An electric vehicle owner has been hit with “inactivity fees” after leaving his fully charged Polestar plugged in for hours at Australia’s largest shopping centre.
They left the Polestar charging for an extended period while they ran Christmas errands in Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping centre, racking up $200 in fees.
The incident sparked a heated debate over charging etiquette after a fellow shopper shared a photo of the offending electric vehicle online.
“It’s going to be an inactive bill,” they wrote and commented.
Idle fees typically cost $1 per minute and are charged to owners who keep their fully charged electric vehicle plugged into a parking charger.
The fees were introduced to prevent drivers from using limited loading spaces for long periods.
A fellow EV driver has led calls for stronger deterrents to EV owners using fast chargers in public places such as shopping centres.
“All fast chargers should have idle fees,” they said.
A driver was caught while Christmas shopping racking up $200 in inactivity fees after leaving his fully charged electric car for hours at a charging station (pictured)
Electric vehicle owners racked up the fine while shopping at Chadstone shopping center last week.
The incident has prompted a call from the Electric Vehicle Council for electric vehicle owners to show respect to their fellow drivers during the busy post-Christmas holiday and sales period.
“Do not overcharge, leave home with a full battery, and be courteous to your fellow EV drivers,” said legal, policy and advocacy chief Aman Gaur. yahoo.
Western Australia first trialled idle fees in mid-2023 and are expected to increasingly expand across Australia.
Tesla applies the fees to busy Superchargers and the NRMA has indicated it plans to introduce them in the future.
Tesla’s idle fees only apply when a station is at more than 50 percent capacity, and fees double at full capacity.
Almost one in 10 new cars sold in Australia is electric, according to EVC.
By 2024, more than 100,000 vehicles will be added to Australian roads.
Many Australians are pushing for more inactivity fees to reduce the amount of time motorists park at charging points.
Authorities and companies have rushed to build and maintain enough public fast chargers.
There are reportedly 1,059 charging points in Australia, with 1,849 high-power public chargers.
‘Fortunately, the public charging network is growing to meet demand. “Over the past year, the number of public chargers and their locations has almost doubled across the country, and more public and private investments are in the pipeline to expand them further in the new year,” Gaur said.
“A couple of summers ago, electric vehicle drivers needing to recharge faced a bumpy road, largely due to Covid-related supply chain disruptions that affected the availability of spare parts.”
Electric vehicle sales are expected to continue to rise as major brands continue to target the Australian market.
Chinese brands are closing in on established EV makers and Australia’s electric appetite is spreading to brands like BYD, which overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest EV maker last year.
The federal government is also encouraging Australians to buy electric cars through different environmentally-oriented policies.
However, hybrid vehicle owners will lose the ability to claim a fringe benefit tax exemption for plug-in hybrids from April 1, 2025.
Announced in October, a reclassification of the law will mean that plug-in hybrids will no longer be considered zero- or low-emission vehicles, but fully electric vehicles will still be eligible for the exemption.