Tesla driver sparks outrage after shocking act in front seat while parked at Woolworths charging station: ‘Completely selfish’

A Tesla driver was seriously injured after standing at a free charging station for more than four hours and blocking other motorists from entering the charging point.

The driver was photographed at a charging station in the Woolworths car park in Kirrawee, Sydney’s south, sitting in the front seat and “watching movies”.

“If this applies to you, do the community a favour and slap yourself,” one furious Woolies customer wrote on social media, alongside a photo of the car.

‘Completely selfish if the aim is to give people who shop at Woolworths free shopping.’

The time it takes to fully charge an electric vehicle (EV) varies by brand, with some Teslas taking up to eight hours.

Because this may mean some cars need to be charged overnight, most drivers use their own charging station at home.

In places where public charging stations are installed for general use, such as shopping car parks and petrol stations, it is not acceptable for motorists to spend hours at one charging spot.

The outraged customer in Kirrawee said there was a Tesla Supercharger available “literally across the street” which charges faster.

A Tesla driver (pictured) has been criticized for sitting in his car for more than four hours while it charged for free in a supermarket parking lot, depriving others of the chance to charge their electric vehicle

They said the person who had four hours of free charging at Woolworths should have used it.

Outrage over the way electric cars are charged is growing as vehicle sales increase and the number of charging stations cannot keep up with demand.

On Monday, an electric car driver was called selfish for parking “horizontally” at a charging station and denying other motorists access to the spot.

A photo of a white BYD was shared on Facebook, showing the car plugged into a charging station in the coastal suburb of Howrah in Hobart.

The empty car was seen parked sideways across from the loading bays, preventing other drivers from accessing it and blocking two motorcycle parking spaces. The bystander who took the photo expressed his anger at the driver.

“Congrats to the person who managed to get his car into the right side charger yesterday, while parking across the left side charging spot. AND a few bonus spots for his motorcycle,” they wrote.

The BYD driver’s selfish act and other similar recent incidents have raised questions about the etiquette surrounding electric vehicles. Pictured: An EV parked in multiple spots at a Queensland shopping centre in May

Social media users were quick to condemn the BYD driver.

“Don’t expect anyone who buys an electric car to have any sense,” one person wrote.

“The battery was probably completely dead and they had to move it there,” added another.

“They are reducing population growth by taking up all the parking spaces, so that anyone with a normal car has nowhere to park,” was another response.

“To be fair, he drives an electric car, but self-esteem comes naturally to him,” wrote another.

There are approximately 198,000 electric cars on Australian roads. Two-thirds of these have been purchased since 2022, and 87,000 of these have been purchased in the past 12 months.

In the next 40 years, 85 percent of vehicles on Australian roads will be electric.

Chinese electric carmakers are expected to flood Australia with cheap imports as the Americans and Europeans raise tariffs to protect their local automakers (pictured is a NIO ETS EV in Beijing)

Much of that growth is coming from China. Chinese electric carmakers are expected to flood Australia with cheap imports, while the Americans and Europeans wage a trade war to protect their local automakers.

Around a dozen new Chinese car brands are expected to launch in Australia over the next two years, a situation described as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘reshaping the market dramatically’.

Since 2015, Australia has had a free trade agreement with China. This means that cars from our largest trading partner are sold to Australian motorists without import duties or taxes.

Australians can now buy cheap Chinese electric cars, including the BYD Dolphin for $36,890, the MG4 from $39,990 and the GWM Ora from $35,990.