A pair of mid-engined supercars were recently snapped ICEing a Tesla Supercharger station in Australia, leaving at least one Tesla owner very displeased.
The McLaren 765LT and Lamborghini Aventador SVJ were seen parked at the station at Runaway Bay in the Gold Coast on May 28 and images of the pair were shared to PlugShare, a popular website that shows the location of EV charging stations, by user “Tessi”. This particular station only opened in mid-May, just two weeks before the incident.
Taking to PlugShare to express their frustration, the individual who snapped the photos reportedly spoke with the owner of the McLaren and Lamborghini who claimed they thought the parking bays could also be shared with non-EVs. While that may be a lame excuse, there doesn’t actually appear to be any signage that says ICE models can’t park there.
Read: Drivers Could Be Fined Over $2,000 For ‘ICE-ing’ EV Chargers In Australia
All we can see are little signs reading ‘Tesla Charging’ behind each spot but we know at some charging stations across Australia, the parking space itself will be painted a different color and may say ‘EV only’, for example.
This latest incident of ICEing comes just a couple of months after a number of Australia’s states and territories announced fines for owners of combustion-powered models that are found parked in EV charging bays. As The Driven reports, in Queensland, motorists found ICEing will need to cough up $2,875 ($1,900). Of course, actually issuing these fines would have required the police to be called to this Supercharger so there’s a good chance the owners of the McLaren and Lamborghini escaped without a fine.
Following the implementation of the fines, the policy head of Australia’s Electric Vehicle Council said they sent a “very clear and strong signal.”
“Every charger available is critical and valuable to the fleet of 80,000-odd EVs in the country and we need to make sure they’re not blocked, either intentionally or accidentally,” he said. “There are genuine mistakes made by some people but we need to have a broad recognition across society that these chargers need to be available to EVs so we can have more on our roads.”
Images Tessi@Plugshare