EV charger fines: overstay fees up to £1 a minute and £130 PCNs

Charging an electric car can now cost you more than the electricity if you stay too long or park in the wrong place. Tesla’s idle fee reaches £1 a minute at a full site, Westminster can issue a £130 penalty notice for misusing an EV bay, and a private camera at a supermarket can ticket you even when an app sent you to the charger.

The fines fall into three groups: network overstay fees, council penalties and private parking charges. Each works differently, and so does the appeal.

Network overstay and idle fees

Networks charge these to keep rapid chargers moving. They apply after charging ends or after a set time, and they are charged to your account automatically.

Network	Fee	Trigger
Tesla Supercharger	50p a minute, or £1 a minute when full	Site about half full or more, or completely full. Waived if you move within five minutes
Genie Point	£10, then £10 for each further 90 minutes	After 90 minutes
bp pulse	£10, rising to £20	After 90 minutes, then after 150 minutes, on 50kW, 150kW and 300kW chargers

Sources: Tesla, NimbleFins and bp pulse.

Tesla’s fee is the steepest per minute, but it is the easiest to avoid: you have five minutes of grace and the fee only bites when other cars are waiting. The flat fees at Genie Point and bp pulse are more of a risk on a long lunch stop. Check the charger’s screen or app for the exact rule before you walk away.

Council penalty notices for EV bays

Councils treat EV bays as restricted parking. Westminster can issue a £130 penalty charge notice if your car is in an EV bay without charging, reduced to £65 if you pay within 14 days. Councils can enforce EV bays directly (cinch). The same report says councils issued 161,303 fines for EV bay misuse between 2020 and August 2025, with the yearly total rising from 8,642 in 2020 to 46,128 in 2024.

The rule is simple for petrol cars blocking bays. It catches EV drivers too: a fully charged car left in the bay, or a plug-in hybrid not drawing power, can be treated as misuse. Read the bay signs, which may set a maximum stay.

Private tickets at supermarket chargers

The trickiest fines come from private car parks. In one reported case, Kevin Laban received a £70 notice at an Aldi in Weymouth after charging while the store was closed; the Pod Point app had directed him to the bay, and he said no sign or app message mentioned the restriction (Streamlinefeed). Aldi cancelled the notice after he complained.

The cause is that the charger and the car park can have separate terms, so you can be plugged in and still break the parking rules. Photograph the signs, the bay and the app listing when you arrive.

Why apps and chargers disagree with car parks

A charging app tells you whether a charger is working and free. It does not tell you the parking rules of the land it stands on. At a supermarket, retail park or leisure centre, the charge point operator, the landowner and the parking enforcement company are often three separate businesses, each with its own terms.

That is how a driver can follow the app to a bay, plug in, pay for the electricity and still receive a notice. The Weymouth case turned on opening hours: the car park’s cameras enforced store hours while the app showed the charger as usable. Aldi cancelled the notice after the complaint, but the driver had to fight for it.

Fees by type at a glance

Type	Who issues it	Typical amount in this report	How it is triggered
Idle or overstay fee	Charging network	50p to £1 a minute, or £10 flat	Staying after charging ends or beyond a time limit
Penalty charge notice	Council	£130, or £65 if paid in 14 days (Westminster)	Parking in an EV bay without charging
Parking charge	Private operator	£70 in the Weymouth case	Breaking car park terms such as hours

Network fees are the only ones you can see before you plug in, which makes them the easiest to manage. The other two depend on signs you have to find yourself.

How to appeal

The route depends on who issued the ticket, according to GOV.UK:

Ticket	First step	Deadline
Council notice on the windscreen	Informal challenge to the council	28 days to challenge; challenge within 14 days and a rejection may cost only 50%
Council notice by post	Formal representation	28 days
Private charge	Appeal to the operator, then POPLA if rejected	28 days from the rejection letter to reach POPLA

Overstay fees go through the network’s customer support. If a fee was charged after a broken charger or a failed session stop, say so and send evidence.

What this means for you

Set a phone alert for when your session should finish, and move the car as soon as it does. Before leaving the car at a supermarket, read the signs for opening hours and maximum stay, even if the app shows the charger as available. If you are fined, photograph everything, appeal inside the deadline and quote any app screenshot that sent you there. Our guides to charge point etiquette, charging apps and public charging prices cover the rest, and the rapid and ultra-rapid charging guide explains where long stops make sense.