Supercharging Hypothetical #3 -- Inappropriate or not?

Elmo lives in the same small town as his buddy Ernie. He always charges at night with his home HPWC to 80% and his daily commute generally leaves him at 30% at the end of the day, depending on how many errands he has to run in the evening and if he has to go to different studios during the day. He also finds the location of the town's supercharger at the only mall in town to be very convenient and he is usually at the mall twice a week either shopping or eating out. Normally, the only other car he ever sees at the supercharger is Ernie's but if he ever sees two stalls occupied, he doesn't use the supercharger because he doesn't really need it. However, if the supercharger is not being used, he always plugs in and charges to 80% while he is doing his eating or shopping.

Ernie's hypothetical, for those who missed it.

Neo said:

I voted A. I think the poll would have been better with just two options. Now you have A+B+C competing against D. If the results are 20% each for A,B,C and 40% for D, then it will appear like most people say it is fine which is incorrect because 60% voted inappropriate.

This is not just about blocking or not blocking the supercharger for others. It is also about costs. Currently on average each Model S supercharges 27 times per year. That is a lot. It is more than 5 times Tesla's allocated funds.

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I can appreciate your point and for consistency's sake I would have just left "abusive" as the only choice, but several people objected to the term so I decided to sneak a bonus poll in on that question. At the moment, the results suggest that I may as well have left it alone.

I'm puzzled by your assertion that charging 27 times annually is more than 5 times what Tesla has budgeted for charging. If Tesla planned the average user to charge 5 times per year, that is extremely poor planning. I'll probably take 3 road trips this year, each of which requires 2 Supercharger stops in each direction which is 12 charges per year. I would imagine I am on the low end of what anyone would reasonably have predicted. I've also read that Tesla allocates $500 per car as a liability to offset future electric consumption of Supercharger use. At an average of 5 charges per year that implies that Tesla predicts the car to run a very long time indeed.

Johan said:

There is however something that begs the question: Why did Tesla place Superchargers at a mall in a town? This might suggest that this particular charger is more of an Urbancharger.

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In fact, three of the four currently operational superchargers in Virginia are located at shopping centers or malls. The one I was imagining when I wrote this is the Salisbury, MD supercharger, which Wikipedia tells me is the only shopping mall in a 60 mile radius.

Johan said:

Thanks. So here's where problems can arise: a SC location that can act both as long-distance enabler but at the same time as a convenient charger for locals. A charger in central London or Hong-Kong is obviusly meant for local charging, while one along a highway with few people living within miles is obviously for roadtripping. If someone kept driving to and from the obvious road trip charger to do all their charging that would be abusive. In this hypothetical example it's not as clear cut.

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Many superchargers in my neck of the woods would potentially fit this "potential dual use" scenario. Of the ones I've been to 6 of the 8 fit that description: Glen Allen, Woodbridge, Norfolk, Bethesda, Hagerstown and Salisbury. Newark, DE is in the median of a busy interstate and South Hill is next to the interstate at a small restaurant, both of which seem pretty much to imply an exclusive interstate purpose (although I've met a local charging at Newark). You could also really argue that Bethesda is "intended" for local charging than interstate driving anyhow -- it only has two stalls, it isn't very convenient to the interstate and it is located near the entrance of a shopping mall.

tomas said:

Now you are splitting hairs with abusive vs inappropriate. Loved the prior scenarios. Can't answer this one bcause it depends. If he comes in at 70% and plugs in and then goes on 2 hours of shopping/dining, he is hogging a space for 1 hour and 50 minutes, which is same as icing.

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FWIW, my intent was that the hypothetical ensured no traveller was unable to charge. That's why I specified 7 open bays and I also envisioned that he would move his car promptly.

tomas said:

Tapping fingers for 45 minutes until the darned puppets show up.

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I think a best practice at a supercharger is to either have eyes on your car or leave a note with your cell # or other contact method in case that situation arises. At a minimum, I'd say Elmo has an ethical obligation to step outside and confirm that the conditions are unchanged at the supercharger every 15 minutes or so once he is done charging and I think moving his car once he has a full charge would be clearly better. Personally, I might be willing to leave my car at a stall with a note when I had a high confidence it would be unused after it finished charging for a short period of time.