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.

YABU. It’s to stop people clogging up the chargers so they don’t have to pay for parking. We got an EV really early on and thos used to happen all of the time because it did used to be a thing that you didn’t have to pay for parking. So nobody could get charged.

Well last time was because our EV is our runaround car, but I got called to a last minute work meeting 60 miles away and I only have 100 mile range. So I thought, that’s fine - the car park I’ll be paying to park in anyway has a charger. Except the charging bays were for maximum one hour, so I couldn’t park in there and go to my meeting. So I had to pay to park for the 2 hours of my meeting, then for another hour when I didn’t want or need the parking, I just needed the charger, but I had to not only pay 10x the home rate for charging, I also had to pay an extra £10 to stay in the car park for an extra hour while I charged.

I’d welcome your suggestions on how I better use my sense to save money…

I’m not an ev owner but I totally get it. If you’re only allowed to use the space for as long as it takes to charge the car then why are they charging for parking too. The overheads for allowing the energy company to place their charger on their land should cover this. If you then move your car to an allocated space to park for the day fair enough. Like the previous poster says a petrol station wouldn’t charge you to park your car at a pump!!

not amusing in the slightest. a neighbour's electric car - generally kept in a garage built into the property - was (unusually) parked in the street one night as they had guests staying over & self-immolated in the middle of the night. the batteries of these 'EV's' burn at a temperature so high that they cannot be extinguished by water and need to burn out of their own accord. there was an incident in (i think) Liverpool where the battery of an electric 'bus caught fire when parked up in the local garage. the fire couldn't be put out and all the nearby electric 'buses were destroyed in the conflagration. neighbour was fortunate that the battery didn't catch fire in their garage. these vehicles are potentially very dangerous. fortunately people are slowing getting wise & the writing is on the wall for this ridiculous craze 🥺

When was the last time you larked your car in a petrol station and went off shopping? That’s the comparison.

But it isn’t. I’ve maintained throughout this thread that the car is getting fuel only. In fact, I created this thread as I sat at my car waiting for 20 mins to get enough charge to get home. Then I trotted off to the machines to pay for my ‘parking’.

Did you need to sit in your vehicle or did you choose to sit there?
It feels like a glass half empty scenario.

Come off it. If you’re using space in a paid for car park, which before EVs would have all simply been parking, you need to pay for it. If the charger is somewhere you can park for a while at least for free (motorway services, supermarkets etc) then you don’t.
The fact that the only thing you’re buying while using that space is charge is irrelevant. If you’d parked to eat your lunch and stayed in your car you’d still have to pay.

Other than city centre places the chargers near us you only have to pay if you’re in that car park for more than 2 hours.

Of course you should pay to park, what makes you think you are entitled not to? What nonsense.

You don't pay the petrol station a parking fee when you buy petrol.

If it took everybody an hour to fill their cars with petrol you probably would.

But you can’t leave your car there after it’s full and go shopping for a few hours preventing other people from buying petrol but saving yourself £3.50 for car parking either.

The chargers I know are either at stand alone facilities or in free car parks (supermarket, mall) I presume in pay for car parks they assume you’ll leave it for longer or move it to a standard space. I thought they charged quicker now?

You know the rate for EV's catching fire is way way less than vehicles filled with a flammable liquid.

Some do, depends on the type of charger. It would probably make more sense to install semi-fast chargers in car parks where they assume you want to stay longer and rapid ones being free where you only stay for 20 mins

Good point.

I've never heard of a petrol car spontaneously combusting - does this happen? The fact that electric vehicle battery fires cannot be extinguished by water is terrifying. At the very least it should be illegal for these vehicles to be kept in underground car-parks.

My next door neighbour’s zafira blew up when she was on the school run.

Well the fire at Luton Airport that destroyed the whole car park and 100's of cars in it was caused by a Diesel car that had been left there.

And for any electrical or chemical fire you wouldn't pour water on it would you? Guessing the fire brigade are up to speed on this and are not spraying water on the minimal number that do catch fire.

I agree with you but I think that’s just how it works unfortunately. I’m in Glasgow and the council charge, a connection / service fee, charging fee and a parking fee!!!!

How do you feel about all tue devices like phones etc that have lithium batteries that you leave on charge overnight?

You can’t extinguish any electricals with water. That includes your telly, computer, kettle, toaster - things that have a proven track record of starting home blazes.

Well fire crews don't really put out burning petrol cars either.

Normally if the thing catches fire it's all over and its a burnt out wreck before they arrive.