The Mid-Autumn Festival is a good time for self-driving trips, but overtime charges during charging have become an annoyance for some new energy car owners. At present, more and more car companies have begun to charge overtime occupancy fees for their self-built charging piles and third-party charging apps. The charging standards range from a few cents to several yuan per minute, and the cap is generally around tens of yuan.
However, many Tesla owners have reported that the overtime occupancy fee for charging piles is too high and there is no upper limit. A car owner bluntly said that he used a super charging pile to charge, and the charging fee was 60.7 yuan, and the overtime occupancy fee was 867.2 yuan, with a total of more than 900 yuan charged. Some car owners posted bills showing that charging and overtime occupancy fees totaled 1,706.06 yuan, of which the charging fee was only 64.46 yuan and the overtime occupancy fee was as high as 1,641.6 yuan...
Should overtime occupancy fees be charged? How to collect it? Different car owners have different views. However, a big principle is that the original intention of overtime occupancy fees is to optimize the efficiency of charging stations and should not become a disguised profit tool.
Is the "Charging Assassin" coming?
On September 15th, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday officially begins. The Ministry of Transport predicts that the national transportation passenger flow will increase significantly compared with usual times and will be generally stable and orderly. Data shows that in terms of highways, the number of passenger vehicles on highways across the country was about 33 million to 34 million vehicles that day, and short- and medium-distance self-driving for returning home to visit relatives and traveling around the country was the main mode of travel.
However, some new energy car owners who travel by car have encountered some troubles. Many car owners have discovered that many charging piles have begun to charge overtime occupancy fees, which has significantly increased their charging costs.
Sina Technology found out that different car companies and third-party charging apps have different charging standards for overtime occupancy fees, which also leads to huge differences in overall prices.
Taking the third-party charging app as an example, Sina Technology saw on Xiaoju Charging that different charging pile operators charge overtime occupancy fees ranging from 0.17 yuan/minute, 0.2 yuan/minute, 0.3 yuan/minute, 0.5 yuan/minute. Generally, they are charged when charging equipment or parking spaces are still occupied 20 minutes/30 minutes after the end of charging, with a single cap of 30 yuan or 60 yuan.
Xiaoju Charging customer service stated that this move is mainly to allow more car owners to charge efficiently. Overtime occupancy fees will be charged by the charging station, and will be notified by text message and phone call before charging. In addition, overtime occupancy fees and parking fees are different charges. The overtime occupancy fee is a fee incurred by occupying the charging facility for a long time after charging is completed, so the two are billed and collected independently.
Compared with third-party charging apps, car companies charge higher overtime occupancy fees for their own charging piles.
Xpeng's overtime occupancy fee is 1 yuan/minute, which is charged when the vehicle is in a non-charging state and the parking space or charging gun is occupied for more than 30 minutes. Xpeng customer service said that the upper limit of the space occupation fee for a single charging order is 100 yuan; Weilai's overtime occupancy fee is 0.5 yuan/minute, which is drawn after more than 15 minutes of charging, with a cap of 50 yuan; Jikrypton's overtime occupancy fee is 1 yuan/minute, which is charged after the space is occupied for more than 30 minutes, with a cap of 50 yuan.
Tesla’s overtime occupancy fee charging standard is the highest. The Tesla App shows that if the vehicle has completed charging but is still parked in the charging parking space, overtime occupancy fees will be incurred. If the vehicle leaves the charging parking space within 5 minutes after charging starts, the overtime occupancy fee will not be charged. Overtime occupancy fees will only be incurred when the available parking spaces in the Super Charging Station are less than or equal to 50%. When there are no free parking spaces at the Super Charging Station, double the overtime occupancy fee will be charged. The maximum overtime occupancy fee is 6.4 yuan/minute.
Should overtime occupancy fees be charged?
It is worth noting that some car companies do not set a cap on overtime occupancy fees, which also caused some car owners to face sky-high overtime occupancy fees after charging.
Some Douyin netizens said that they used Tesla super charging piles to charge, and the charging fee was 60.7 yuan, and the overtime occupancy fee was 867.2 yuan, with a total of more than 900 yuan charged. “I suddenly felt that Tesla was no longer popular,” he complained.
Some Xiaohongshu netizens posted about the sky-high overtime occupancy fees they encountered. The bill shows that charging and overtime occupancy fees total 1,706.06 yuan, of which the charging fee is only 64.46 yuan and the overtime occupancy fee is as high as 1,641.6 yuan. "It's just overbearing terms and forced charges, which is very unreasonable."
In addition, some car owners reported on Black Cat Complaint [Download Black Cat Complaint Client] that they had been charged 1,200 yuan or even 2,435 yuan in overtime occupancy fees. Car owners believe that Tesla should automatically notify customers through multiple channels through the App, mobile phone text messages and emails after charging is completed, and should set a cap on overtime occupancy fees like other brands, which is more reasonable.
Regarding overtime occupancy fees, Tesla also gave a detailed explanation on its official website. Tesla said that in order to provide all car owners with a good experience, it decided to increase the utilization rate of charging stations by charging overtime occupancy fees. The Tesla mobile app can help car owners remotely monitor the charging status of their vehicles. When the vehicle is about to complete charging, the owner will receive a reminder; when the battery is fully charged, the owner will receive another reminder. "It needs to be emphasized that our purpose in launching this measure is to improve customer satisfaction, not to make profit."
In fact, different car owners have different views on overtime occupancy fees.
For example, some car owners believe that overtime occupancy fees should be vigorously promoted across the country. Without overtime fees, some low-quality drivers will occupy charging piles for a long time; other car owners believe that the charging standards for overtime occupancy fees are still questionable, especially when charging service providers must have clear text messages or phone calls to remind them.
Overall, charging overtime occupancy fees will undoubtedly be of great help in solving the problem of utilization efficiency of charging stations. But at the same time, the specific charging standards and related systems should also be optimized and transparency increased to protect the personal rights and interests of car owners and prevent unexpected sky-high bills.