Charging Etiquette

[Atipical]

Greetings all,

My charging escapades were subpar today (due to people, not EA), and I wanted to get you all's seasoned opinions as I'm still new to this. I have never charged my car at a 350kw station so I ventured to one, and went to a subsequent station out of necessity later in the day. For both occasions, cars with a maximum of 150kw charging capabilities (ID4 and Volvo CW40) were taking the only 350kw stations. I was about to talk to the ID4 owner and he moved, but by the time he moved I was at 60% so changing chargers was a waste of time. The woman in the volvo was at 75% when I arrived and basically told me to kick rocks. She was still there by the time I left, charging at <50kw with her battery at 95%.
For the second occasion, there was only 1 350kw charger available, and another ID4 was there. What made matters worse is I was at 11% and really could've used it, and the car was sat there charging for an hour to the point where the charger kicked the car off, but the owner was nowhere to be found. To add to my annoyance, for both occasions there were 8 completely open 150kw stations.

Is this what I have to look forward to? I'm dreading my upcoming 750mile road-trip later this week if people are this inconsiderate and/or ignorant of their own cars to the detriment of others...

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[Hirschaj]

Is this what I have to look forward to?

Yep. There’s a long thread on this forum covering this exact topic. You should search for it.

 

[TYKHAAAN]

Unfortunately, you will see this, but for some good news, the updated EA stations are SUPPOSED to be moving towards all stations being 350kw and just letting the cars get whatever rate they can. We’ll see how that rolls out. In the mean time, all you can do is ask/inform the drivers at the 350 stations that cant use is to shift to another stations. I’ve only seen it a couple times where they had done that, but during both instances, the Owners could not get a charge at the 150kw stations and had to take the 350kw station.

 

[Mr.Smith]

Charging etiquette doesn't exist and ID4 owners are the worst ones.

 

[tbinmd]

I wish they would just make all chargers 350kw at a site.

 

[Replika]

The charging company & vehicle screens themselves could make this clearer to people.

“Max charge rate 150 kW, choose a 150 kW charger if available,” “Vehicle has enough charge to reach your destination,” etc.

 

[bsclywilly]

Charging etiquette doesn't exist and ID4 owners are the worst ones.

What is with ID4 owners, eh? I thought it was just my experience but then I saw a couple videos also describing this phenomenon. Ignorant to charging speed and seems like they’re always charging to 100%.

To the OP, the difference between a 150 and 350 (technically 270 since your car is the limit and only up to around 50%SoC in ideal conditions) is only max 5-7 minutes so never worth the time to explain or swap chargers. I’ve also noticed that the 350kW EA stations tend to be down more often too so you’re more likely to have trouble initiating a charge. One recent example, I was in line waiting behind a Lucid when two stalls opened up shortly after each other, guy makes it awkward by waiting for the second stall, blocking me. I later realized it was because it was a 350kW. Turns out he spent over 10min trying to initiate a charge while I was out of there in 15.

 

[Archimedes]

Meh, first come, first serve. Also, the 150kwh chargers are pretty fast. I wouldn’t be complaining about having to use one of those.

 

[W1NGE]

Greetings all,

My charging escapades were subpar today (due to people, not EA), and I wanted to get you all's seasoned opinions as I'm still new to this. I have never charged my car at a 350kw station so I ventured to one, and went to a subsequent station out of necessity later in the day. For both occasions, cars with a maximum of 150kw charging capabilities (ID4 and Volvo CW40) were taking the only 350kw stations. I was about to talk to the ID4 owner and he moved, but by the time he moved I was at 60% so changing chargers was a waste of time. The woman in the volvo was at 75% when I arrived and basically told me to kick rocks. She was still there by the time I left, charging at <50kw with her battery at 95%.
For the second occasion, there was only 1 350kw charger available, and another ID4 was there. What made matters worse is I was at 11% and really could've used it, and the car was sat there charging for an hour to the point where the charger kicked the car off, but the owner was nowhere to be found. To add to my annoyance, for both occasions there were 8 completely open 150kw stations.

Is this what I have to look forward to? I'm dreading my upcoming 750mile road-trip later this week if people are this inconsiderate and/or ignorant of their own cars to the detriment of others...

I'm in 2 minds on this.

For a given EVSE there is no guarantee what rate of charge you will get and so first come first served is fair enough.

A 350kW EVSE with the potential to deliver 270kW is one thing but as we all know that for a variety of reasons you may achieve significantly less than this.

VW, Volvo, others will have arrangements with EA thereby encouraging owners to make use of their facilities.

That said people should charge to 80% - 85% and then move on given the additional time it takes to add the last 15%.

 

[f1eng]

That said people should charge to 80% - 85% and then move on given the additional time it takes to add the last 15%.

This is absolutely correct but most non-technically minded people don't know this is inevitable and the sort of person who always brimmed their IC engined car will probably just assume charging to 100% is what they should do and just w1nge (see what I did there) about the slow end to the charging assuming it is something wrong with the charger rather than their ignorance. Probably.

Education is the answer, not anger, but misinformation seems more likley in the internet age

 

[G7SUM]

This is absolutely correct but most non-technically minded people don't know this is inevitable and the sort of person who always brimmed their IC engined car will probably just assume charging to 100% is what they should do and just w1nge (see what I did there) about the slow end to the charging assuming it is something wrong with the charger rather than their ignorance. Probably.

Education is the answer, not anger, but misinformation seems more likley in the internet age

I have a 50kw near my home along with 2 x 7kw and 2 x 22kw.
My wife has a Vw Golf 1.4 e-hybrid with a 13kw battery and a maximum charge rate of 3kw per hour.
It infuriates me when the 50Kw chargers are blocked for 5+ hours by vehicles with reduced charging speed capacity and the 7Kw chargers lay empty.
You are absolutely correct, more education required and maybe some messaging on the charging device itself?

 

[BigBob]

VW, Volvo, others will have arrangements with EA thereby encouraging owners to make use of their facilities.

I think that's the key point. If I want to fill right up on a 350kw Ionity charger as i need the extreme of the car's range for a journey into the middle of nowhere (It's the supplier in the UK where Porsche offers a discount), why shouldn't I use it? Ionity is actually cheaper than my (standard tariff) home supply rate. It will be a lot cheaper (over 50%) than the 150 or 50kw chargers next to Ionity on a motorway forecourt.
And yes, i get it that the charge rate tails off massively above 85%, but sometimes you do need more to avoid an extra stop.

Likewise, if another brand of car is using Ionity for the same cost reason - even if their car charges more slowly that the maximum of the EVSE, then fair enough.

Have I ever got caught out in my limited away from home charging like the Op? No.
Would my opinion be different if I had been? Probably.

Correct etiquette if you don't need a full tank on a 350kw charger - Occupy for the time it takes to eat a bacon roll, have a coffee and a wee.

 

[mutanthands]

A good number of the general public still breathe through their mouths, believe the earth is flat, and read the daily mail. The idea of educating them on 50kw vs 350kw, charging and etiquette is an up hill battle to say the least.

 

[Atipical]

All very salient points from everyone. Ultimately I think two entities are to blame for folks not understanding the process: EA has set up their chargers for failure by only having 2 350kw stations (one of which seems to always be down) and car manufacturers for not making things plainly simple in explaining the maximum rate of charge for their cars. For example, it took me 20 minutes of digging to find the max charge rate of an Ioniq 5, I had to pull it out of a random article after looking for it on Hyundai’s website in vain. Manufacturers seem to only be publishing the time it takes to charge, (ie. “10-80% in 31 minutes) as opposed to explaining; “hey, this car can charge at a max rate of 150kw”.

I’d like to think things will get better as EVs continue to go mainstream but so far I think it’ll only get worse as cars on the road will simply outpace the infrastructure. The infrastructure is trash in northern VA unless you’re in Washington DC unfortunately.

 

[Scandinavian]

For the second occasion, there was only 1 350kw charger available, and another ID4 was there. What made matters worse is I was at 11% and really could've used it, and the car was sat there charging for an hour to the point where the charger kicked the car off, but the owner was nowhere to be found. To add to my annoyance, for both occasions there were 8 completely open 150kw stations.

The difference in time to charge from 20 to 80%, at a 350 kW station or a 150 kW station is about 5to6 minutes. Assuming the battery is warmed up by driving and auto pre heating. It is sad that ID4’s and also some other slow charging vehicles occupy the 350 kW charger, but only information and some interest in EV’s can help there. The worst I have seen was a Mercedes GLE Hybrid, that was left at an Ionity 350 kW for a very long time. We were shopping and not charging when we observed that one. The Mercedes charges at about 60 kW at best. The battery is only 23 kWh. Hopeless care.

A friendly discussion with the slow charging ID4 is probably the best way to handle the situation when 150 kW chargers are available. Plug in there and have a chat and try to inform the owner. If he is around???

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