What’s with people. These four spaces were clearly marked and reserved for EV charging. So why do ICE drivers think they can park in EV spaces? What jerks.
But then I was thinking what if there were five guests who had EVs at this hotel which had only four spaces. Would one of the four of us get a call at 3:00 in the morning telling us our car was charged and we would he to move it so another guest could get charged?
What’s the etiquette here?
So for one thing, EV drivers are seen as 'smug' (one comment earlier in this thread), 'entitled', 'mooching off free stuff', etc., and people use that notion to justify parking an ICE car in an EV parking spot. Somehow that's seen as 'taking them down a notch'. I've heard my wife's own mother saying we're defrauding our city by charging for free.
As for charging etiquette, there aren't really any 'rules' yet but I did get a card with my home charger that you attach to the charging cord. One side indicates that you are 'opportunity charging', and lists a phone number to call in case you really need the spot. The other side indicates that I really need the charge. So far, nobody has called me to ask for my spot yet.
Commercial charging providers like Chargepoint can partner with multiple businesses so that the cost of operation is split. This neatly solves the common parking lot problem. Even when the charging is free, Chargepoint requires me to swipe an RFID to unlock the charge cable. I suppose they could add a feature where one would need to pay for the charge unless a business 'validates' (similar to parking) the charge session.
All EVs sold in the US have an SAE J1772 socket for level 2 charging. The differences are for level 3, where Tesla has their own proprietary plug. Many Japanese vendors use the CHAdeMO plug, everyone else (including Chevy) use the J1772 combo plug that includes two extra pins for DC charging. I'm guessing Tesla's reason for a proprietary plug is to prevent non-Tesla drivers from charging for free at Supercharger stations. So far, all the DC fast charge stations I've been to have both CHAdeMO and SAE combo plugs.
European EVs use the IEC type-2 connector, which can provide 3-phase power. This uses the same signaling as the single-phase J1772 socket, so a passive adapter can be used. CHAdeMO uses CAN bus for signaling, so one can't devise a passive adapter plug. Not sure what Tesla uses for signaling.