4 ms·

As an EV owner, another issue I find is that there are a discomfortingly large number of chargers that are "for customers only" or that require you to pay for p

by dheera 2y ago

As an EV owner, another issue I find is that there are a discomfortingly large number of chargers that are "for customers only" or that require you to pay for parking just to charge. This is a massive UX issue. With gas cars you can use any gas station you want and you don't have to pay additional fees other than the gas.

pdabbadabba 2y ago
Interesting. Where do you run into this? I've never encountered it in the U.S (east coast). If you're in Europe, maybe this is a concerning glimpse of where we're heading in the U.S. Although I think a charger with those restrictions would be ineligible for U.S. National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure ("NEVI") funds, so maybe we can hope that there is a strong enough disincentive for now?
- vonmoltke 2y ago
  Here in northern New Jersey there are many chargers that are inside municipal parking garages. Since you have to pay to enter (technically, to leave) you have to pay for parking time to use those chargers. That's obviously not an issue if you would be parking there anyway, but if you lived in the area and just wanted or needed to use the charger you'd have to pay an additional $1 - $2 per hour on top of the charges from the charger. I'm not sure what the state of the chargers being installed at local businesses is. My local grocery store has four chargers now, but I don't recall seeing any signage about them being for customers only. They share the parking lot with the church across the street, though, so that may complicate things.
michaelmior 2y ago
> This is a massive UX issue I don't see what would really motivate businesses to change their mind on this. Since the barrier to entry for an EV charging station is many orders of magnitude lower than a gas station, it's pretty easy for a business to just add one in to an existing parking spot as an extra revenue stream or another way to draw customers. But they might reasonably value having available parking for customers over the revenue they get from EV charging. I things will probably move more in this direction as EVs become more popular and the average customer is more likely to drive one.
r00fus 2y ago
Where is this? Here in California, it's pay-for-use for the chargers without any restrictions as far as I've seen.
cesarb 2y ago
It makes sense if you invert your point of view. These are not chargers where you have to pay for parking; these are parking places which have a charger as an extra. IMO, the long-term tendency will be for every parking place to have an electric vehicle charger (or at least a standard power socket which can be used for a slow charge), the same way every parking place has electric lighting.

by dheera 2y ago

pdabbadabba 2y ago

Interesting. Where do you run into this? I've never encountered it in the U.S (east coast). If you're in Europe, maybe this is a concerning glimpse of where we're heading in the U.S. Although I think a charger with those restrictions would be ineligible for U.S. National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure ("NEVI") funds, so maybe we can hope that there is a strong enough disincentive for now?

vonmoltke 2y ago
Here in northern New Jersey there are many chargers that are inside municipal parking garages. Since you have to pay to enter (technically, to leave) you have to pay for parking time to use those chargers. That's obviously not an issue if you would be parking there anyway, but if you lived in the area and just wanted or needed to use the charger you'd have to pay an additional $1 - $2 per hour on top of the charges from the charger. I'm not sure what the state of the chargers being installed at local businesses is. My local grocery store has four chargers now, but I don't recall seeing any signage about them being for customers only. They share the parking lot with the church across the street, though, so that may complicate things.

michaelmior 2y ago

> This is a massive UX issue I don't see what would really motivate businesses to change their mind on this. Since the barrier to entry for an EV charging station is many orders of magnitude lower than a gas station, it's pretty easy for a business to just add one in to an existing parking spot as an extra revenue stream or another way to draw customers. But they might reasonably value having available parking for customers over the revenue they get from EV charging. I things will probably move more in this direction as EVs become more popular and the average customer is more likely to drive one.

r00fus 2y ago

Where is this? Here in California, it's pay-for-use for the chargers without any restrictions as far as I've seen.

cesarb 2y ago

It makes sense if you invert your point of view. These are not chargers where you have to pay for parking; these are parking places which have a charger as an extra. IMO, the long-term tendency will be for every parking place to have an electric vehicle charger (or at least a standard power socket which can be used for a slow charge), the same way every parking place has electric lighting.