Questionable Encounters at DC Chargers

[wemct]

I recently completed a long distance road trip. I planned the trip with a layover to avoid using the Electrify America chargers in the middle of the night in a deserted Walmart parking lot. We had some friendly banter on the forum about stopping at Walmarts during off hours. I am glad that I did not charge in the middle of the night.

While most of my stops at chargers have been friendly with people loving the Mamba Green or taking pictures of the car, I have also had some uncomfortable encounters at the Chargers. During my road trip I stopped at a charger in Charlotte, North Carolina. I connected to the charger and then went to Walmart to use the facilities and then grabbed some food at McDonalds. When I walked back to the car, I noticed a group of 10 kids (ages 8-12) on bicycles next to the car taking selfies with the car. Some were sitting on the hood of the car. I recently had the hood repaired so the thought of another trip to the bodyshop did not make me too happy. As I approached they asked if it was my car. Then they started up with asking for a donation for their bicycle club. I was friendly but firm that no donation was forthcoming. At the same time I was trying to watch to make sure no one was getting too close to the car with their bikes or planning a grab and dash on their bikes since the comfort access unlocked all the doors when I approached the car. The leader of the pack kept pressing for some money and suggested that I must live in a mansion since I had a Porsche. I pointed to the McDonalds bag and replied that was certainly not the case if I was eating the value meal from Mickey Ds. Right after the words left my mouth, one of the kids who was about 8 years old looked down and then up and said "Mister I like your Gucci loafers". Uggh I was called out by an 8 year old. They circled around for another minute or so and then left.

Tonight I was fortunate enough to get my second shot of the Moderna vaccine. I had to travel quite a bit to the vaccination clinic so on the way back I decided to stop at an EA charger to top off the battery. I had no problem connecting to the charger and was about to get back in my car when someone approached to tell me how he had an orange car and that he liked my green Taycan. He then tried to hit me up for some money mentioning that surely someone with a Porsche could help him out. Once again I was friendly and pointed out that with COVID no one carried cash anymore. He acknowledged that was true but then pressed to ask if I had some loose change in the car. I told him no and thanked him for the conversation. He left to catch his bus. A few minutes later when I got out of my car he walked back towards the car and said that he missed his bus because he was too busy with our earlier conversation. I didn't reply because I wasn't sure why his problem was now somehow my problem. I cut the charging session short and headed back home.

I am sympathetic to peoples' situations but it does not sit well with me that just because I have a Taycan that somehow I am viewed as an easy target. I used to live in New York City so I am fairly street smart so I can usually handle myself during these encounters. I also payback for my good fortune by giving back financially and through my volunteer activities (I worked on my ambulance shift last Saturday night 11 pm - 7 am). It is unfortunate that the world is the way it is, but after these most recent encounters, I would never want to be alone in the Taycan at 2 am at an EA charger in a deserted parking lot. It is too easy to be the victim of a car jacking (or worse). I wasn't planning to post anything about the incident in Charlotte, but after tonight's incident I had say something to remind others to use common sense and to be prepared for the positive and negative encounters.

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[jonze]

I have literally nothing of value to add to your post, but you getting called out for Gucci loafers is hilarious. ? Kids on the hood, not so funny though.

 

[arijaycomet]

Eek! Coming from having had a Tesla since 2014, I’ve had my share of late night supercharging stops. I’ve heard stories like yours, but somehow have mostly managed to avoid bad juju. Worst I’ve had to deal with was early on people who stop to ask questions; mostly people curious about Tesla, charging, Elon Musk, you get the point.

Tesla chargers seem to often be at malls, though many of them up this way (Ohio/Great Lakes) are starting to appear at gas stations (Sheetz). It seems the EA network has followed suit, or at least, that many gas stations are getting on board. I think that could fare better than, say, Walmart. (Within the drives I’ll eventually take in my Taycan, that I’ve taken in other CCS cars, the EA network is 99% Walmart up here; which I don’t love).

My wife has a joke that there are two types of neighborhoods: check cashing, or Starbucks. You rarely see Starbucks in neighborhoods that do “payday advance” check cashing type stuff. And vice versa. And so our joke has been, for the last 7 years, that many of the Tesla Superchargers are oft near a Starbucks. I think that also plays well to what owners of a high end luxury car want. What we need to remember, even as Taycan owners, is that many $30-60k EV owners are using the same network. We’re def of the more affluent spectrum of owners, but not all EA users will be.

PS: Aren’t many of the Walmart locations open 24 hours, or at least till midnight? Was that perhaps some of EA‘s reasoning for using the locations? Sorry for the long winded reply — the TL;DR is that I’m sorry for your encounters, and hope others heed some advice, use some street smarts, and “keep both eyes wide open” especially in today’s crazy world.

 

[wemct]

Unfortunately today's world is sometimes out of wack. During one of my ambulance calls on Saturday night, the police officer had to go back to his patrol car because he had to double check that it was fully locked down. He did not want to be on the wrong end of a stolen car report.

As far as Walmart, I frequent them on a regular basis to shop especially when Amazon's two day shipping is not fast enough. The problem with Walmart, Sheetz, or even the shopping malls is that the EA chargers are usually not near the main entrance so you are a bit on your own during the charging sessions. Unlike the Tesla Superchargers, there are many times that we are the only ones at the EA charger. Like I said before, I wasn't planning to post anything because I didn't want it to be interpreted the wrong way, but as you mentioned too we need to use some street smarts and keep both eyes wide open.

 

[arijaycomet]

First off, I get what you’re saying; it did not come off as snotty if that was your worry. As a small business owner (3rd gen family business) with < 10 employees, sometimes Costco items are just to abundant, so I get a lot of our items from Walmart, and like you that is often faster or cheaper than Amazon. I am not trying to generalize the clientele at any of these establishments. That said, Tesla chargers have historically been at “higher end” malls, and such.

As for the parking lot location, I’ve had a lot of experiences of chargers being ICE’d over (blocked by ICE cars, not being used by EVs) so I’m quite happy with the general placement of the chargers away from prime parking spots. But alone, at night, could be an issue. You’re right, it is often out in the back dark corners of the lot. Not always a good thing.

But I will finish with one more thought a bit off topic here but something you mentioned: “we are the only ones” — at the moment the EA chargers tend to be at < 10% capacity. You’re often the only one charging, and there surely is power in #s. But on the flip side: during a recently 1,800+ mile round trip from Ohio to Georgia my family took, all of the Tesla chargers were at 80% or higher capacity. Two times of the dozen supercharger stops, we were taking the final spot, or while charging, all the spots become occupied *(once, someone even sat, waiting for a stall to open up)

Tesla is selling cars like hot cakes, and will need to roll out more chargers to keep up. At the moment the other networks dont have that problem, and with multiple networks in existence, chances seem thin that we’ll run into that problem. So while, from a safety standpoint, I’d not mind other people around when I charge, I guess the silver lining is that we’re not sitting around waiting for chargers (though I suspect EA chargers in hot spots, like California, might not have the same experience as what I’m suggesting here)

 

[chrisk]

A couple of weeks ago I stopped at an EA location in San Jose, CA at 4pm (still day) and there was a homeless person sleeping next to the charger. Even though the location overall was not that bad, the overall parking lot situation was making me uncomfortable. I charged for only 15mins even though I was originally planning to stay a little longer.

 

[chrisk]

3 out of 4 charging spots at this EA location were taken by an Altima, a Civic and a Corolla. The huge parking lot was half empty but still these people chose to park and hang out at the EV spots.

 

[epirali]

3 out of 4 charging spots at this EA location were taken by an Altima, a Civic and a Corolla. The huge parking lot was half empty but still these people chose to park and hang out at the EV spots.

I will always notify the owner of the facility, or called numbers if there are signs about parking only for EV ‘s. I think the only way to get people to stop doing this is to have their cars towed.

 

[bosch88]

This pisses me off, but also people (usually model 3 drivers) park in charging stalls because it's closers, but are not charging (not plugged in) probably they didn't want to pay...

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