Electric car owners warned of charging wait times this Easter

The Easter long weekend typically brings an influx of people to the nation's roads, and electric car owners are being cautioned to plan ahead to avoid spending their road trip queuing for chargers.

As is the case with petrol stations, electric charging facilities will also see extended usage.

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EV charging providers such as Evie, which has over 200 charging stations around Australia, have predicted that over 10,000 EV drivers will use their network over the long Easter weekend. This comes after Evie reported that 8000 unique users charged up at their stations over Christmas.

Obviously, with this many electric cars on the road, there will be some wait times on the chargers in heavily populated areas. Bernhard Conoplia, Head of Public Charging Business for Evie, says that it pays to plan ahead before heading out.

"Before and during the holiday periods set to be the busiest, with Evie suggesting to EV users to charge earlier in the week rather than the Thursday before the long weekend," Mr Conoplia said.

Rob Asselman from the charging platform ChargeFox offered similar advice: "Be fully charged before you leave, make sure you check your charging app before you leave, and ensure that the chargers you aim to charge at are operational. Make sure you have a backup charging station before you head there. Don't plan to reach your destination with only three per cent on your battery".

There is currently no way to check wait times for a charger, but it pays to check ahead and see which charging stations are full and which ones are available to avoid disappointment.

Many different apps allow you to find out where your nearest charger is and its status. Australia's main app is ChargeFox, which gives insight into several different providers.

NRMA also recommends that you download the apps PlugShare and NeedToCharge. These apps allow you to contact other EV users to see how long they will be until they're back at their car.

The Tesla app will also tell you how many chargers are in use at their set locations. This will give you some insight into whether it's worth waiting for the charger or if you should search for another nearby.

While it is impossible to check how many people are waiting for a charger, Mr Conoplia from Evie says they are adding some insight to their app with the "busy time" feature that will tell you the busiest times at the charger.

"This Easter, we are expanding the busy time visibility at a station level across key sites that are used during the holiday period. This will provide customers with further information on what time of the day the charger is likely to experience peak and quieter levels of use to manage their charging."

Mr Asselman from ChargeFox said the company has been monitoring complaints to pass the information on to its partners. He says that complaints surrounding the wait time are on the decline.

"What we know is that over the Christmas period just gone, the wait times compared to that of last year were much improved," Mr Asselman said.

"In comparison [to 2022], we had very few complaints about wait times on our charging network… We are getting between 100 to 150 new chargers on the platform every month. Through that increase in chargers, wait times decrease."

You certainly can. Thankfully, charging stations have begun enforcing an 'idle fee'. There's nothing more frustrating than getting to a charging station and seeing a fully charged car still on the charger. An EV charger should be treated like a petrol pump – when you're all filled up, you should move your car into a parking spot.

Typically, idle fees are based on fully charged cars being left on charge.

Telsa charges $0.50 per minute you leave your car plugged in beyond your set charging parameters. This fee gets bumped up to $1 per minute when all other chargers are occupied.

Telsa says, "The Tesla app allows owners to remotely monitor their vehicle, alerting them when their charge is nearly complete and again once it reaches the charge threshold. For every additional minute a vehicle remains connected to the Supercharger, it will incur an idle fee".

ChargeFox, which operates chargers in partnership with providers like the RAA, NRMA and Woolworths, has started a trial in Western Australia that will charge $1 per minute in idle fees if you're not back at your car in 10 minutes after completing a charge.

Mr Asselman from ChargeFox said the idle fees they have introduced have been well received by the public.

"I've never seen a market celebrate the introduction of a new fee like the idle charging fee. We got amazing feedback from the drivers who use our network," he told Drive.

"We are seeing an increase in interest from our network providers. I can't say exactly which providers will be switching it on, but there is at least one major provider in Victoria who will be switching it on in the next couple of weeks."

"Networks are very keen to switch the idle fees on, but it's still very new, they just want to make sure they do it in the right way and communicate before they do it."

There is nothing you can do at the moment, and it's best not to take matters into your own hands.

As idle fees roll out into more and more charging stations, fewer cars will be seen hogging the chargers since there will be repercussions surrounding charger hogging.

There are also fines available for people who are 'ICEing' (purposefully blocking a charger with an internal combustion engine vehicle). It is now against the law to do this in the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, and could land ICE drivers thousands of dollars in fines.

It is best to just wait and be patient. Be kind to those who may be late returning to their car or find a new charger.

As Mr Conoplia from Evie says, "We understand this can be frustrating, however we're all EV drivers, reducing our environmental impact on the planet every day, so remember to be patient, polite and friendly".