To think if I’m paying for charging my EV, I shouldn’t pay to park?

[IronicallyNC]

First world problems…

But why in certain car parks that have EV facilities, you still have to pay for parking? I’m already paying to charge. I understand the electricity is provided by someone else and not the car park owners, but most EV chargers have a clause to say you can’t over stay the charging time, so it’s not like people actually use it as a parking space, it’s to use a service.

AIBU to think this should be an exception? Or at least worked in to the charging price.

Totally agree and by that rationale why should I pay to park anywhere when I already pay a shitload of tax when I fill up with diesel 🙄
PS YABU

I agree free petrol for me too!!

Your choice to drive a car, your choice to drive an electric one. Demand for parking will always outstrip supply, it has to be managed somehow.

Does that mean I dont have to pay my mortgage as im paying my electricity bill?

If you can afford an electric car, you can afford to park. Stop whinging and count your blessings.

Surely fuelling your car and parking are two different things? I'm not sure why you would think you shouldn't have to pay for one simply because, for your convenience, they have enabled you to do both simultaneously?

I mean, I guess they could combine the two charges together and charge you just the once, but if they're operated by separate entities, then that's probably just too complicated.

Well of course, the charge for electricity is for the energy company, the charge for using the actual space is for the parking company.

It’s still being used as a parking space even when you’re using an additional service?

Another ev owner here and it was a surprise to me too. Like if a petrol station charged you a parking fee as well as for the petrol. Especially when you know the car park owner is getting paid by the Ev charger company to host their charger, and the charger company are charging you 10x more than you pay to charge your car at home.

The cost of out of home ev charging is a massive brake on the ev market. Plenty of chargers, but at massively inflated pricing.

If wherever you are parking normally incurs parking charges then I don't see why electric vehicles should be able to park for free. Presumably you go and do your shopping or whatever while it charges?

I knew an EV owner would understand!

Petrol stations aren’t car parks though. You don’t leave your car there while you go off shopping or whatever.

But do you pay for a parking space at the garage while you're filling up with diesel? Because that's the comparison here.

OP is making the point that the place where her car is is not a parking space that is open to anyone, but only someone using the charging service at the time. If she was parked in a different spot in the carpark then paying for that would be logical.

I think the problem with making the spot free while you're charging would be the length of time it takes to charge a car. It's comparable with the length of time someone needs an actual parking space, rather than a couple of minutes to fill an ICE car. I don't see that changing really. Also, it's kind of an advantage that these spaces are often available (because only EVs are allowed there) even if the rest of the car park is full.

With rapid chargers you wouldn’t even have the time. I think that’s the point I’m making - you don’t ‘park’ up to park - you plug your car in for a service. It’s exactly like stopping at a fuel pump, only it takes a bit longer. Sometimes you don’t need a full charge, just 15-20 mins to get you home but then you need to pay for an hours car parking when that’s not the intention.

OP is making the point that the place where her car is is not a parking space that is open to anyone, but only someone using the charging service at the time. If she was parked in a different spot in the carpark then paying for that would be logical.

But if the EV charger wasn't there that space would be open to anyone willing to pay for parking. Her car is taking up a space in a car park, ergo she pays for parking, seems logical to me. And of course there is the obvious solution of going somewhere else if she doesn't like it.

It's not the same as stopping at a fuel pump though. When you have a petrol car, you can't fill up anywhere other than at a petrol station. You have a choice of where to charge your electric car though - at a car park, at a fuel station, at home, at a supermarket, etc. You're choosing to use the carpark, so you have to pay for the space your car is occupying.

I’m an EV owner and I expect to pay for both parking and charging , why wouldn’t i, it’s two separate companies?

I had originally voted yabu but I now realise you mean you are only charging not actually leaving your car or using the space as a car park, in which case I agree that yanbu. I suppose if you have a choice you would recharge somewhere like a supermarket but not having an EV I have no idea where the charging stations are.

So you mean, you’re just using the car park purely to charge, rather than parking, charging and disappearing into town to run errands?

Well yes, if it’s just parking there purely to charge then I can see your point, however how would it be monitored who was simply parking to charge their car, and who was parking, using local facilities and decided to charge at the same time?

How long do cars stay "parked" on a petrol forecourt?
How long are EV's "parked" while recharging?

I think because the EV charger company usually pays the car park owner to host their chargers, so they’re getting paid twice, and you (the consumer) is a) paying a hugely inflated charging cost as compared to charging at home and b) then also paying for parking.

Perhaps there should be a time limit. So if you only do a quick 20 minute charge, you don't pay for parking. But if you've been over an hour, you do as you've probably left your vehicle and gone elsewhere.

It's not always as simple as charging elsewhere. We did a long journey in North Scotland and the available charger was in a multi storey car park. Fortunately it didn't charge for parking too.

I can see where you're coming from OP. It's entirely reasonable to pay to park if you are actually parking and leaving your car but it is a bit irritating to have to pay for an hour's parking when you've only stopped for a ten minute charge. Especially as the electricity tends to be over priced in those circumstances too.
But I can't say it's a situation I've encountered that often to be honest, and to be fair to the carpark owners, some people do leave their cars even on fast chargers for an hour plus and go off to do something else - we've done it occasionally when we've been on holiday for example though we try to avoid it. They can't know if you're only planning to stay for a short charge. The same kind of thing happens in other circumstances too doesn't it? Like last week I had to pay for an hour's parking when all I was doing was going to pick up a prescription and was there and back in less than 10 mins.
Overall the costs of running our EV are so low compared to the previous equivalent ICE vehicle that I can tolerate being ripped off for public charging from time to time. But we do do the vast majority of our charging at home - it would be a lot more of an issue for someone who needed to use public chargers frequently of course. But even where I live which is rather out of the way there are plenty of charging options that don't include having to pay to park so I doubt there are many people who have this as their only option. I see the point you're making but for me it's in the mildly irritating category of annoyances and not something I'd lose sleep over. There are definitely things about public charging that annoy me a lot more about public charging than occasionally having to buy a parking ticket too.

I get your point as a diesel driver BTW. The Carpark is making money from the EV company to have chargers so it makes sense that if your choosing to use that specific charger in that car park, the parking would be free. In terms of managing it though, folk would just use them like mother and child spaces.

Having said that, most are automated barriers anyway, you could give the electric receipt as proof of eligible parking? Or be prepared to be slapped with a ticket if a warden in a more public car park sees that you are not actually charging your car.

And they wonder why some of us resist being nudged to spend our hard-earned money on electric cars. In the early days of electric cars, we were bribed with exemptions from congestion charges, reduced vehicle tax (or whatever we're supposed to call it); and now pay-per-mile seems to be the way forwards. Have they given up on bribing the public to drive EVs, and now the gloves are off?

How many politicians drive electric cars, again? Does the pioneer of electric cars Elon Musk drive one himself? Or is he chauffered, helicoptered and private jetted everywhere in a wet-fuel machine?

You can get a parking ticket if you’re parked in the charging bay but not charging easier to enforce than parent & child parking I guess!