EVEats Articles EV charging etiquette
EV charging etiquette
Charging etiquette is mostly about the next person, who is often low on range and does not have another site for thirty miles. The rules are short. They matter more at a six-stall site in Glenwood Springs than they do in a half-empty mall lot in Denver on a Tuesday.
The stall is for a car that is charging
Park in a charging space only while you are using that charger. A finished session, a gasoline car, or a second car you are "saving a spot" for is occupying the infrastructure. On I-70 the sites get small in a hurry: Idaho Springs is one Supercharger and one Rivian site on Miner Street, Glenwood Springs is six Supercharger positions at the Residence Inn, and the next fast sites are a drive away at Edwards, Gypsum, or Rifle. Leaving a full car in one of those stalls is not a minor rudeness. It is the reason someone sits on the shoulder refreshing an app.
Move when you have the energy you need for the next leg. Charging from a high state of charge to 100 percent, while three cars wait, is the habit that makes shared fast charging feel broken. If you need the extra miles because the next gap is real, that is a reason. If you are in the food court and forgot, that is the timer you should have set.
Do not unplug someone else
Do not stop another person's session and do not remove their connector unless they have asked you to, or the site's own rules and the car's software say the session is over and the cable is free. If you are not sure, leave it. A cable lying in the lane, or draped through a snowbank because someone could not be bothered to seat it, is a trip hazard and a way to damage the connector. Put it back in the holster the way you found the ones that were done properly.
One vehicle per stall. Do not straddle two spaces so your door can open, and do not block the painted access aisle. If the site is a pull-through and you are towing, use the stall that is actually built for the trailer. If none is, do not invent one by blocking the drive lane.
Hotel plugs and public plugs are not the same courtesy
Tesla Destination chargers at a Vail, Beaver Creek, or Aspen hotel are often there for guests who are parked overnight. Taking the last hotel plug for a sightseeing stop, when Edwards or the Aspen airport Supercharger is the public fast site, pushes a guest onto a trickle. If you are not staying, prefer the public fast charger. If you are staying, move the car in the morning once you have what you need so the next guest can plug in. The Vail Valley guide and the Aspen guide are organized around that split on purpose.
The note you leave is part of the etiquette
A note in EVEats is read by strangers who may be tired and low on range. Say what is there: the restroom, the food, the walk, the fact that the stalls ice up or that the mall door locks at 9. Do not put someone's name, plate, or a grievance about a particular driver into a note. Do not review the restaurant as if the charger were a food blog. The notes and moderation article covers what happens to that text after you submit it. A note that names the businesses on the lot, the way the Silverthorne outlets note does, is the standard worth copying.
When something is wrong
Report a broken post in the network's app. That is who can send a technician. EVEats does not dispatch repairs, and a note that a stall was dead last Tuesday is useful only if you also say what you did instead. "Left stall dead, used the Walmart across the street" helps. "This place sucks" does not.