Teslas Behaving Badly - Model Y Owner Shows Why Public Charging Will Always Be A Problem

If you believe the electric vehicle media, one of the main challenges around EV adoption and ownership is poor public charging infrastructure. Broken chargers, chargers that are simply not online, a general lack of chargers where and when one needs to charge, and related issues are stymying a satisfying public charging experience for legions of EV owners. As EV testers, we feel their pain. However, we also recognize that EV owners are partly to blame for public EV charger challenges.

Case in point, this selfish Tesla owner shown in our top-of-page image. What is the Tesla owner doing wrong? Hogging the charger spot. This Tesla owner opted to park in one of two public charger spots and charge their long-distance EV to full. Or to park it while not charging for other reasons. This Tesla owner left the car parked there for hours blocking other EV owners in need of charging from using the spot.

This image was taken at a popular Metro Boston public library. This particular town is relatively affluent, so EV adoption is robust here. Many folks drive the pricey Teslas, others have more affordable EVs, but check out any public parking lot, and you can easily spot EVs from many different manufacturers, like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 charging next to the Tesla.

We arrived in our Nissan Ariya (previously charged at home) at the lot to find the Tesla already fully charged and blocking the charger. Over an hour later, the Tesla was still there, still preventing other EV owners from taking advantage of one of the two chargers. So we did a quick visual tour of the lot. We spotted a Nissan Leaf, two other Teslas, and also a Ford Mustang Mach-e parked nearby, possibly waiting for a spot to open up so they could add a bit of needed range. A municipality-owned Ford e-Transit we have seen use that same charger was also parked in the lot.

Visit electric vehicle social media clubs, and you won’t have to look hard to find EV owners posting up images of gas-powered vehicles behaving badly. The general message is, “Evil ICE owners are dumb and intentionally block our chargers!” I’ve been testing EVs on the regular since 2012, and my observation has been that EV owners themselves often exhibit the same behaviors that they claim drives them crazy.

Tesla owners parked on sidewalks and in bike lanes.

Tesla owners parking on grass areas while charging.

Tesla owners who use hand-help phones despite having BlueTooth standard in their vehicles.

If public charging is going to work well in America, electric vehicle owners are going to have to be more courteous, more thoughtful about how and when they charge, and demonstrate proper charging etiquette as examples to new owners.

What’s your take on public charging? Is it ever OK to leave your fully-charged EV sitting in a public charging spot for hours at a time? Is charging to full OK, or should one move on when 80% SOC is reached? Should EV owners who block chargers after their car is fully charged be fined or towed? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Image of Tesla parked not charging by John Goreham. Image of broken ChargePoint public charger by John Goreham. e-Transit image by John Goreham. Image of Tesla Model S owner on phone by John Goreham. Image of Tesla parked on grass by John Goreham.

John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can follow John on Twitter, and TikTok @ToknCars, and view his credentials at Linkedin