On 14 July, a content creator in Singapore, Cheryl Tay, aka @cheryltaysg on Instagram, was shocked to discover she had been charged an idle fee of S$20 for leaving her electric vehicle (EV) charging for more than two hours.
Taking to Instagram, the 37-year-old shared that she had recently taken the new BMW iX1, an EV, for a test drive.
She noted that there were more charging stations around Singapore for such vehicles.
However, she had failed to realise that due to the “hogging” of such charging lots, whereby drivers leave their EVs in the station for an extended period of time, authorities had implemented an idle fee.
Source: @cheryltaysg on Instagram
Once an EV was done charging, its driver will receive a grace period of 30 minutes to remove their vehicle.
Beyond that, they will begin receiving a fee of S$0.50 per minute, with the charge varying across different providers.
Ms Tay’s total cost of charging the EV ended up being S$27.82, of which S$20 was due to the idle fee.
Source: @cheryltaysg on Instagram
Speaking to MS News, Ms Tay shared that she occasionally test drove EVs so she had used the charging lots before.
However, this was her first time encountering the idle fee since its implementation.
“When I was charging the car, I saw the idle fee in the app and wondered what it was,” she said, adding that the incident occurred on 28 June at an EV lot in Jewel Changi Airport.
Source: @cheryltaysg on Instagram
“I wanted to Google it but I was rushing for my appointment so I forgot about it.”
As she had not turned the notifications for her app on, she was unaware when the car had completed its charging. It also slipped her mind that she was driving an EV as her usual car was not one.
“When I came back to the car, I saw that the total fee I paid was S$27+ and I was like whoa why so ex?!” Ms Tay recalled.
“In all the times I’ve paid for charging it’s never been this much. Then I looked at the bill and realised I was charged an idle fee.”
Ms Tay went on to share that the car started charging at 3.30pm. By 4.15pm, it had completed its charging and a 30-minute grace period to remove it by 4.45pm then began.
Source: @cheryltaysg on Instagram
Unfortunately, she was only able to return to the car by 5.50pm, taking it out of the charging lot after a total of two hours and 20 minutes.
The idle fee rate of S$0.50 per minute had a cap of S$20 per charging session, Ms Tay added.
“Even though I left it there for one hour and five minutes after the grace period ended, it was still S$20,” she said.
“I also had to pay for the car park fees on top of the charging fees so that was one very expensive appointment,” Ms Tay concluded.
Acknowledging her error in being unaware of the idle fee, Ms Tay noted that not many seemed to know about such a charge.
“But that’s probably because they are not EV drivers,” she remarked. “I think this is a great move to prevent hogging of the charging lots.”
“As EVs are more encouraged now, more people will switch to EVs and these lots will need to be shared more.”
“I totally deserve this fine,” she emphasised while speaking with MS News. “And now that I know about it, I will be more mindful the next time I drive an EV.”
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Featured image adapted from @cheryltaysg on Instagram.
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