{"id":15211,"date":"2023-10-06T14:40:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T04:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/?p=15211"},"modified":"2023-10-06T14:40:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T04:40:25","slug":"ev-etiquette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/driving\/ev-etiquette\/","title":{"rendered":"EV Etiquette"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/pexels-chad-russell-2480315-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15212\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I recently came across a news article about another publicity-related EV road trip in the USA, this time involving the US Energy Secretary. I won\u2019t go into the full details of the road trip in this article (you can read it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/09\/10\/1187224861\/electric-vehicles-evs-cars-chargers-charging-energy-secretary-jennifer-granholm\">here <\/a>) but it seems as though Ms Granholm was guilty of some very, very bad manners. \u00a0Specifically, the people in this road trip convoy encountered the same problem as the CEO of Ford USA in his \u00a0Route 66 road trip, namely that there was a bit of a shortage of EV charging points. You may be scratching your head at this point, as you\u2019ve probably seen a few of these stations cropping up all over the show \u2013 they seem to be in the carparks of every second big box store. However, you have to remember that although there seem like there are plenty of them and they\u2019re easy to find, charging up takes a lot longer than filling up. If you come along to a petrol station and you find that all the bowsers are taken, you won\u2019t have to wait more than a few minutes until one comes free and its your turn. However, in the case of an EV charging station, you\u2019ll have to wait for the other person to finish charging (which could be more than half an hour) and then you\u2019ve still got to charge your own vehicle. This can put a serious dent in your working day if you hadn\u2019t planned for that extra time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The very rude solution found by Granholm et al. was to send an ICE vehicle ahead of the convoy to park in the EV charging space to reserve it, and they got away with this, as that particular state didn\u2019t have a law against ICE vehicles parking in EV charging spots.&nbsp; However, it put quite a few backs up, especially for one family that came along with a grumpy baby in their EV really, really needing to juice up so they could run the air conditioning.&nbsp; Not a good look at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, this highlights a problem with the infrastructure that it\u2019s beyond you or me to solve.&nbsp; If governments are serious about encouraging the uptake of EVs, then they\u2019re going to need to do something about charging stations (and capacity for electricity generation, but that\u2019s another story). &nbsp;Nevertheless, given that EVs are probably here to stay, what can you do to ensure that you don\u2019t become one of those drivers who gives EVs a bad name? Here&#8217;s a list of my top tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Factor in the possibility of other people using the charger when you plan your trip and calculate the time needed. You may not be able to guarantee a spot at the DC fast charger.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If someone gets to the charger before you do, don\u2019t throw a hissy fit. &nbsp;They\u2019ve got as much right to it as you do.&nbsp; Definitely don\u2019t do anything pushy, like sending someone ahead to stand (or park) in the spot you want, or start a fight (yes, this has actually happened).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Think of public charging points as emergency top-ups. It\u2019s not like the situation with ICE vehicles where you can only fill up at the garage. So charge at home (and at work) as much as you can. &nbsp;If you don\u2019t have to use the public charger, don\u2019t.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If you have to go slowly because you\u2019re running out of charge and the nearest charging station is still a few kilometres down the road (what my ICE-driving brothers refer to as the Nissan Leaf Limp), don\u2019t hold up traffic behind you. Pull over to the side and let them pass.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Never unplug someone else\u2019s vehicle from the charger while its charging, even if that car is unattended. Some apps may allow you to unplug a fully charged car, but if you don\u2019t know for certain, then don\u2019t do it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don\u2019t just park in the charging point, even if you are driving an EV. They are charging points, not EV-only car parks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Some charging points have time limits. Respect these.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If you\u2019ve left your car to charge while you do a spot of shopping, keep an eye on progress via the appropriate app on your phone.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Above all, remember that although you have an EV and you\u2019re doing it to save the planet, this does not give you the right to be a jerk to people who drive ICEs (and they don\u2019t have the right to be jerks to you, either). &nbsp;Be proud of your choice, sure, but don\u2019t look down on other people \u2013 they might not be able to afford an EV, or an EV might not suit their workplace, or they might be country bumpkins for whom EVs don\u2019t really work. So be a good EV ambassador.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently came across a news article about another publicity-related EV road trip in the USA, this time involving the US Energy Secretary. I won\u2019t go into the full details of the road trip in this article (you can read it here ) but it seems as though Ms Granholm was guilty of some very, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,58,7696,4923,59,4014],"tags":[6738,7639,7663,2897,2838,3349,4892,7640,6108,4894],"class_list":["post-15211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-driving","category-electric-vehicles","category-electric-vehicles-evs","category-fuel-2","category-sustainabilitygreen","tag-bev","tag-charger","tag-dc-charging","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-etiquette","tag-ev","tag-evs","tag-fast-charging","tag-good-manners","tag-phev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15213,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15211\/revisions\/15213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}