Video of man allegedly turning off another car's EV charger sparks disapproval

Imagine leaving your electric vehicle (EV) to charge at a carpark one day, only to come back and find that the charger had been switched off while you were gone. 

That's what one driver experienced at Ikea Tampines last Wednesday (Aug 14), with a video of the incident shared on Facebook page SG Road Vigilante - SGRV on Aug 15.

The post also alleges that the driver of another vehicle in the area had turned the charger off.

In the clip, captured on a car's dashcam, a man wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and jeans can be seen pacing about the carpark before walking over to the charger. 

He looks at the charger box for a few seconds before taking out his phone and looking around. 

After a few people walk past him, he reaches up to the charger box area and appears to fiddle with it before heading back to his car, a turquoise Byd Atto 3. 

In the second part of the video, the driver of the affected car, which is a Tesla, gets out of the vehicle and walks over to the Byd Atto 3 to film its number plate.

The driver of the Byd Atto 3 was not in his car when this happened. 

It's not immediately clear if the Byd Atto 3 driver had done this intentionally, but viewers have taken to the comments section to call out the man's behaviour. 

The post has since gone viral and, at the time of writing, has 110 shares and 120 comments. 

In the comments, several netizens called the Byd Atto 3 driver "immature", with one likening him to a five-year-old child. 

Another said that people like the driver of the Byd Atto 3 are the reason why EVs are taking a while to be fully operational in Singapore. 

One netizen also pointed that the EV charging system had a "stupid design". 

He said that the power switch should not be so easily accessible and questioned why it was not locked up. 

ALSO READ: Mercedes driver slammed for parking in EV charging lot at Funan car park

melissateo@asiaone.com