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.

If the government were serious about EVs, they'd have devised a way to incentivise the collaboration between parking and charging.

But they aren't so they don't.

I suppose charging your EV is demonic behaviour.

Many people go to a pump, then go inside and look for snacks for the drive, pick their dinner from the mini supermarket inside, browse magazines or pick up a card and flowers for someone alongside paying for fuel. And they don’t pay for parking.

But most people don’t. Pay at the pump accounts for the largest portion of fuel sales.

If it’s a paid for parking space then you pay to park. You just have the perk you can also fill up your car at your chosen parked space.

You don’t park up your petrol car and go shopping for half an hour. You fill up might grab something from the shop and leave.

Ev you can park up plug in and do your weeks shop, go for a meal or whatever. Big difference.

Fair enough then.

Are you often in this situation? I’ve only charged at a payable car park when actually needing car parking in the area. Otherwise would be looking to charge somewhere like a Lidl where there’s no parking charge. I know it can be variable from area to area but so much more options these days.
I imagine if you didn’t pay the parking they would take more from the charging companies. You’d end up paying more on the charging costs so they’d get their money anyway.

Petrol stations aren’t car parks and it takes minutes not hours to fill up a petrol tank.

If you don't like it, avoid using those car parks.

We have loads of on street EV charging points in our area. They're in prime positions taking away much needed on street parking. I've more often seen electric vehicles parking in those spaces than I have seen them being used to charge vehicles.

If you didn't need to pay for parking in these car parks as well, I imagine people would take advantage and leave their vehicles in these spaces whilst they're off shopping. I imagine this would be very frustrating if you're in desperate need of charging your vehicle.

Three times in the last 3 years, so it’s not a massive deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does make me wonder. I did say somewhere upthread that it usually happens in the most inconvenient of times.

That’s where PCNs should be enforced. Not charging? See ya 👋🏻

I'm an ec driver but I don't get it, sorry. Mostly ev charging isn't somewhere we need to pay to park but if it is then we pay. Usually it is inner city car parks where everyone else has to pay so why not?
To be honest, if it was free, you would probably get people overstaying or parking their ev in the charger even though they didn't need to charge.

I. Always charge my car at home but if it was free while charging I’d plug my car in and not click charge just to get a free parking space. Would that work? I’ve never charged it anywhere chargeable

Because the parking charge goes to one company (who operate the land/car park), and the money earned from charging your vehicle will go to another company (who also probably pay a charge for operating on that land). Two different transactions.

It wouldn’t, because the charger displays whether the charge is in progress or not. So does your car if you look through the window…

I've never driven an ev, maybe when I replace in future. So I'm interested in the procedure and etiquette.

So, if I can park for free on an ev charger space, and I already have 92% charge, then I'm just paying pennies, and feeling pretty smug.
I also understood, that sometimes ev drivers have to wait for a charging point to be available

Leaving your car parked at the pump while they do something more than pay for petrol is not generally considered acceptable behaviour though.

Indeed, if you asked a petrol station manager how much they would charge people if they wanted to park at the pump for half an hour I bet the answer would be considerably more than a typical car park would charge. As the vast majority of people aren't blithering idiots who do their weekly shop in the petrol station it's thankfully not a real concern though.

Leaving your car parked at the pump while they do something more than pay for petrol is not generally considered acceptable behaviour though.

Indeed, if you asked a petrol station manager how much they would charge people if they wanted to park at the pump for half an hour I bet the answer would be considerably more than a typical car park would charge. As the vast majority of people aren't blithering idiots who do their weekly shop in the petrol station it's thankfully not a real concern though.

Well you say that but I got a terrible surprise once when I 'parked' my car in the fueling bay, I went shopping, the traffic was terrible and I had to get the bus from the petrol station to the shops so I was longer than anticipated.

They only went and bloody fined me, even though I had filled up with their petrol.

Cheek of it.

At the very least you should pay for both for owning one of these ridiculous fire-hazards. The day when there is a disastrous fire caused by the self-combusting battery of a so-called 'EV' parked underneath a hotel or block of flats is an inevitability.

Oh for gods sake 🤣🤣🤣

It depends. If you were just charging for 5 minutes while you go in the shop to pay then no you shouldn't have to pay but if your using their carpark to keep your car there for hours while it charges then yes you should have to pay.

And I bet the car park are being paid rental or a fee by the charging companies too to have their chargers there...so making double on that space.

It's unusual to have to queue to charge except on busy motorway services at peak times and even then that has stopped over last couple of years as more chargers come online.

Presumably that’s only in multi story car parks in city centres?
I’ve never seen a supermarket car park that you have to pay to park in, regardless of charging up your car. 🤔
(Coastal Ireland)

This. OP has a strange way of thinking 🤔