Trucks blocking Tesla charging stations
States scramble to pass laws preventing ‘ICE-ing’ after incidents reported across the U.S.
A trend called “ICE-ing,” involving gasoline- or diesel-engined trucks blocking Tesla charging stations, may be picking up across the U.S.
The prank involves the owners of the trucks purposefully occupying the space in front of a row of public Tesla Superchargers so owners of the electric vehicles won’t be able to top up their cars’ batteries, according to reporters in several U.S. and British newspapers.
The most recent case of ICE-ing drawing media attention was shared by a Reddit user, Leicina, who photographed a group of young men in Hickory, North Carolina rendering a Tesla station half-useless by parking their lifted trucks in it.
The men apparently yelled “F--k Tesla” and, after being kicked off the lot by an attendant from an adjacent business, tried to use their pickups to intimidate the Tesla owners nearby.
Other incidents of ICE-ing have been documented in Tennessee, Texas and other states. Nine states and several U.S. cities have passed laws prohibiting gasoline- and diesel-engined vehicles from parking in front of EV charging ports, including Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington.
“ICE-ing” has been likened by some to be an evolution of “coal-rolling,” which involved owners of diesel trucks intentionally spewing excessive amounts of smoke from their vehicles’ exhausts onto nearby cars.