More Than Education Is Needed To Stop ICE Drivers Like This.
We spotted this luxury car parked in a dedicated plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle car park charging bay in a 5-Star hotel recently. This is NOT a rare occurrence as we have seen this in shopping malls and even a petrol stations where dedicated battery charging bays are used by petrol and diesel only powered vehicles as the drivers of these vehicles lack common sense and good family up bringing.
Yes, we can say this without worrying about some keyboard warriors ‘slamming’ us on social media as this if a fact.
So what does ICE mean (for those of you wondering). ICE means, ‘internal combustion engine’ which is a petrol or diesel powered vehicle.
Of course in this picture you see a Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicle owner being totally ignorant to the warning posted right next to his car. These are car owners who ‘feel entitled’ and we are sure the car park operator will not be able to take action against the driver as the usual argument will be ‘I am a Datuk’ or ‘I am a Yang Berhormat’ or even worse ‘do you know who I am’ statements will be thrown against the car park operator who is just trying to do their job.
This arrogant act by the Benz driver is known as ‘ICEing’ or ‘ICEd’ in countries where there is a high number of PHEV and EV’s. Malaysia is heading in that direction and education and enforcement needs to start now to prevent misuse of charging bay spots.
So what can be done to ‘educate’ these ICE drivers. Well EV charging provider ‘Chargepoint’ suggests this below.
Drivers of ICE vehicles sometimes park in spots designated for clean air vehicles or EV charging. It’s common enough that there’s a term for it: getting ICEd. We know this can be stressful. But please don’t retaliate with a mean message that gives EV drivers a bad name. Instead, leave a friendly note educating ICE drivers and encouraging them not to take an EV spot again.
Here is an example of what you could write: Hey driver, you’re parked in a spot designated for electric vehicle charging. EV drivers like me depend on being able to charge our cars at stations like this. I hope you’ll leave the spot open next time. Thanks for helping EV drivers stay charged!
We mentioned this above, but it’s definitely worth repeating: charging spots are for charging, not parking! That applies to EVs as well. Please don’t use a charging spot as your personal parking spot and park there without plugging in that’s as frustrating as being ICEd! Get a charge and move on.
Reading the above, we think otherwise. In Malaysia, car owners like this Mercedes-Benz driver should be clamped and fined at least RM50.00, no excuses as they can read the signboards and if they want, they can go to court and argue the clamping fee.
