It’s no secret that an electric vehicle can easily take more time to charge than a combustion vehicle does to fuel up. Of course, with faster-charging technologies coming up, this charging time is definitely improving. But it is going to take a lot of improvement for it to match fuelling time. Now, if this wasn’t enough, there are some gas car owners who are creating hassles for EV owners with respect to charging.
Gas cars, also known as Internal Combustion Engine or ICE vehicles, have a lot of fans in the world right now. And most of these fans are electric vehicle haters. They talk about engines being the purest form of mobility and consider electric mobility to be the devil. And these are the ones who have been causing a nuisance to EV owners, through an act termed as “ICEing”.
What Exactly is ICE-ing?
Normally, most of the public chargers are installed in parking lots in small towns. Yes, there are charging stations just like gas stations, but to increase the number of chargers, they are also located in parking lots. And this is where combustion vehicle owners decide to play pranks. They deliberately park their vehicles in the EV charging spots.
Make no mistake, this isn’t intentional every single time. But when it does happen deliberately, it’s called ICE-ing. And the worst part of it is that EV owners cannot do much about it. At the most, they can confront the gas car owners, but if these people are doing it deliberately, then there’s no way that’ll end peacefully. Many a time, things like these have led to road rage and violence.
Are There Laws against ICE-ing?
The answer is yes. But they aren’t very common, and even in places they are in place, the enforcement of the law is rare. There was an incident in November 2019, where Berlin Police moved a Ford truck by a crane to clear up a spot for a Tesla Model S for charging.
Unser #A11 kümmert sich auch um Schwergewichte:
Hätte der große Blaue tatsächlich die Ladesäule angezapft, wäre vermutlich in den umliegenden Haushalten der Strom ausgefallen.
^tsm pic.twitter.com/ilxy0TvVP7— Polizei Berlin (@polizeiberlin) November 9, 2019
Another incident took place at a Tesla Supercharger in the United States recently. Tesla owner and video producer Arash Malek recently encountered a gas car parking at a Tesla Supercharger. A Honda Odyssey was parked at the charger, with the charging cable shoved into its grille to make it look like it was actually charging. Malek confronted them about it, and they just ran off, leaving the car parked at the Supercharger.
They thought it was funny, I confronted them and they just ran off. @Tesla @elonmusk @teslaownersSV pic.twitter.com/DLN2eoWs3U
— Arash Malek ? (@MinimalDuck) March 22, 2021
Malek also said that there was a sign saying that ICE vehicles would be towed if they were blocking the Supercharger. But there was no phone number to call any towing company. So, unless you want to push the issue with the gas car owner, there’s not much you can do.
Alternative Solutions
Now, there are some other solutions for this problem. You could have segregation for electric vehicles and combustion vehicles in parking lots themselves. But it would be wrong to turn away a gas car if that section is full when there are empty spots in the EV section.
Tesla is actually testing a new bit of technology that can solve this issue. An obstruction can be installed in the charging spots which can only be lowered by a sensor located on electric vehicles. Tesla is trying this out at some Supercharger stations in China and some people in Taiwan have also seen this in action.
Tesla Taiwan testing out new supercharger ground locks solution to fix ICE issues. A camera identifies the Tesla via plate number as the car backs up and unlocks accordingly. @elonmusk @tesla pic.twitter.com/tFU1twMBdg
— Tesla Owners Taiwan (@TeslaOwnersTwn) February 14, 2019
Of course, for every solution, there can be a counter-problem. If this gets standardized, it won’t take long for third-party manufacturers to start selling this kind of sensors to ICE owners as well. It’s just a vicious cycle. Stricter laws and better enforcement may take an important step towards a solution.
Our Opinion
This is a really sad kind of attitude that ICE owners display. Just because you don’t like electric vehicles doesn’t entitle you to harass those who do. If an electric vehicle owner parked his vehicle at a gas station and blocked gas cars, the uproar would be huge. It’s just something that will require stricter law enforcement. Because people who actually do this are most likely to not change their attitude.
What do you think about this kind of behaviour? Do let us know in the comments.
