The last parking spot -- Electric Only!

2437 Views 8 Replies 8 Participants Last post by smoothoperator, Oct 2, 2012

pythagoras

Discussion Starter · Sep 30, 2012

Just bought my new Karma Earth/Dune from Fisker Silicon Valley this morning and took it to Filoli gardens and the Redwood City Salsa festival. Downtown Redwood City was packed with cars trolling for parking spaces -- lucky for me a ChargePoint space was the only one open! I called to activate the charger expecting to return to a full charge, but a Tesla Roadster came by later and swiped my charging cable so I only got to 40 miles battery!

It would seem proper for us EV/ER Fisker owners to defer to the pure EV Teslas since they are more likely to be stranded from low charge, but after Elon's not-so-kind mouthing about Fisker I'm not so sure I want to

My mother-in-law rode on the way back and kept trying to grab for (non-existent) roof handles every time I hit the accelerator. Definitely just as fun as my DB9!

Save

1 - 9 of 9 Posts

dennis

· #2 · Sep 30, 2012

Congratulations! Looking forward to adding your Earth Karma to our next luncheon photo. Guess we will have to ask a passerby to snap the pic.

Save

Fabulist

· #3 · Sep 30, 2012

pythagoras said:
Just bought my new Karma Earth/Dune from Fisker Silicon Valley this morning and took it to Filoli gardens and the Redwood City Salsa festival. Downtown Redwood City was packed with cars trolling for parking spaces -- lucky for me a ChargePoint space was the only one open! I called to activate the charger expecting to return to a full charge, but a Tesla Roadster came by later and swiped my charging cable so I only got to 40 miles battery!

It would seem proper for us EV/ER Fisker owners to defer to the pure EV Teslas since they are more likely to be stranded from low charge, but after Elon's not-so-kind mouthing about Fisker I'm not so sure I want to

My mother-in-law rode on the way back and kept trying to grab for (non-existent) roof handles every time I hit the accelerator. Definitely just as fun as my DB9!

Congratulations! A DB9 is a hard act to follow, but the Karma has its own set of charms, so you will be able to continue to enjoy both cars -- the best of both worlds. Can't wait to see you with the new car at one of our group lunches.

I think grabbing another EV's charging cable is incredibly bad form for the Tesla driver. It's not your fault that the other guy bought the wrong car. :-/ There is a proper protocol for this, including making sure the currently plugged car is fully charged before unplugging. The Tesla driver was definitely rude and selfish here. I guess he did not get the whole EV message.

Save

Weird Fishes

· #4 · Sep 30, 2012

I agree with Fabulist. The Tesla owner was incredibly rude to have swiped your cable. It's awfully generous of you to see it from the Tesla owner's perspective and to recognize that his/her car is pure EV, but I still think their action was arrogant and entitled. It seems Elon Musk's nasty attitude has trickled all the way down his organization to even the individual owners. Rotten.

Save

EVer1

· #5 · Oct 1, 2012

Pythagoras, that Tesla driver is lucky to have swiped the cable from a nice guy. I would have unplugged him/her as I was leaving. I might have left him/her a note explaining that since he/she had been kind enough to unplug me before my charge was complete; I had felt obligated to return the favor.

From my point of view, Teslas, despite their manufacturer's self described superiority in engineering, do not have superior claim to the public charging stations.

If the Tesla owner has the text messaging to alert him/her that the charge was interupted, he/she could choose whether or not they needed the charge enough to go down and visit their car to find out what happened. Of course, I would have felt bad about my childish behavior as soon as I was far enough away to make it difficult to do anything about it. I'm a "nice gal", too!

Save

Sigurd

· #6 · Oct 1, 2012

There have been times I have met rude drivers like that. Like when you wait for a parking spot at a mall with your blinker on and somebody rude just steals the spot from you while you wait for the person in the spot to exit properly. I have often thought I should wait until that person is in the mall and let out the air from just 2 of his tires, but I can't bring myself to do it. So, I just let the rude person win (for now).
But, if anybody steals my plug before I have a full charge, then watch out.

Save

michaelCA

· #7 · Oct 2, 2012

I can't understand why it is possible to unplug the cable. The charging cable is locked and unlocks when you swipe your card. Why is the charging cable not locked in the car too until you swipe again or when the car does not drain any current. Sounds simple to me and easy to implement. I am sure there will be always funny people unplugings these cables.

Save

pythagoras

Discussion Starter · #8 · Oct 2, 2012

Doesn't seem safe or user friendly to lock the cable onto your car until it was done charging or you swiped again.

michaelCA said:
I can't understand why it is possible to unplug the cable. The charging cable is locked and unlocks when you swipe your card. Why is the charging cable not locked in the car too until you swipe again or when the car does not drain any current. Sounds simple to me and easy to implement. I am sure there will be always funny people unplugings these cables.

Anybody know whether people can steal charge from your credit card by doing this, or is a new card swipe required to continue charging after pulling the plug out of your car?

Save

smoothoperator

· #9 · Oct 2, 2012

When a Chargepoint J1772 cable is unplugged the "session" ends and you cannot charge again until you return the J1772 back to the EVSE, scan your card (or call to activate) and then plug back in.

With that being said, there is no excuse for someone unplugging someone else without permission. A lot of people leave notes or something like this in a dire situation...One thing you may want to explore is leaving your own note/business card on your car with your contact information. This way if someone really needs a charge they can contact you.

A few months ago I was on a road trip from Southern California to Northern California and pulled off to charge at a high powered ClipperCreek EVSE (70amp). When I pulled in I noticed a Chevy Volt plugged into the 70Amp when there were perfectly good 30amp EVSE's available (Volts have a 3.3Kw charger and cannot take advantage of 70amps). I attempted to swap plugs with the Volt (plug it into the lower powered EVSE and plug my Roadster into the High Powered 70amp one). The moment I removed the plug from the Volt all hell broke loose, the car started making really loud noises!). I plugged him back in and booked the heck out of there.

The bigger problem is that you technically could be ticketed if you are not plugged in and parked in an EV spot. This law is pretty silly as people can unplug EV's and cause unsuspecting EV owners (who think they are charging) costly parking tickets.

See less See more

Save

1 - 9 of 9 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month