Nothing is more annoying than driving in a Tesla and running out of juice. Your computer warns that you need to charge up real quick, you go to the nearest supercharger network and find no slots are vacant. You then wait for the cars to finish charging just to find out that the car owners are actually using the docking stations as their own personal car park. Fret no more as Tesla will soon be implementing fines to car owners who leave their vehicles in the charging station for more time that is actually needed.
Tesla Aims For Seamless Service For All Of Its Users
There are only a few Tesla car owners today and even fewer charging stations. And with the traffic and parking situation in most parts of the world, it can't be helped that some owners use the charging stations as parking lots. Unfortunately for these drivers, using the stations as a parking lot is a clear misuse of its intended purpose. Tesla just announced in a press release that vehicle owners who leave their car in the said docks would be getting an "idle" fee of $0.40 cents per minute as soon as the battery gets almost or is fully charged.
Owners Will Be Notified Through The Tesla App
And just in case that the vehicle owners simply did not notice that the vehicle is already at full charge, they can still have the "idle" fee waived if they are able to move their vehicle within the first five minutes. Fortunately, the owners can track their cars battery status by using the Tesla smart phone app. In the press release, Tesla stated that the plan is not an additional profiteering scheme, but a means to increase customer satisfaction among its users. "To be clear, this change is purely about increasing customer happiness and we hope to never make any money from it," said Tesla management in the press release.
Tesla Cars Will Be Able To Unplug Itself In The Future
As Tesla is continuously developing and moving to fully autonomous vehicles, they are also hoping that the cars would be able to remove itself from the charging stations in the future. That ability would enable other cars to plug themselves and be both cost-efficient and time-efficient for the owners. For the meantime, Tesla car owners who are fined will be informed through alerts and will be billed whenever a visit to the service center is needed.
Idle Fee Rates
Even if some of the supercharger spots were free in some parts of the world, the "idle fee" would still be applied. $0.50 dollars will apply to Canada, €0.35 euros for Austria and Belgium, 2.70 Croatian Kuna will apply in Croatia, and 9.50 CZR or Czech Republic Koruna for the Czech Republic, Also, €0.35 euros would apply to Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Spain, and the Netherlands.
A list of fees for other can be found on Tesla's official website. Hopefully, Tesla car owners can be more diligent and responsible to avoid paying the fines. Assuming that every Tesla car owner is an adult, then everyone should be responsible enough not to leave their vehicles idling and move as soon as they're done charging.
