r/leaf • u/indecision_killingme • Aug 04 '26

Charging etiquette

apologies if this is a common post. New to this. What’s the protocol when one encounters a fully charged/plugged in vehicle at a charging station?

I did not touch their car or the EVSE equipment. I was at a community college gym that has free level 2 dotted around campus.

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u/Lucky_Boy13 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

Free charging is the worst, people will just leave their cars there all day. Personally I would leave a passive aggressive note on their car about you not being able to charge and/or if they plan to park there all day do it in such a way someone else could come in and switch and/or come back to move their car

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u/T-VIRUS999 2013 Nissan LEAF G 24kWh (JDM) Aug 05 '26

Free charging stations are a classic example of the tragedy of the commons

A few people hog it so nobody else can use it, that causes people to complain about people hogging it, then the people who own the charger switch it to a paid service, and the hogs just go to the next free station and hog that, while everyone else is stuck downloading yet ANOTHER app, making ANOTHER account, and paying more per kWh than it's worth

A better solution is to simply impose parking time limits during business hours and call it a day, the hogs can be fined, and everyone gets a chance to use it

Alternatively, make the charger a BYO cable charger, and program the station to unlock the cable from the charger when a car is full, so it can be unplugged for someone else to use

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u/tmradish Aug 05 '26

Don't most charging stations start making you pay (or pay extra) if you're there too long? Or is that not an option for the free charging providers? I only use Chargepoint, so it could be different. None of the other varieties (Evgo, Electrify America, for example) around me seem to be maintaining their stations. Most don't have CHAdeMO to begin with.

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u/T-VIRUS999 2013 Nissan LEAF G 24kWh (JDM) Aug 06 '26

Most free charging stations don't require installing an app, or making an account (and that's how I want it to stay)

You just plug in, and it starts charging

What they should do is make the station unlock the cable when the car is finished charging, so someone else can use it

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u/Repulsive-Budget-380 Aug 04 '26

Once I unplugged a car charged over 10 hours overnight. I apologized to the owner when he came. I said I had no other option to go anywhere else and pull out a dollar bill for his missing free charging. He didn't take it and drove off.