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Charging courtesy

LETTER: For the week of Sept. 19
electric_vehicle_charging
PHOTO BY LAURA SCULLY

I own an electric car,

and it is the ultimate second car. Putting in more charging sites is a great initiative. However, current charging set-ups and etiquette just aren't working.

For Whistler to meet its green goals, more chargers along the corridor are necessary; notably, Squamish only has one fast charger, one regular charger...and at least four proprietary Tesla stations. Many cars need to stop for a substantial top-up en route to make it up to Whistler. Newer cars do have more range, but most don't, and temperature and gradient are real factors.

The current one-car-at-a-time set-up doesn't work for longer-term situations, such as P1, malls, or YVR. Stations with multiple cables that would automatically switch from one vehicle to another once charged, depending on when they signed in, would make more sense in many spots. This would allow much better usage of the infrastructure, without taking up too much space.

And what about charge-station etiquette? Where does it say that you get to leave your car on a charger indefinitely while others are waiting? Why is it so horribly wrong if I unplug your car when the charger says it is done charging (and you are nowhere to be seen), to start charging my vehicle? Who decides that "courtesy" means I stop charging at 80 per cent if you are waiting, when I know I need to get to 85 per cent—at most another five minutes—to get through my day and then home?

Since when does "courtesy" mean you can stand there, glaring and tapping your toe, while I take that necessary five minutes? Would you do that anywhere else?

And that was just yesterday! I have seen as many as four vehicles waiting for the charger in Squamish, and people almost come to blows over someone unplugging a fully charged and unattended vehicle.

Last but not least, owning an electric car does not make you a saintly expert on vehicle range, courtesy, and other people's needs. It definitely does not make you entitled to settle in at any charger, whenever and for as long as you please. (I'm looking at you, Tesla driver! Use your own chargers!).

Hybrid driver, you chose convenience, so please let me charge my car when it is my only way to get where I am going.

And you, the gas driver blocking that precious charger? There are no words...or maybe one: Towtruck.

I am sure I am breaking all kinds of "rules" of ''courtesy'' by even writing this, but (obviously) this has been on my mind, and Pique's recent article brought it to the fore ("Whistler has its work cut out for it on EV charging," Pique, Sept.12). The muni's effort is laudable, but there are some bigger-picture electric car charging issues that they could set a great example with.

Laura Scully (Joncas) // Whistler