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Yep - I for one wouldn't mind getting an EV, especially to drive around London. But I live in an apartment building, with underground parking, with no outlets.

Yep - I for one wouldn't mind getting an EV, especially to drive around London. But I live in an apartment building, with underground parking, with no outlets. At least Tesla have their chargers, I saw an entire section dedicated to them at a motorway service station, that serve double purpose as chargers and brightly coloured adverts...

wkearney99 7y ago
You have parking. Installing outlets, while not 'free', is not impossible. Certainly more realistic than on-street parking situations.
- wastedhours 7y ago
  Actually, I've seen plenty of people with cords running across the pavement to their cars from the house. Obviously run the risk of being sued for a trip hazard or someone unplugging it, but it's a bit of a stop gap.
simion314 7y ago
Your comment makes no sense, you can't charge at home Tesla or any other vehicle, so what is your plan buy a Tesla and go to the mall and charge it? What if you don't have energy to start the car? AFAIK the only reasonable option for people that can't charge at home is to charge the car at work, going to a mall and hoping you will find a free port is not something reasonable IMO.
- cheerlessbog 7y ago
  I think your are right. In the US, there are more driveways, a cable under the garage door is the most common solution. In Europe, at least the parts I know, on street parking is most common and the solution has to be building out chargers at work. A lot of them (I don't want to leave a meeting to move the car)
- wastedhours 7y ago
  I don't have a plan to buy any, but my point was that at least Tesla is helping to build out the infrastructure to help support them, whereas very few other EV manufacturers are helping with the problem at all.
  - simion314 7y ago
    Is that actually true in Europe? Also IMO it would be stupid to have BMW petrol stations, Renault petrol stations etc, the local authorities may need to give some incentives for the businesses to add generic charging stations, this could be like part of the petrol tax will go into subsidizing the chargers or putting public charging stations.
    - wastedhours 7y ago
      > Also IMO it would be stupid to have BMW petrol stations, Renault petrol stations etc Wholeheartedly agree - but EV use is growing faster that local authorities can build out supply in some areas and flawed capacity planning means there are chargers going unused in others. There's fewer independent suppliers as there are with petrol stations so the market incentive for other companies to pick up the middle ground isn't clear yet (esp compared with at home/work usage).
      - simion314 7y ago
        Private companies could fix this if the correct subsidies are provided,here in Romania for example when you install a solar panel to heat water or solar photo-voltaic panel , the government will pay 90% of the costs, there are limits for total cost and the budget is limited(the funds come from the polution tax from petrol I think) , my brother used this to install the water solar panel and he put the paperwork to install the photo-voltaic one. So a fair solution would be to get a percent from the petrol taxes and help people that want to install a charger. You can probably do similar programs for apartment associations to install chargers for the entire building parking space/street.
- QuotedForTruth 7y ago
  Why is that unreasonable? Its quite like going to get gas from a gas station. It just takes a while longer. You don't let the car run to empty before you fill it back up. Easy enough fix for your first issue. And for the second, you just wait for a port to come free. That's how supercharger stations are working all across the US.
  - simion314 7y ago
    Because at a gas station you spend around 5 minutes and you don't have to go as often as with an electric cars that will have less autonomy and you will have to spend more time charging. I imagine you would have to go more often to the mall (so consuming extra energy,spend time in traffic, and you may be taxed by the time you keep the charger occupied. it may work for some people, but AFAIK the traffic at a mall is higher on certain days and hours so you may not find a charger, then what do you do if you are on low?
Symbiote 7y ago
It's detrimental to the life of the battery to use fast chargers all the time. Your underground parking already has an electricity supply, at least for the lighting. It's not impossible for the owner of the building to install additional circuits for charging cars.
- wastedhours 7y ago
  I'm not saying it's impossible, just that infrastructure is needed. I don't see other examples of EV companies helping with infrastructure - even if fast charging isn't ideal, it's there.

wkearney99 7y ago

You have parking. Installing outlets, while not 'free', is not impossible. Certainly more realistic than on-street parking situations.

wastedhours 7y ago
Actually, I've seen plenty of people with cords running across the pavement to their cars from the house. Obviously run the risk of being sued for a trip hazard or someone unplugging it, but it's a bit of a stop gap.

simion314 7y ago

Your comment makes no sense, you can't charge at home Tesla or any other vehicle, so what is your plan buy a Tesla and go to the mall and charge it? What if you don't have energy to start the car? AFAIK the only reasonable option for people that can't charge at home is to charge the car at work, going to a mall and hoping you will find a free port is not something reasonable IMO.

cheerlessbog 7y ago
I think your are right. In the US, there are more driveways, a cable under the garage door is the most common solution. In Europe, at least the parts I know, on street parking is most common and the solution has to be building out chargers at work. A lot of them (I don't want to leave a meeting to move the car)
wastedhours 7y ago
I don't have a plan to buy any, but my point was that at least Tesla is helping to build out the infrastructure to help support them, whereas very few other EV manufacturers are helping with the problem at all.
- simion314 7y ago
  Is that actually true in Europe? Also IMO it would be stupid to have BMW petrol stations, Renault petrol stations etc, the local authorities may need to give some incentives for the businesses to add generic charging stations, this could be like part of the petrol tax will go into subsidizing the chargers or putting public charging stations.
  - wastedhours 7y ago
    > Also IMO it would be stupid to have BMW petrol stations, Renault petrol stations etc Wholeheartedly agree - but EV use is growing faster that local authorities can build out supply in some areas and flawed capacity planning means there are chargers going unused in others. There's fewer independent suppliers as there are with petrol stations so the market incentive for other companies to pick up the middle ground isn't clear yet (esp compared with at home/work usage).
    - simion314 7y ago
      Private companies could fix this if the correct subsidies are provided,here in Romania for example when you install a solar panel to heat water or solar photo-voltaic panel , the government will pay 90% of the costs, there are limits for total cost and the budget is limited(the funds come from the polution tax from petrol I think) , my brother used this to install the water solar panel and he put the paperwork to install the photo-voltaic one. So a fair solution would be to get a percent from the petrol taxes and help people that want to install a charger. You can probably do similar programs for apartment associations to install chargers for the entire building parking space/street.
QuotedForTruth 7y ago
Why is that unreasonable? Its quite like going to get gas from a gas station. It just takes a while longer. You don't let the car run to empty before you fill it back up. Easy enough fix for your first issue. And for the second, you just wait for a port to come free. That's how supercharger stations are working all across the US.
- simion314 7y ago
  Because at a gas station you spend around 5 minutes and you don't have to go as often as with an electric cars that will have less autonomy and you will have to spend more time charging. I imagine you would have to go more often to the mall (so consuming extra energy,spend time in traffic, and you may be taxed by the time you keep the charger occupied. it may work for some people, but AFAIK the traffic at a mall is higher on certain days and hours so you may not find a charger, then what do you do if you are on low?

Symbiote 7y ago

It's detrimental to the life of the battery to use fast chargers all the time. Your underground parking already has an electricity supply, at least for the lighting. It's not impossible for the owner of the building to install additional circuits for charging cars.

wastedhours 7y ago
I'm not saying it's impossible, just that infrastructure is needed. I don't see other examples of EV companies helping with infrastructure - even if fast charging isn't ideal, it's there.