User-Created Sign At EVgo Station Shows That Charging Needs To Be Simpler

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A couple of weeks ago, a post at reddit got some attention from automotive blogs and news sites. In the post, there’s a picture of a sign a fed up EV driver left on the station, trying to help people get a smoother charging experience (article continues after embedded preview).

Opinions on this. Saw at an EVGO station in Dallas TX.
byu/Stock-Requirement-81 inBoltEV

The issue is one many of us have encountered. Not all EV charging stations can deliver the same charging speeds, and not all cars charge at the same speed either. In many cases, charging stalls at the same station can have different speeds. So, it makes sense (when possible) for the slower cars to use the slower stalls so that the faster cars can use the faster ones. This allows the station to serve more of the faster cars.

When people don’t do this, it can be frustrating for the faster-charging cars. If you’re in something like an IONIQ 5, which can pull up to 350 kW to get you on the road faster, and you find the 350 kW chargers are all occupied by Chevy Bolts (50 kW max), then you have to take a 7x reduction in charging speed to use the stalls that they should have been using. Plus, there’s really no benefit for the slower car to charge at the fast stall, so it’s all for nothing.

So, it really is good charging etiquette to take slower cars to slower stalls. I drive a Bolt EUV and I do this whenever possible, leaving the faster stalls open to cars that can actually take advantage of them.

But, that’s not always possible. Sometimes, I’ll show up at a charging station and find that the slower stations are all full, or even not working. So, my only choice is to use a faster stall. There have even been times that fast cars are occupying the slow stalls, so I’m forced to use the fast ones, leaving everyone on the wrong stall.

Really, I have no idea what the station looked like when they arrived, so I can’t really judge them for it. When they showed up, the faster stalls could have been taken, and they could be close to done, making it not worthwhile to switch stalls.

Much of this has to do with education. Many people have no idea what the maximum charging speed for their car is, and they might have no idea that some stalls are faster than others. So, they do things like choose the fastest stalls thinking their car will charge faster. Other people have no idea that cars charge slower as they get full, so they may think it’s necessary to charge to 100% every time.

What makes this problem worse is that many cars just don’t have great trip planning software. When in doubt on what they’ll need to get to the next station, some drivers charge more than needed just to be sure they’ll make it, and they don’t know that using a third-party app could be a good idea. But, sometimes they really do need to go to 100%, and there’s no way to know without asking (which itself could be considered rude).

The truth is, you can never really know what’s going on with another car at an EV charging station, but some people think they know and think it’s up to them to educate, so they’ll leave signs like this behind to “educate” people.

For what it’s worth, EVgo told some media outlets that it’s not the company’s sign (seemed obvious given the weird wording and gratuitous use of exclamation points) and that they don’t approve of the sign. Further, EVgo told media outlets that it plans to remove the sign as soon as it can. So, if you think the sign was a great idea, don’t go do it yourself.

Another downside to taking it on yourself to “educate” people with signs like this is that it makes EV drivers look bad. In the comments section of general automotive news websites, I saw things like “Good! The libs are eating each other!” and plenty of comments saying we’re all rich snobs. The name Karen also came up quite a bit. LOL

What EV Charging Companies Should Be Doing Instead

One thing you almost never see at a Tesla Supercharger station are different charging speeds. While there is power sharing at many stations, all of the charging stalls go the same speed. Any car that can use the Supercharger (until recently it was only Tesla cars) can use any stall and get the same result. There’s no bickering over charging speeds, passive aggressive signs (at least about this issue), or any other misunderstandings over charging speeds.

And, it’s not only Tesla that has this figured out. The latest generation of Electrify America stations are likewise all equipped to give the same speeds. Power sharing is also a little more sophisticated, so if a couple of stalls are occupied by a car that’s approaching a full charge, the power can be diverted to another car so it can still get full speed.

As a technical nerd and power user, it hurts a little to say this, but we have to have idiot-proof charging stations that require little to no learning curve for use. Technical data, like current kilowatt rate and battery state of charge (among other things) should still be available for power users to better understand what’s going on, but people who don’t know what the difference between kilowatt and kilowatt-hour is should still be able to pull up, charge, and get back on the road.

But, at minimum, all stations should be the same whenever possible, even if power sharing and other arrangements aren’t available.

Dealers Should Be Educating Better For Now

Sadly, we don’t currently live in a world where charging speeds are all the same at every stall. Pretty often, a company started with a cheaper charger and then added better chargers to the site later. We really need all of the charging infrastructure we can get right now, so it doesn’t make sense to just rip the old stations out.

So, for now at least, dealers selling EVs need to step up a little and help educate new EV drivers on things like this. Manufacturers should also be providing “cheat sheets” and information cards a driver can put near the cupholders while they’re getting started, with things like “This car charges at 125 kilowatts (kW) maximum.”

Featured image provided by EVgo.