One man took to Facebook group Complaint Singapore to point out a problem that may come with the gradual proliferation of electric vehicles (EV) — the hogging of charging points.
In the post, Michael Awyong aired his frustrations that arose when he visited Century Square in Tampines on Dec. 16 to charge his EV.
Both stations occupied
Awyong made a trip to the mall on the afternoon of Dec. 16 as it housed a good “Charge+ fast charger for Electric Vehicle charging”.
According to the Charge+ app, the charging stations at Century Square offer 120kW of power.
When he arrived, both charging stations were occupied.
According to Awyong, “charging point A” was taken up by a Comfort Delgro taxi which arrived just before he did.
Meanwhile, “charging point B” was being used by a car that had been charging “since 3:20pm”.
Image via Michael Awyong/Facebook.
Car still there despite full charge
When he returned at 4:30pm, he found that the same car was still occupying “charging point B” despite being fully charged.
Awyong waited until 4:50pm but the owner had yet to return to move his car and free up the charging point.
“I had to feedback to Century Square Information Counter for them to do a Public Announcement for the owner to come and move his car”, he shared.
At 5pm, no response was received.
According to Awyong, he eventually called Charge+ for assistance, which managed to reach the car’s owner.
“He informed that he was held up at the bank and would need another 30mins before he could come and move his car. Hello???”
Eventually, at 5:20pm, the owner of the taxi occupying “charging point A” returned to move his fully-charged car.
Awyong expressed that the owner did so “without any hassle”, and he was thankful for that.
15 minutes later at 5:35pm, the owner of the car taking up the other charging point “finally came to move his car”.
Awyong pointed out that it only takes around an hour to an hour and a half to fully charge a car of the model in question using the Charge+ fast charger.
Plea to be considerate
In the post, Awyong’s frustration manifested as a plea to the car owner to be more considerate in the future.
“Please be responsible enough to set a timer or reminder for yourself to come and remove your vehicle from the charging lot once it is fully charged”, Awyong said.
“It’s really not nice to hog the lot and prevent others from using the charging point”, he remarked.
He added that he could understand if the owner were to be 10 to 15 minutes late to shift his car after it had been full charged.
However, in this case, the owner came after more than hour since the car was charged fully.
Comments suggest to impose fines, delay EV adoption
In the comments section, users recognised that such behaviour might be a problem moving forward as EV adoption picks up.
To tackle the issue, some pointed out that penalties should be imposed.
Some felt that this discourages EV adoption.
Charge+ will be implementing an idle fee system next year
Responding to Mothership‘s queries, a Charge+ spokesperson said that when a charging session is completed, the Charge+ app provides a notification to EV drivers to notify them of the event.
“Today, we are gratified that the vast majority of EV drivers abide by basic etiquette to move their EVs soon after the charging session is completed”, the spokesperson said.
However, in the situation where EV drivers stay on for a long time after the charging session is completed, especially at popular charging station locations, Charge+ is able to call the involved EV driver to ask him to move the EV.
The spokesperson also revealed that an idle fee system will be implemented in 2023.
“EV drivers will incur a time-based penalty after a reasonable grace period”, the spokesperson added.
An FAQ on the Charge+ app states that Charge+ encourages “good etiquette within the EV community”.
It advises EV users to move their EV “within one hour after the charging sessions has ended”.
“You may be penalised in certain locations if premise owners impose a penalty fee on users who hog the EV parking lots”, the FAQ read.
Image via Charge+ app
There are currently 3,000 EV charging points across Singapore with more to be deployed, according to a report by The Straits Times.
Top image via Michael Awyong/Facebook, Charge+ app
