It’s common courtesy to move one’s car from the petrol pump to a parking spot if you’re going to spend more than a few minutes inside a servo, but that kind of courtesy doesn’t seem to have carried over to Tesla’s brand of electric automotives. As such, the company has just introduced an “idle” fee to its Supercharger stations, which means drivers who overstay their welcome will be financially pinged for it.
Telsa wasted no time implementing the fee, which already appears active in California, going by this Reddit post:
According to a company press release, the fee is $0.55 per minute, starting at the end of the charging session. However, there’s a five-minute grace period wherein if the vehicle is moved, the fee is waived.
The release goes on to mention that the company “hope[s] never make any money from it” and is “purely about increasing customer happiness”. This sentiment is further reinforced by this tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk:
@TeslaMotors We are going to modify this so that people only pay a fee if most bays are occupied. If the site is basically deserted, no problem to park.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2016
If this change is made, it should only punish those who are using busy stations as parking spots. Honestly, it sounds good to me.