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Electric vehicle drivers soon learn the term being ICED, it refers to arriving at a parking spot set aside for EV charging only to find it blocked by an internal combustion engine vehicle, also known as an ICE. Many refer to the ICE driver responsible as an ICEhole, there’s at least one Australian based Facebook group dedicated to shaming these people, I doubt ICEholes really care, it’s more of an emotional support group for EV drivers that are regressive rather than progressive. The moment an EV driver vents their frustrations on social media the ICEholes have won, this apparent difficulty portrayed ends up being another reason to deter people buying EVs.
In reality not everyone who blocks an EV charging spot is an ICEhole so I’ll break it down into 3 categories:

1. The Arrogant EV Owner
I’ve used over 200 different charging locations in every state and territory in Australia and on the 3 occasions I’ve been completely prevented from charging my car it’s because of an Electric vehicle parked in front of the charger not plugged in or plugged in but no longer charging, it only takes a quick review of Plugshare comments and photos from that location in question to find the EV owner is a serial offender. Basically they treat it as their own personal parking spot, this is completely out of line and shows a complete disregard for other EV owners. In this category I should also include Prius drivers that take up the charging space expecting no one to notice they don’t have a charging port on their “self charging car”.

2. The Completely Unaware
There are still many ICE drivers that park in EV Charging bays purely through misunderstanding, the ground is not painted, the signage is poorly worded and sometimes non existent or in some cases hidden behind a huge concrete pillar. For those long term EV drivers out there, think about the times you’ve seen a new charging location and said to yourself “What idiot bureaucrat decided this was a good spot for a car charger?”
Very often the completely unaware ICE driver is keen to learn more about electric vehicles, if you play it smooth no doubt their next car will be electric.

3. The Deliberate ICEhole
This last one is split into two sub categories
A. The Annoyed
Think about the local that has parked in the same area weekly for the past 20 years, then a poorly advised council engineer decides to plonk an expensive ratepayer funded EV charger in front of the Post Office.  That’s a red rag to a Bull, the local has paid rates all his adult life and can’t even get the potholes fixed in his street, give this person a break and write an email to the shire suggesting a better location for the charger.
B. The Antagonist 
This is the true definition of an ICEhole, they’ve not only parked in the EV charging spot deliberately but they’ve bypassed 50 other better parking spots just to use the one allocated to EV charging, not only that but they’re also keen for a confrontation so they can tell their mates about it on social media. Don’t give them the pleasure, do the exact opposite of what they desperately hope for and avoid a discussion. Take a photo if they’re not looking and if possible report the vehicle to the buildings management with the minimum of fuss.

Australia is only in the early stages of electric vehicle adoption, it’s critical that drivers are educated with encouragement rather than confrontation so the EV experience is good for everyone, always remember when dealing with ICEholes don’t lose your cool.

Rob.

This time 4 years ago we drove our electric vehicle from Perth to Broome and return. Why? Because folks said it couldn’t be done, apparently there was nowhere to charge. At that time probably 99.5% of Australia’s population had that belief. It didn’t stop Glen George during his around Australia trip in 2011, but I guess the anti EV media don’t see Glen driving a converted 1950s MG as meeting their “criteria”.
Robin and myself set off knowing that every location along the way had at the very least 10amp power points, but that’s “desperation charging”, the aim was to find something faster- 32amp 5 pin three phase outlets, 10 times faster charging than a standard wall socket, we knew three phase outlets were there but not always who authorised its use, finding an outlet was easy, persuading the custodians it could be used for EV charging not so easy.

So how did it go? The 5400km return journey (with detours) had a limited number of hurdles, any negative always opened the door to a better solution than expected, that’s how life rolls if you have an open mind. The best memory is finding such a variety of charging locations in a fairly remote region of Australia. In order we charged at a cabinet maker, a steel fabrication factory, the SES, a marine mechanic in Exmouth, a disused bore pump 100 metres off the highway, the Walkabout Hotel outside of Port Hedland, Midalia steel (Mmmate!), a Golf course, an earth moving business and finally a supermarket storeroom.
So why bother? Why not wait for a DC fast charger network to be build? If we all had that attitude we’d still be living in caves, eating raw meat and being anti science, and besides there’s nothing as satisfying as taking on the challenge and proving people wrong. When folks now tell me there’s nowhere to charge I tell them to hold my Beer.

There are no real rules for the use of Tesla destination chargers but there is an etiquette that individual EV owners would be wise to follow so the freedom of use is not restricted for everyone.

Firstly a history of destination chargers in Australia:

A Tesla destination charger also known as a High power wall charger (HPWC) is virtually the same as the device most Tesla owners have installed at home. As well as Tesla providing a unit to each new Tesla owner they also provide one and sometimes two complimentary chargers to approved business’s around the country, you may find them in a 5 star hotel, you may also find one at a small Cafe in a country town. 

Up until around late 2017  the installation cost was also paid for by Tesla, since that time any business looking to install destination chargers are almost always required to pay the installation cost, in some areas with no electrician nearby this can be up to $1500, a big outlay for a charger that may only attract 20 cars in its first two years, for many locations they’re never going to recoup the cost, they often know this but are keen to be part of a sustainable future.

So how did all the hundreds of destination chargers end up at locations spread all over the country? Various reasons but significantly many early destination chargers were installed due to the hard work and persistence of Tesla vehicle owners who encouraged businesses to take the risk and accept a destination charger from Tesla, bear in mind that many of these business owners had never heard or seen of Tesla until a few moments earlier when one pulled up in the carpark. In Australia circa 2015  a Tesla was about as believable as a flying DeLorean, just image the discussion that followed, imagine the patience and belief that Tesla owner had as he convinced the business owner to install a Tesla destination charger.

So what is the etiquette for using Tesla destination chargers?

For large city hotels and shopping centre’s that received chargers and installation cost for free they’re not really going to be too concerned with the added cost to their already massive electricity bills, I’m sure they’re keen for EV owners to return the favour and be a paying customer, I’m also sure they’re not going to chastise every owner that sits in their car looking like a stalker, but for many smaller businesses that installed chargers, many at an unreasonable installation costs some ethical behaviour is required from EV owners. 

Many businesses are showing goodwill in advance hoping an EV owner will come in and purchase a meal, book a room or make some other financial contribution to the premises. If they require a fee for using the charger it very well could be previous EV owners had shown no good will in return, sometimes this is a misunderstanding based on who pays for the electricity, for others it’s a disregard for others, only a small percentage of drivers behave this way but it quickly ruins it for the vast majority.

A few tips to remember:

*Before arrival check on Plugshare for any potential cost to charge, you can check on the Tesla touchscreen but this information is not always up to date.
*If you’re still unsure of the cost go in and ask the staff, they may well say it’s free because you bothered to ask.
*If it’s your first visit ask permission before plugging in, courtesy may get you a free charge and a positive conversation.
*If you don’t like the price being requested for charging don’t use the charger, but also keep it polite, don’t complain and don’t rant on social media, your behaviour effects all those that follow.
*If the destination charger is fairly new and staff don’t know how much to charge be generous, if your car has consumed $7.45 of electricity round it up $10 or more, it’s very likely the business owners have just spent well over a $1000 on an installation that will never recover the money, you as a driver are still making a big saving compared to a petrol vehicle.
*If the staff decline payment for charging but you still feel the need to pay, put some cash in the staff tip jar or the RFDS (charity) collection tin.

Happy motoring!

 

2018 has been another year of increased electric vehicle sales in many other parts of the world, the concept has taken a firm grip and there’s no stopping the EV revolution, in Australia the story is slightly different.

There are many sections of industry and the public that can see the benefits of electric transportation; unfortunately we have a small group of politicians that believe otherwise. These people take every opportunity to attack EVs on TV, radio, the printed press and social media, they sprout complete nonsense but when challenged avoid debate. Why do they continue with anti EV propaganda?

For many it’s telling the loyal masses what they want to hear, in these voting groups EVs are seen as a Left wing Greens conspiracy to lower carbon emissions, “God help us all if we’re forced to drive electric vehicles” is the cry, all the charging station diners will only serve Latte’s and Quiche, Bob Menzies photos will be taken down and replaced with Bob Browns, the Hank Williams songs will be removed from the Juke box and replaced with the Electric light Orchestra. Its okay conspiracy theorists, Craig Kelly has an emergency video ready to play on continuous loop, it consists of Mad Max revving the V8 Interceptor, “she sucks nitro, 600 horsepower through the wheels”.

 

Now let’s put conspiracy theories, carbon emissions, climate change and the half joking aside and discuss something complete different, the nation’s road toll, last year approximately 1225 deaths. This figure has year by year steadily reduced in relation to overall kilometres driven due to vast amounts of money, time and hard work going towards reducing the crashes, injuries and deaths, but a figure that is still far too high. What is an acceptable number of road deaths above zero? Has a public figure or politician ever put a number to it? I doubt it.

This discussion on the road toll brings me to another cause of death and injury that stems from the transport sector, air pollution. This has been spoken about by various concerned groups for some time but until now has been lost in the background noise, I hope that this past Friday the 17th of August 2018 was the day the band stopped playing too loud and the crowd could hear the lead singer.

As you may or may not know Independent Senator Tim Storer has been leading a Senate committee on electric vehicles, the committee is taking submissions on a wide range of reasons for and against the uptake of EVs in Australia. Friday was the second of three public hearings and the Doctors for the Environment were able to have their say; it is now on record and in the same room as the people who were elected and paid to listen. In Australia an average 3000 deaths per year are caused by air pollution, half of those attributed to motor vehicle exhaust emissions, thereabouts 1500 deaths by tailpipe, remember that road toll figure? 1225, a road toll figure that has rightfully received many decades of attention and one that most people would agree is still far too high.

Tailpipe pollution has no favourites, the guy who rides his bike to work to stay healthy is breathing in the exhaust fumes of his colleagues driving to work and the person who likes to walk to the shop rather than catch the bus better hold their breath as the bus cruises past, there never was and there never will be clean diesel, and all the parents who drive their kids to school in the latest 5 star safety rated SUV because your family is precious, guess what, all the other mums had the same idea and their SUVs are idling in the drop off zone next to the kindy playground filling those precious lungs with exhaust toxins.

Some people may compare motor vehicle exhausts fumes to Cigarette smoking but there’s no comparison, the 85% of Australians who choose not to smoke are now free to avoid those fumes. The warning signs are everywhere, smoking is bad for your health and only adults can purchase Cigarettes at massively taxed prices in plain paper packaging with graphic photos printed on the pack, because it’s a burden on society that adds enormous cost and pressure on the nation’s health system. It’s a shame those kindy kids can’t be protected from exhaust fumes like they are from cigarette smoke.

Politicians can argue over many aspects of electric vehicles, they can muddy the waters with all sorts of unfounded claims and opinions, but they can’t argue about the fact that air pollution from motor vehicles is a massive burden on Australian society. Hopefully the Senators present at Friday’s electric vehicle senate committee hearing absorbed those facts from the Doctors for the environment and officially pass it on to their colleagues in Canberra. The unnecessary and time wasting behaviour from the small group of anti-EV politicians has to stop.

 

This is the shiny new TOCWA website – stay tuned for more…