[elihu]

I suppose a long-term solution is just to have more charge ports. Or to have charge stations with longer cords so they can service more parking spots.

I mean, charge stations are basically just 110 or 220 volt AC electrical outlets with a fancy plug. There isn't any fundamental reason they have to be an expensive, scarce resource. The more difficult scarce resource is the underlying electrical infrastructure. But if a commercial site only has so much power available, it seems better to just have a cap on the number of chargers that can be active at once to stay within the amperage limits of the site rather than to artificially constrain the number of charge stations. Then if someone is using a "charging spot" but isn't actually charging, it's not a problem; they aren't blocking anyone else from charging.

That's a long-term solution, though. For now we just don't have enough charging stations in most places to be able to not care if someone is using one when they shouldn't be.

[paledot]

Well, fast chargers not so much. There you're looking at 50+ kW with liquid-cooled cables. But yes, urban and destination charging stations don't need any fancy infrastructure.