After a relaxing Saturday morning and afternoon, it was time to start getting ready for Saturday night plans. The only obstacle in the way, the charge needed for the car, which has become a familiar theme over the past few months.

Because of the experiences of the past, we mapped out several scenarios along the way that would allow for a charge. Up first – the tried and true Electrify America at Wrentham Outlets. This is always an interesting experience. The app said that there were 2 of 4 chargers available, but as the loyal readers of Range Anxieties know, you can never get excited about that. We drove there, and despite the traffic getting into the outlets and the fullness of the parking lots, there were actually 2 chargers free. We did a quick glance to see that one seemed to be offline but the other looked like it was working. However, after plugging in the car several times, the charging station failed to start.

What made this whole experience so much more painful was the fact that the car next to us had well exceeded its time at the charger, but the driver was nowhere to be found. It’s a frustrating situation because we needed to use the charger, but that car had gone beyond even the grace period, moving it into the penalty charge zone. As I had previously posted, I will reiterate my call for a pledge where the EV community should collectively agree on a set of standards by which we all agree to operate. The complete lack of courtesy on the part of this driver forced us to drive to Foxboro to look for a charge there.

As we approached the Electrify America station in Foxboro, there was an Audi EV directly in front of us, and I’m sure all EV users can appreciate the sinking feeling we get when we know that another car might beat us to a free charging space. Sure enough, that was the case here, and the other 3 chargers were also occupied. However, there was a brief (yet fleeting) moment of relief when we noticed that one of the cars was already charged to 77%. We figured it would only be a few minutes until they ended their session and went on their way, particularly (and as I have written about before) as the rare of charging drastically decreases after 80%.

There would be no such luck today. We waiting another 25 minutes until that Audi that beat us there initially finished up and left, allowing us to acquire a smooth charge (and we were also able to do a quick errand during our charging session).

Another frustrating incident of note was that when we arrived at Foxboro, there was another car that was at 52% charge. When we left at 80%, not only was that car still there and charging but it was at 97%, charging at a rate of 31kw with a tally of over $38. Not only was it inconsiderate to charge beyond 80%, it was doing damage to the battery and was costing this apparently uninformed EV driver a small fortune.