[dtgsrq]

Made a 280 round trip today, with another 20-30 miles at destination, so a 300-310 mi day. Drive 80+ so anticipated only 190 mi of range and counted on the EA DCFC stations I've used 3x before at the Florida Mall in Orlando to get me home. Unfortunately, when I arrived at 3pm hoping to do my 45 min of time (for 80% charge) and head home, I found all 6 stations were ICEd!! To make matters worse, this is at the Florida Mall, a mega-mall in Orlando, 10 days before Christmas. The parking lot was gridlock/mayhem with lots of aggressive, horn-happy, and foul-mouthed drivers. Oh, what fun. I found one of the ICE cars had a sleeping passenger, so I woke him up and told him I'd called security to have all these non-EVs towed. He didn't have the keys, but he high-tailed it to find his buddy to avoid getting towed - was backing out 5 minutes later. (Security would do no such thing, but without that threat he wasn't about to interrupt his nap and lose his prized parking spot so I could charge my $90K EV.) In fact, in the 10 seconds the spot was empty before I could pull in, another ICE car shot in! I joined the fray and explained he was about to be towed, so he too conceded, but not without some aggressive convincing. Once I got parked, I discovered the screen was burned out!!! I called the number on the charging station and the rep was quite helpful, getting it going remotely (the burned out screen did not affect its function). She even gave me a free charge for my troubles. I reported that ALL SIX stations were ICE'd, and she noted this. I also reported that NONE of the stalls were marked as "EV Only" (not sure if this was an oversight or they had been painted over), but no signage either, just those towering (10') EA Charging Stations at the head of each space. Mind you, these stations are at the absolute FARTHEST parking area from the mall (200+ yds?) so they were not 'prime spots' by any means.

 

[WattAJag]

In AZ, now the police will ticket & tow (I am told).

 

[GratedWasabi]

In AZ, now the police will ticket & tow (I am told).

From a private lot? Doubtful. The mall can have them towed but very probably won't care. But not in this case, anyway. The spots weren't marked EV only so they aren't EV only, charger or no charger.

So OP was technically in the wrong anyway. I mean, should ICE cars park in front of a charger? Obviously not. But if the stalls weren't marked EV only they were well within their rights and if the OP was rude or belligerent it could be conceived as harrassment. Generally I don't recommend lying while threatening people in public.

 

[Deutsch100]

I just had to contact Security at the Westfield Topanga Mall TODAY. 3/6 Chargepoints were taken by ICE cars just parked there. There are even signs (that I raised **** to get installed) that have city codes saying you will be towed if not charging while parked there...but they do nothing. Almost every Chargepoint I see is either a EV parked there but not charging or just an ICE getting "good parking".

This is SUCH a low priority for Police and Mall Security!

Keep printed out flyers in you car and put it under the wiper on the offending ICE!!

 

[jsimon7777]

I have nothing nice to say.