Why this photo of an electric vehicle sparked bitter war-of-words between two drivers and a furious debate about charging station ‘etiquette’
- Dispute between EV owners over charging ‘etiquette’
- Tesla driver recorded unplugging a Volvo from public charger
A bitter row has erupted over electric vehicle etiquette, with a driver who was publicly shamed for hogging a charging bay hitting back at his accuser.
A photo posted to Twitter by a disgruntled Tesla driver shows a blue Volvo parked next to a charger with the flap opened but the cable not plugged in.
The furious driver waiting to recharge at Caddens Corner shopping centre, in western Sydney’s Kingswood on Saturday, captioned the image: ‘An attempt was made #evhog #etiquette.’
But shortly after copping a barrage of criticism online, the Volvo owner came forward claiming he had done nothing wrong and that the Tesla driver ‘unplugged’ his car.
‘This was posted of my car where I guess he’s trying to say I’ve just parked and not actually charged,’ well-known renewable energy advocate Evan Smith wrote.
‘Anyways I get home and check my dashcam and he unplugged my car to take the photo of it unplugged.’
A bitter row has erupted over electric vehicle etiquette, with a driver who was publicly shamed for hogging a charging bay hitting back at his accuser
He even posted a screen shot showing a man disconnecting the charging cable.
Mr Smith admitted the vehicle had reached it’s charging limit when it was unplugged but said the Tesla driver could have messaged him.
‘I was checked in on PlugShare so he could have pinged me on there to let me know it was finished,’ Mr Smith wrote.
‘He even checked in himself so knew he could message me.’
Caught out, the Tesla driver attempted to cool down the situation, writing: ‘2 lessons to be learnt. Don’t unplug others car (sic) even if they are not charging.’
‘The other. Don’t leave cars sitting at chargers that have finished charging.
‘I apologise for unplugging someone’s car when I said I didn’t, I know it was wrong, I won’t do it again, I’m sorry I own my mistakes…’
Social media users piled onto the Tesla driver to voice their opinion on the issue.
Upon checking his dashcam footage, the Volvo owner revealed the Tesla driver had unplugged the charger himself for the photo (pictured)
‘Nobody should ever touch someone else’s property, regardless of the reason used to justify it, it’s just not okay,’ one user wrote.
‘Would you have apologised if he didn’t get it on dashcam? Attention seeking behaviour never works out well,’ a second user wrote.
‘I have a Tesla and I wonder why other EV owners don’t like us and you do this juvenile stuff for clicks.’
One user admitted: ‘I’ll be honest charger politics turns me off getting an EV. Who wants to deal with that while trying to get errands done.’
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