I don’t have an electric car (yet) and mainly because I worry about finding charging stations when going on road trips. However, living in California, I realize that eventually, we will all be driving electric cars since Governor Newsom recently signed a bill that “will aggressively move the state further away from its reliance on climate change-causing fossil fuels while retaining and creating jobs and spurring economic growth – he issued an executive order requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 and additional measures to eliminate harmful emissions from the transportation sector.” RELATED: 9 Ways to Save Money on Gas
I love the idea of cutting our emissions and reliance on fossil fuels so I’m all in favor of this but after reading a post on our local NextDoor page, I’ve come to realize the potential for a new kind of egregious behavior, which is bound to lead to all sorts of altercations.
Imagine you’re charging your electric car at a charging station while you’re shopping and someone unplugs the cable to charge their own car. That’s what happened to someone who shared a video on NextDoor with the caption: “Unbelievable!!! While I was at Kohl’s, this lady unplugged charging cable from my car and plugged into her car. She is so ? rude!”
This isn’t the first time this has happened. A video from 2020 went viral when another woman did the same thing:
According to the person who posted that video: “Woman unplugs charger from Tesla Model 3 for her own EV in Blackhawk Plaza, Danville, CA, January 12, 2020. She grabs charger out of Tesla Model 3 which had only charged for 15 minutes. Not nice, lady! Caught on Tesla Cam Sentry! (Her two young girls and husband were watching as she demonstrates her selfishness. I do not show the family in the video.) I was using the Tesla charger adapter which did not lock into the charger cord. She tried jiggling a plug out of another car before she came upon mine. The great majority of people in this area are very polite. Not Mrs. Unplug!”
Now, in both of these situations, if someone is charging their car for hours and their battery is fully charged, then I can understand someone else taking the charger out. Do Teslas have some kind of indicator on the exterior of the vehicle where someone can see if the car is fully charged or not? If yes, then I think it’s fine what these women did, as it’s kind of like when you go to a laundromat or are doing laundry on a cruise ship and someone leaves their wash in the machine or dryer for way too long after it’s done. It’s only fair for the next person to place the other person’s laundry in a basket so it doesn’t hold everyone else up from doing theirs.
However, if there’s no way to tell that the car is fully charged, then these actions are just plain rude, as I’m sure most people would agree. Plus, imagine you have to go somewhere and you think your car is fully charged and come out to find that it’s not. If I had to do something important, like pick up my kids, I would be pretty steamed.
One thing is for sure: it’s pretty darn cool that Teslas can record video like this while you’re not in your car. And hopefully that’s a deterrent for bad behavior because who wants to get caught on video (and then go viral!) for doing this?
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Why can’t there be a mediator to stop sensationalism about false presentations such as this one.
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO REMOVE A CABLE WHILST THE CAR IS CHARGING.
I don’t use TESLA chargers, but CCS chargers clearly show if charging is currently underway or it has stopped.
We may be jumping to conclusions. While it “appears” rude, Maybe the car was finished charging and the lady in the photo was waiting patiently in her car for the person to come back so she could charge her car? We don’t know how long she may have waited (the owner said she went into Kohls…. Shopping isn’t typically a quick trip this time of year). She probably got tired of waiting and took matters in her own hands. As far as people saying she was “stealing” someone’s electricity… many places have FREE charging stations as a courtesy to their customers. NOW …. If neither of these situations is true, then I agree, it was rude and if the first person put her credit card in the station to charge her vehicle then it WAS stealing, as well. Reminds me of waiting in line at a gas station and the person goes into the gas station without MOVING THEIR CAR FIRST. Then comes out 10 min later with a bag of food! ☹️
Just chop the head off her cord and leave.
Charges can be locked to your car. It is charging etiquette to set a switch that allows another user to remove the cord when the original car is fully charged to charge their own. All the manuals state this as charging etiquette. However, I would never remove someone’s charger, as people fly off the handle so easily I would be afraid of being attacked. That being said, some people leave notes on their EV stating to remove the charger for others use when my car is fully charged.
What do you think happens with oil drilling and fracking Jay?