Tesla is making its ICEing barriers easier to use
Every new Tesla charger in China will have the barriers
ICEing has become a problem for electric vehicle owners in recent years, especially Tesla owners. ICEing occurs when a gas-powered vehicle (or Internal Combustion Engine – ICE) vehicle blocks a spot at a charging station, usually out of spite for EVs.
Tesla decided to fight back, installing barriers that prevent vehicles from parking in the charging spot unless the user lowers the barrier beforehand. The new defense system was first implemented in China. The problem was that this system required a second app that wasn’t always easy to use. Now, Tesla says the barrier can be controlled using the normal Tesla app.
Tesla is now installing the barrier system at every new charging station installed in China. We don’t yet know if there are plans to install the technology in other markets, but it certainly seems plausible.
This does bring up some interesting questions, however. For example, this would limit the charging station exclusively to Tesla vehicles. Moreover, it would mean making significant changes to the parking lot which sometimes is far larger than the spot reserved for the Tesla superchargers. This would essentially restrict this area to Tesla vehicles.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out and if we start seeing barriers at Tesla Superchargers in North America.