Utes block EV charging carparks

Tesla owners are finding more unoccupied internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles like utes parked in designated Tesla supercharger areas.

So says Tesla Owners Club of New Zealand president John Fitness, adding that Wellington suburb Johnsonville and the Hawke’s Bay seem to be among the worst places in the country for such activity.

This follows a report about a ute parked at a supercharger site near a Hastings golf club with a Tesla charging cable underneath its bonnet.

This behaviour is on the rise, particularly since the announcement of the “feebate” scheme offering rebates for electric and hybrid cars and fees for high-polluting vehicles, according to EV drivers, Stuff reports.

Fitness says a photo the Hastings incident shows plenty of unoccupied parking sites nearby.

He believes the ute driver did it as a joke – which seems to have backfired as a company’s logo features on the ICE vehicle.

It’s brought a social media storm.

Fitness says he feels for the company involved, which apologised, as the incident has been “slammed” by many, the response even overloading the company’s Google review section.

A ute with a Tesla supercharger cable poking from its bonnet was also photographed at a Johnsonville supercharger site.

Fitness says the joke’s worn thin, particularly as Tesla owners may be waiting to use the supercharger and the ICE vehicle drivers could be absent for some time.

He says utes are frequent offenders and wonders if the ute bonnets may also damage the EV charging cables.

Fitness notes such incidents where fossil fuel vehicles block EV charging sites – known as ‘ICEing’ – are “almost nil” in cities like Auckland and Whangarei.