Charge Rage: Electric Cars Are Making People Meaner In California

HughPickens.com writes: Matt Richtel reports that the push to make the state greener with electric cars is having an unintended side effect: It is making some people meaner. The bad moods stem from the challenges drivers face finding recharging spots for their battery-powered cars. Unlike gas stations, charging stations are not yet in great supply, and that has led to sharp-elbowed competition. According to Richtel, electric-vehicle owners are unplugging one another's cars, trading insults, and creating black markets and side deals to trade spots in corporate parking lots. The too-few-outlets problem is a familiar one in crowded cafes and airports, where people want to charge their phones or laptops. But the need can be more acute with cars — will their owners have enough juice to make it home? — and manners often go out the window. "Cars are getting unplugged while they are actively charging, and that's a problem," says Peter Graf. "Employees are calling and messaging each other, saying, 'I see you're fully charged, can you please move your car?'"

The problem is that installation of electric vehicle charging ports at some companies has not kept pace with soaring demand, creating thorny etiquette issues in the workplace. German software company SAP installed 16 electric vehicle charging ports in 2010 at its Palo Alto campus for the handful of employees who owned electric vehicles. Now there are far more electric cars than chargers. Sixty-one of the roughly 1,800 employees on the campus now drive a plug-in vehicle, overwhelming the 16 available chargers. And as demand for chargers exceeds supply, there have been notorious incidents of "charge rage." Companies are finding that they need one charging port for every two of their employees' electric vehicles. "If you don't maintain a 2-to-1 ratio, you are dead," said ChargePoint CEO Pat Romano. "Having two chargers and 20 electric cars is worse than having no chargers and 20 electric cars. If you are going to do this, you have to be willing to continue to scale it."

Comments

Hipsters fight over limited supplies of juice

[danbert8]

Or another alternate headline: "Rich people fight over free lunches"

Re:Hipsters fight over limited supplies of juice

[Penguinisto]

Dunno... up here in Portland, I've lost count of the prime parking 'chargers only 'cuz we're teh environmentalz!!!!' spots that sit empty most of the time, even during peak shopping/working hours.

Wouldn't mind having the EV owners pay for the privilege, though, because if they don't, the rest of us do (the stores aren't installing the things out of the goodness of their hearts, you know, and they have to recoup the costs somewhere).

Re:Hipsters fight over limited supplies of juice

[tripleevenfall]

Because they want to look "environmentally conscious", so they put two chargers in their parking lot and then add a slide about how "green" they are for the shareholders' meeting.

Re:Hipsters fight over limited supplies of juice

[beelsebob]

Maybe things work differently in California but TFA seems to a bit strange to me. When I'm charging the charging cable is locked in at both ends. It can't be unplugged without a great amount of force, that will probably damage something.

It's not an "in California" thing - it's an "on some cars" thing. On the eGolf for example, the charger locks, and does not unlock unless the owner comes back and unlocks the vehicle. On the Leaf, it can be set to not lock even during charging (made safe by having control pins disconnect before power pins, and stopping charging as the plug is pulled).

Re:Hipsters fight over limited supplies of juice

[aaarrrgggh]

It is actually done that way due to the LEED certification process for green buildings; parking spots for carpools, low emitting vehicles, and EVs need to be prime spots. Electrically they are a pain because they are 40A at 208V, which makes provisions for more than three a bit of a challenge; 480V units would be much easier to accommodate.

The shortage is just a timing issue; chargers will catch up. The problem really is that many employers provide them for free.

Re:Hipsters fight over limited supplies of juice

[operagost]

You can't park within 1000 feet of the supermarket doors in their own parking lot now.
- 20 Handicapped spaces
- 6 "expectant mother" spaces
- 4 spaces to pickup internet orders
- 4 EV charging spaces

Electric cars do not make people mean

[gtall]

It would seem electric cars are simply giving mean people another way to express just how mean they can be.

Re:ICEd

[ArchieBunker]

Way to win people over for buying electric cars. Now I feel like installing fake charging ports just to fuck with assholes like you.

Talking to someone is mean now?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Employees are calling and messaging each other, saying, 'I see you're fully charged, can you please move your car?'

Um...isn't this the way the world is supposed to work? Or is getting someone's attention and letting them know that it's time to move along now considered a microaggression?

Re:Talking to someone is mean now?

[MachineShedFred]

Yeah, I didn't understand this either. That seems like the polite, neighborly thing to do with a shared resource. Whoever wrote the summary (if not the article) is a whining hipster douchebag - god forbid you should stop hogging a resource that other people need when you're not using it.

Re:ICEd

[nojayuk]

Even smarter, install two fake charging ports next to each other. One has an "Out of Order" sign on it. The other one says "FREE CHARGING!".

Wire them up so the "FREE" charger discharges the battery of anyone who plugs into it while feeding the power to the "Out of Order" charger your own electric car is plugged into.

lol

[grub]

I would love to see the fights: kale smoothies splattered on hemp clothing, dreadlocks being pulled.

eco-entitlement

[argStyopa]

Compounded certainly by the relatively well-documented issue about people who feel they're doing "their part" (driving green cars, using shopping totes, whole foods customers, etc.) being entitled assholes.

Re:ICEd

[grub]

I still get laughs over this self-righteous Prius owner ragging on a truck driver.

a classic economics problem

[Geoffrey.landis]

So let them pay for the charging spot. Running wire is pretty cheap.

Accurate analysis from the very first post. This is a classic economics problem, overuse of a good that is given away for free; and has a classic economic solution: put a price on it.

This is silicon valley. Make an ap for them them to sign up for their spot online.

Re:Hipsters fight over "free stuff"

[Mr D from 63]

Why are they giving away the electricity? Is it difficult to meter or something?

Free is the key thing here. Yes, the solution is just charge for time on the charger, and used that money to put in more chargers. But humans are uniquely curious when it comes to free stuff. Give away free stuff and everybody wants some, and they hate it when someone else gets free stuff and they don't. Charge just a little bit for it, and then it changes the whole attitude.

What is interesting is that most EV drivers probably don't need the charge to get home and carry out their daily errands. If they do then they probably made the wrong vehicle choice. They just want to charge up on someone else's dime.

Of course, there will be a few who would somehow feel entitled and would see such a change and respond.... "can you believe they are taking away our free charging!".

Re:Hipsters fight over "free stuff"

[toadlife]

Throw in traffic jams and start and stop driving while running AC and stereo, etc., and that 300 mile range drops fast.

You've got it backwards.

Stop and go driving and traffic jams are where electric cars shine the most. AC takes, at the very most 3kW; much less once the cabin is cooled down. Even at full blast, 3kW saps about 12 miles of range per hour.

EPA range numbers for electric cars are based on highway speeds. Electric cars easily get 150% of the EPA range at traffic jam speeds of 30-50 MPH.