plugs That Release Locking At 80%

Currently, most EVs have some sort of external charge state indicator, and most also have mechanisms to lock the charging cable in place. These rules will mandate clearly legible external charge state indicators on all cars as well as mandating that any locking mechanism for the cable will release when the charge level hits the owner’s pre-set level or 80%, whichever is lower.

Ioniq5 Ux Door

I know these are absolutely possible because many EVs already operate in a manner close to this. Above you see the Hyundai Ioniq 5’s external charge state indicator, as well as a menu setting that unlocks the cable when charged.

Here it is in video, even:

Over-the-air software updates may be needed for all EVs to make certain that they unlock charge cables at 80% charge, and, if no external charge state indicator is present, the manufacturer will be responsible for a recall and retrofit of the necessary hardware, on pain of that company’s CEO being taken into the desert by the god Set and subject to the god’s cruel whims until those changes are made.

4. Thou Shalt Carefully Close Charging Doors or Panels On Cars You Unplug

In the event that you do remove the unlocked cable from a car charged to 80%, it is the responsibility of the cable-remover to carefully close the charging port door on the other car. You must treat the car with as much or more respect that you would treat your own car. So, no slamming.

5. Thou Shalt Be Careful With Thy Cables

Currently, the state of cable management at EV chargers is more primitive than your average vacuum cleaner. Cables generally do not retract, they tend to be thick and ungainly, and it is up to the users of the cables to replace them neatly, which Thou Must Do. Thou Shalt Not just leave the cables on the ground, and if you need to run a cable over a car to get to yours, Thou Shalt Make Certain that the cable in no way impedes that car’s ability to move or leave, and cannot cause any damage whatsoever to the car. If there’s any doubt at all – an antenna may be bent, a rubber scuff may be made on a hood or roof, then Thou Shalt Calm The Fuck Down and Wait until you can get plugged in without potentially impairing anyone else’s car.

 

So, what do we think of these? I think they’re solid rules; I’ve gotten some pushback on the 80% criteria, but I think you can go to 100%, but you’ll need to remain with the car and negotiate. Still, I’m open to hearing opinions and discussion! I can say the same for Set, but, worth a try, right?

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Mercedes Streeter

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154 thoughts on “These Are The Rules Of Electric Car Charging Etiquette”

  1. Different rules for different times and places of course.
    I mean, am I at a charging station in Salt Lake City at noon or am I at one in Chicago at two in the morning?
    I wouldn’t set chisel to tablet for these rules just yet.
    There are too many variables involved in this social problem for easy answers.

  2. Got two more for ya:

    If thou hath a BEV only capable of L2 charging thou shall prioritize fast charging BEVs above their own when using fast chargers.

    If thou hath a PHEV thou shall not take the last charger spot.

    1. Yep that one with the PHEV, they can still fill gas. Also older PHEV only use one phase of the strong current and so need 3 times longer than proper BEVs, so they’re hogging the chargers basically. It happened to me already coming to a slow charger with 0 and it’s already taken by a PHEV. It felt like a slap in the face.

  4. Sorry, but no. What if I’m charging to 100% because I know that I’ll need the range, then someone else comes and unplugs it before it’s done?

      1. The default should be asking someone if they can unplug their car before 100%, not the owner asking the person messing with their car if they can stop and allow you to charge past 80%.

      2. “Then you ask them kindly not to do that.
        Nothing a conversation and a handshake can’t solve”

        Handshake? Did you not learn anything from the past few years?

    2. First of all you should be considerate of others. If it’s a fast charger you have to time it right and you may never hog it. If it’s a slow charger use the option to set the current amperage to take as long as you need to get to the car if you want it at 100% – if I set it on the lowest I need a full day to charge my M3. This way it’s still charging so people won’t feel aggravated by your behavior.

  5. There are automated parking garages that have charging stations in them. If you have an EV it brings you a special EV pallet that has the charging cord on it that you plug in. Then the system brings the car on the palettes along conveyors and lifts, and if you have an EV it will put it at specific places in the garage where the charging stations are. The connection is made between the palette and the charger to power the plug that you have already plugged into your car. There’s one of these in the old Free Press Building in Detroit. It lets them park more cars in the available space because you don’t have to leave room for people to get in and out. https://autoparkit.com/autoparkits-ev-charging-solution/
    https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2020/06/23/automated-parking-structure-part-historic-detroit-free-press-building-renovation/3237188001/

    1. But..
      what if I’m a pedestrian crossing at a pedestrian crossing and you narrowly avoid ending my life with fancy evasive maneuvers?

      I think I’m well within rights at that point to slap your side view mirror and exclaim:

      “I’m Walkin _ere!

  8. Ok, here’s a situation I was involved in a year ago:
    I was driving a rented Model 3 long distance. I was in Asheville, NC and went to a free Level 2 public charging station in a parking garage. Plugshare told me there were two open spaces.
    When I arrived, one of the spaces was occupied by a non-Tesla EV and it was charging (the ChargePoint App reported it active). The other was occupied by another Model 3, but the car wasn’t charging (ChargePoint app and charger both said there was no charge session active). I’ve found that most Tesla owners are not used to how non-Tesla chargers work, and often times, they will just plug their car in and not realize they need to activate the charger. (I’ve owned a Model S for 8 years now, and I’m very familiar with how touchy other charging stations are compared with the Supercharger network.) I’m not sure if this happened here, but at any rate, the car was plugged in and it was definitely NOT charging. I parked in the adjacent space, unplugged the car and plugged mine in.
    I worried the other owner would come back, get annoyed and unplug my car, which they did. I saw this because I was monitoring both the Plugshare app and the ChargePoint app on my phone and saw they reported my charge session as interrupted. As soon as I could, I walked back to the parking garage and saw the cable unplugged from my car and left on the ground, the other Model 3 was gone.

    I’m sure the other driver had no clue their car wasn’t charging, and was mad that they found their car unplugged. So, I feel bad about that, but its not my responsibility to educate other people on how to charge their cars.

    I feel like I should have left a note on their car saying I unplugged it because it wasn’t charging. Oh well…

  9. The news of an EV charging dispute escalating into a shooting is going to drop any day now.
    But seriously, I would never ever touch someone else’s car in the US.
    You don’t know the reason it’s left plugged in, you might have the best intentions and all it takes is for someone to misunderstand it.
    Just this week I think, people got shot because of driving up the wrong driveway and in another case, opening the door of somebody else’s car by mistake.
    Some people fill their gas then head into the shop for a coffee.
    Annoying and inconsiderate? Sure, but you don’t just hop in and move their car.

    1. In the UK if you are in the queue directly behind someone who has filled up and then gone for a coffee you are allowed to move their car and park it neatly nearby, but only after loading their body in the boot/trunk and leaving their head on the pump as a warning to others.

      We queue politely, sometimes for days. Anyone who thinks there isn’t a lot of rage building up under the surface hasn’t met people. We’ve spread from our tiny island before and ruined the world for everyone else, and I suspect the lure of shorter queues was a big part of that.

    2. There’s still the smallest sliver of overlap on the Venn diagram between “EV owners” and “people who are itching to shoot someone over the slightest perceived inconvenience” so I think we’re safe for at least a few more years…

  10. My first gen Volt charging light was solid green when charging and flashing green when finished. This meant that many first gen Volts get unplugged while still charging because people think they aren’t charging. I was impressed that our BMW 330e has a key to the charging lights in the charge door so anyone can look and see what the colors mean.

    There’s another rule that some follow that, as a PHEV owner, I don’t like. Some EV owners think it’s OK to unplug a PHEV, regardless of charge status, because “We can just go get gas, but they actually need the charge.” I’ve never had that happen to me, but I don’t think that’s right.

    I like that many charging stations are now charging idle fees to get people to move along. Some of the grocery stores near me are free for an hour or two and $2 an hour after that too, since they are there for people who are shopping at the store.

      1. Ahem: if one buys a proper car, then they need not concern themselves with any of this nonsense. That’s the point. Ya’all can fight it out amongst yerselves as we drive past.

      2. “Why not let other people buy what they like and not concern yourself over it?”

        That’s what I told the guy at the DMV when I tried to register my road going coal fired steam locomotive!

  14. What about Thou shalt not charge thy plug-in hybrid? David may have views on this one… perhaps the i3 is exempt as it’s primarily electric. But I often see big plug-in hybrid SUVs that have like 10 miles of electric-only range on public chargers, just there to harvest the free electrons. Charging network capacity is at such a premium, we can’t waste it on these people trying to save 10cents of gas on their commute.

    3. Actually as a BEV user I’m all for PHEVs using level 2 chargers. I can with super rare exceptions get to where I’m going on a single charge, and if not I’m using a DC Fast charger because a Level 2 just isn’t fast enough unless it’s overnight. I use free Level 2s for the same reason they do, to harvest the free electrons, and unlike them if I don’t I’m not burning gas to get home.

  15. Electric Car Charging is such a hellscape. I would not want someone else potentially touching my vehicle. Not to mention all the vehicles I have owned that required a special turn of the wrist or quick blow in just the right spot to open the fuel door. Bad enough getting gas in NJ where the station attendant has to try to figure it out and they do it all day .

    1. As a person who regularly takes his EV on multi day road trips, it really isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Like with anything else the people who have shit go wrong are the loudest so that’s what we mostly hear about, not the much larger number of people who have no issues.

      1. As a person who regularly takes his EV on multi day road trips, it really isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

        Yep. I’ve been road tripping EVs since 2015 (Tesla and non-Tesla) and I’ve never one single time waited to charge. I recently did a long trip in a non-Tesla and all 12 Electrify America chargers worked. I had to move over to a different stall a couple times, but that’s it. And only ONE of those 12 locations even had ANY other EVs charging there.

  17. Since I don’t have a vehicle that has a charge port, I have no real say in the matter. That being said – When I do finally go electric, I plan on being as courteous as possible, and watch over the charging as close as I can.

      1. Um.. pretty sure it applies in other countries too.
        El Salvador
        Venezuela
        Guatemala
        Colombia
        Honduras and
        Brazil
        To name a few.

  19. This really reminds me of laundry room etiquette. And in fact, if I had to use these chargers, I would probably do the same as when I had to use a shared laundry room; I’ll sit there and read and guard my stuff, and be gone as soon as its done.

    1. I was just thinking the same thing. And yeah, I used to hang out and guard my stuff because I didn’t want some stranger taking it out of the dryer, because ew.

  20. People need to unplug their car and move it when done charging – period. Its selfishness at its most asshole-y. F*** those people. All chargers need to enable exorbitant parking fees once the car stops accepting a charge, after a short grace period.

    1- I’m very much not ok with clumsy fools removing a CCS DCFC from my car, because they’re heavy and awkward and don’t bend, meaning there’s a significant chance of some idiot scratching/denting my truck.
    2- Don’t touch my charge port door. The Rivian’s door perplexes even reasonably intelligent people, and I can see some exuberant asshat trying to rotate it manually and snapping it off.

    I would trust someone like David to do 1 and 2 above, because he’s a motörhead and knows his way around a car – even one foreign to him. But an average, regular person who can’t be trusted to check their blinker fluid? Nope.

    Never forget Carlin: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

    1. Tesla’s chargers charge an idle fee (if I recall per minute also expensive) if the car remained uncharged but plugged in.. which I think is a great idea.

      The Tesla plug also locks to the car so that negates the forced unplug issue.

      Oh the state of charge I think it determine by the pulse / colour of the icon on the charge port.

      It is the CCS standard that was designed by committee ( at a time that EV was a twinkle at those corporations’ eyes) that lacks the things that Jason talked about.

      Not all charge doors are manual (I think that is relatively rare), I don’t want people to be pushing to close my motorised charge port doors by force.

      Not quite an etiqutte but try to find a charger that is not shared with a car that is already there. A lot of chargers including Tesla, a finite amount of Amps go to a charger, if you share a charger, you are splitting amps and slowing down the charging for both cars.

      1. This is… not correct about CCS chargers. Almost all CCS chargers also have a screen which displays a) whether they are actively charging a car and b) what the percentage charge of the car is.

        CCS cars display state of charge either next to the plug or on the dashboard where its clearly visible from the outside of the car. I can’t think of one that breaks that rule. All of them blink or pulse when charging, though not all of them will show charge a car has. All of them go steady or go out when the charge is done.

        Where it does vary a lot is with level 2 charging, a significant number of which either don’t display if they’re outputting power or do so in a not easy to read way. Not a CCS problem though.

        1. The median is considered one kind of average. After all, there are also multiple kinds of mean averages as well, such as arithmetic, geometric, and root mean square.

      2. Carlin is correct for the median. If you’re going to use the mean value, the number of people dumber than average is almost certainly greater than 50%.

    3. Yeah hard second on not screwing with another person’s charge port door. They’re just fine with being left open and you could do real damage to it by fucking with it.

  21. For a bit of an analog, this situation seems very similar to that of the laundry room/laundromat, and we’ve yet to be able to agree on final rules there despite decades of trying…

    1. This is going to be very much like the people, who after they fill their ICE vehicles, leave them at the pump while they go inside to use the restroom, get snacks/drinks/etc, instead of moving them. It’s incredibly annoying when there’s a bunch of pumps and most of them are occupied by vehicles not pumping hydrocarbons and with no one in them.

  22. Well the Egyptian god of Lightening I believe is Seth. May want to fix that before more people read. I have seen people remove wet clothes including underwear from finished washers, i think unplugging the car is far less invasive. The rules seem far but just like in the game of billiards different places have different rules. So I suggest that like pool halls charging placed place their rules at the charging stations. I didnt see any rules but David is so magnetic I may have missed them.

  23. Oh, I don’t like the 80% thing at all. How do YOU know I’m not about to set off on a long trip and need every one of those electrons to get to the next charger? I’d say don’t ever unplug someone’s car unless you know it’s 100%. It’s got to be up to them not to be a dick if they don’t really need it.

    1. Totally with you on this one. If I come back to my car and it’s only at 80% and the charge cord got yanked, I’m yanking it right back, whether you’re present or not.

    1. Induction charging will never be as efficient as wired charging. I can see robot charging stations at places like hospital parking. Install the robots as grids on the celing and move around cars that request charging.

    1. I don’t have a vehicle that needs charging. But if anybody touches my cord, I’d imagine a Law and Order moment would be occurring soon…

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