8 ms·

At a cost of at least $1000 for a charging station and installation, I can’t see many people wanting to pay for this if they are renting.

by gav 8y ago

fpgaminer 8y ago
I'd be curious if there are loan options that would cover the cost. Then it's not such a crazy thing for renters to consider installing a charger. (I mean, they're already paying ~$30k for a car on loan; another $1k isn't much).
- jschwartzi 8y ago
  I move every 3 or 4 years, so I'd basically be paying each landlord to make improvements to their place and then leaving those improvements behind.
  - logfromblammo 8y ago
    If the landlord bought the charger station, they'd up your rent by what the market would bear for parking spots with EV-charging capacity. So you install it at your expense, sell it at the depreciated price when you move out, and the landlord recovers the cost by upping the rent for the next EV driver looking for a new apartment. Or they don't, and you remove it and take it with you when you leave, paying the electrician labor again on both ends.
nostrademons 8y ago
The demographic that would currently buy an electric car in California can easily pay for $1K for a changing station. If you're going to spend $30K on a Leaf or plug-in Prius or $50K on a Model 3 (vs. $18K for a Corolla or Fit), $1K is a drop in the bucket. It's also a tiny fraction of rent in Northern California, roughly 12 days worth.
- prostoalex 8y ago
  The new Hyundai Ioniq PHEV can be bought for $25k. In any case, most people don’t just shell out a random $30,000 they have burning a whole in their pocket, they finance the purchase over 5-6 years. Sudden out-of-pocket $1,000 is kinda a big deal, especially if one plans on moving out in a year or two.
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    I must be living in Silicon Valley too long, because a large number of people I know - amongst the tech crowd at least - do in fact shell out a random $30K they have burning a hole in their pocket. (Lest I get accused of being way too out of touch, I do know people for whom affording even a $200 car repair is out of reach, and something they'll put up a GoFundMe over. These people do not drive electric cars. If you can afford the ~$5K in interest that financing a car over 6 years will cost you, you can afford the $1K charger. If you can't afford this, you buy a used Ford or Chevy rather than any of the cars we're talking about here.)
    - prostoalex 8y ago
      The way I see it that with 0% financing deals aplenty there’s virtually no incentive to pay cash upfront. Might just as well stick that $30k into some high-yield savings account and set up automatic payments from there. Builds credit history, too.
      - nostrademons 8y ago
        The last couple times I've been car shopping the 0% financing deals come with a jacked-up list price. You may get the loan at 0%, but the way that works is that they quote a higher price to begin with and then the 0% financing (assuming good credit) was their "concession" in the negotiation. We bought our cars for under dealer price, paying by cashier's check, so I assume that the actual dealer price was even lower (otherwise they wouldn't be willing to sell us the car), particularly since the lowest price they would go with financing was a couple thousand higher (credit scores in the 800s).
elif 8y ago
if $1000 is rough, you can buy a $50 extension cable. Source: I drag an orange 75 foot extension cable once per week and have used a public charger exactly once for novelty-sake.
- lgats 8y ago
  There are some losses with running that much power through a long extension cable - maybe 1-4% depending on the setup.
  - prawn 8y ago
    Do you think that will be a significant factor in this discussion and dissuade people from EV ownership?
- mikekchar 8y ago
  My wife wants a new car (I don't drive) and I'm looking into an EV. We live in an apartment building. The biggest problem I see is that there is no power I can connect a cable to that can be billed to me. The only external power in the building is used by the building for various things (mostly cleaning). So there is going to be some cost to setting this up even if the landlord allows it (which he may not).
prawn 8y ago
I'll suspect that these people (and most people in fact) won't own their own cars. Those that do, in regional areas most likely, will have their own garaging and access to power.
jblow 8y ago
You probably don’t need a charging station. Teslas can charge from a wall outlet, for example.
- Johnny555 8y ago
  The Tesla gives around 5 hours of range per hour of charging in a standard 120VAC outlet, so if your car is parked 12 hours overnight, your one-way commute has to be less than 30 miles.
  - fred256 8y ago
    5 miles of range per hour of charging, presumably?
  - ec109685 8y ago
    You have weekends to catch up as well, where depending on life style, might keep the car parked in garage for longer period.
  - jblow 8y ago
    Who said 120v? Plug it into a dryer outlet. My point was that you don't need all this big excessive expensive charging circuitry.
jdietrich 8y ago
Here in the UK, EV chargers are heavily subsidised, on the basis that they're tantamount to a common resource. Installing a 7kW home charger costs as little as £150 ($200) after subsidy, with charger grants also available for businesses and local governments. It's a bit regressive considering the high cost of EVs right now, but it seems like a sensible step if you're aiming for ubiquitous charging infrastructure.

At a cost of at least $1000 for a charging station and installation, I can’t see many people wanting to pay for this if they are renting.

by gav 8y ago

At a cost of at least $1000 for a charging station and installation, I can’t see many people wanting to pay for this if they are renting.

fpgaminer 8y ago

I'd be curious if there are loan options that would cover the cost. Then it's not such a crazy thing for renters to consider installing a charger. (I mean, they're already paying ~$30k for a car on loan; another $1k isn't much).

jschwartzi 8y ago
I move every 3 or 4 years, so I'd basically be paying each landlord to make improvements to their place and then leaving those improvements behind.
- logfromblammo 8y ago
  If the landlord bought the charger station, they'd up your rent by what the market would bear for parking spots with EV-charging capacity. So you install it at your expense, sell it at the depreciated price when you move out, and the landlord recovers the cost by upping the rent for the next EV driver looking for a new apartment. Or they don't, and you remove it and take it with you when you leave, paying the electrician labor again on both ends.

nostrademons 8y ago

The demographic that would currently buy an electric car in California can easily pay for $1K for a changing station. If you're going to spend $30K on a Leaf or plug-in Prius or $50K on a Model 3 (vs. $18K for a Corolla or Fit), $1K is a drop in the bucket. It's also a tiny fraction of rent in Northern California, roughly 12 days worth.

prostoalex 8y ago
The new Hyundai Ioniq PHEV can be bought for $25k. In any case, most people don’t just shell out a random $30,000 they have burning a whole in their pocket, they finance the purchase over 5-6 years. Sudden out-of-pocket $1,000 is kinda a big deal, especially if one plans on moving out in a year or two.
- nostrademons 8y ago
  I must be living in Silicon Valley too long, because a large number of people I know - amongst the tech crowd at least - do in fact shell out a random $30K they have burning a hole in their pocket. (Lest I get accused of being way too out of touch, I do know people for whom affording even a $200 car repair is out of reach, and something they'll put up a GoFundMe over. These people do not drive electric cars. If you can afford the ~$5K in interest that financing a car over 6 years will cost you, you can afford the $1K charger. If you can't afford this, you buy a used Ford or Chevy rather than any of the cars we're talking about here.)
  - prostoalex 8y ago
    The way I see it that with 0% financing deals aplenty there’s virtually no incentive to pay cash upfront. Might just as well stick that $30k into some high-yield savings account and set up automatic payments from there. Builds credit history, too.
    - nostrademons 8y ago
      The last couple times I've been car shopping the 0% financing deals come with a jacked-up list price. You may get the loan at 0%, but the way that works is that they quote a higher price to begin with and then the 0% financing (assuming good credit) was their "concession" in the negotiation. We bought our cars for under dealer price, paying by cashier's check, so I assume that the actual dealer price was even lower (otherwise they wouldn't be willing to sell us the car), particularly since the lowest price they would go with financing was a couple thousand higher (credit scores in the 800s).

elif 8y ago

if $1000 is rough, you can buy a $50 extension cable. Source: I drag an orange 75 foot extension cable once per week and have used a public charger exactly once for novelty-sake.

lgats 8y ago
There are some losses with running that much power through a long extension cable - maybe 1-4% depending on the setup.
- prawn 8y ago
  Do you think that will be a significant factor in this discussion and dissuade people from EV ownership?
mikekchar 8y ago
My wife wants a new car (I don't drive) and I'm looking into an EV. We live in an apartment building. The biggest problem I see is that there is no power I can connect a cable to that can be billed to me. The only external power in the building is used by the building for various things (mostly cleaning). So there is going to be some cost to setting this up even if the landlord allows it (which he may not).

prawn 8y ago

I'll suspect that these people (and most people in fact) won't own their own cars. Those that do, in regional areas most likely, will have their own garaging and access to power.

jblow 8y ago

You probably don’t need a charging station. Teslas can charge from a wall outlet, for example.

Johnny555 8y ago
The Tesla gives around 5 hours of range per hour of charging in a standard 120VAC outlet, so if your car is parked 12 hours overnight, your one-way commute has to be less than 30 miles.
- fred256 8y ago
  5 miles of range per hour of charging, presumably?
- ec109685 8y ago
  You have weekends to catch up as well, where depending on life style, might keep the car parked in garage for longer period.
- jblow 8y ago
  Who said 120v? Plug it into a dryer outlet. My point was that you don't need all this big excessive expensive charging circuitry.

jdietrich 8y ago

Here in the UK, EV chargers are heavily subsidised, on the basis that they're tantamount to a common resource. Installing a 7kW home charger costs as little as £150 ($200) after subsidy, with charger grants also available for businesses and local governments. It's a bit regressive considering the high cost of EVs right now, but it seems like a sensible step if you're aiming for ubiquitous charging infrastructure.