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Tesla Introduces Fee For Owners Who Leave Their Cars At Supercharger Stations (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the nickel-and-dime dept.

Tesla announced today that it will start charging owners a fee of $0.40 per minute if they fail to move their vehicles at a Supercharger station. If drivers don't move their cars within 5 minutes of the car hitting 100 percent, the fee will begin to assess. TechCrunch reports: "One would never leave a car parked at a gas station right at the pump and the same rule applies with Superchargers," read Tesla's announcement. How will one know that it's done and you need to scoot? Why, one will get an alert on one's phone, of course, via the Tesla app. One already does, in fact. So one never had any excuse. "To be clear, this change is purely about increasing customer happiness and we hope to never make any money from it," the announcement also reads.

4 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. It might be an issue in the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's a Starbucks within walking distance of a Tesla station in Tifton, GA -it's actually right behind the Starbucks. Folks plug their cars in and go for coffee or something. I mean, those cars take a while to charge - it's not like gas where it takes just a minute or two to fill up. And people do leave their cars at the pump and go in to buy other shit.

    And unlike gas stations, the Tesla station is pretty empty. Maybe in the future when there are more Tesla's on the road it could be an issue.

    1. Re:It might be an issue in the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      LOL, you think it takes 10-15 minutes to fill your car with gas. How strong is the tesla reality distortion field.

      EPA limits gas pumps to 10 Gal/min for cars and 40 Gal/min for trucks. I have an 18 gal tank so even if it were set to 5 gal/min that would be 4 minutes + lets say 1 minute to swipe you card.

      10-15 minutes no way.

      All electric cars + high energy density charges might be great, but let's not pretend that it's comparable. Also tesla is doing this to themselves, placing charges next to starbucks or malls or whatever, where are gas stations located... on street corners or off exit ramps of highways not next to things you want to go and spend a lot of time around, that's why people don't park at the pump and go shopping. This is going to be the issue with high speed charging if all electric cars become any more than a novelty and actually become practical for the masses. If filling time is 2-5x longer than it is now you're going to need a lot more charging stations that you currently have gas pumps especially in population dense areas.

    2. Re: It might be an issue in the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually this might backfire on Tesla psychologically.

      There was that study they did at daycare centers where parents would pick their kids up late repeatedly like 40 minutes late. They tried to stop it by imposing fines of like $20 an hour of being late. Parents picking their kids up late skyrocketed because they felt it was now completely okay to pick up their kids late because now their was a cost attached to it.

  2. car needs to be smarter by John_Sauter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If these cars are smart enough to drive themselves on the highway, why can't they drive themselves away from the charger when they are full, and park themselves? Even better, drop you at the shopping center, go get charged up, then park until you are done shopping and summon them.