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The most impactful way municipalities could encourage EV adoption would be to subsidize the installation of chargers at work. For most people - especially if th

The most impactful way municipalities could encourage EV adoption would be to subsidize the installation of chargers at work. For most people - especially if they have an ICE at home for the weekend - this would eliminate the need for costly home installation and charger hunting

Retra 7y ago
How much does a home installation cost?
- intopieces 7y ago
  Around $2600 plus the cost of electricity. Not viable for renters or apartment dwellers, and not a good candidate for subsidy since it would be used by 1-2 cars at most.
  - rtkwe 7y ago
    Local governments could subsidize installing 'at least x per y units' in a complex and increase the number as EVs get more and more popular. On a more hands off approach when they do start taking hold among more of the renting segment available EV parking will become a selling point. Subsidizing them would help get over that initial 'I rent so I won't have any where to charge normally' problem with EVs (ignoring they're out of the price range of many renters currently).
  - jm4 7y ago
    How is it that much and where is it that much? I paid a fraction of that.
    - intopieces 7y ago
      Austin, TX apparently. FTA: “Level Two is a 240 volt socket, which are the weirdo-looking ones you see for your washer or dryer or some kinds of ovens. This is a much faster connection, adding 20-25 miles per hour, but most garages don’t have them, so you need to get an electrician to install them (that’s $2,000 right there) and then you need to buy the charger itself (usually about $600, though there are often rebates for this sort of thing).”
- kingnothing 7y ago
  An L2 charger costs about $750 to install at home. I paid an electrician $300 to run a line from my fuse box to garage and install the outlet. Then the actual charger, a Siemens VersiCharge, is $450. I still need to do a bit of drywall repair from where the electrician had to cut to run the line, but that's trivial.
  - mceachen 7y ago
    FWIW, this was my cost breakout as well (I'm in the bay area).
- jm4 7y ago
  I paid a few hundred for an outlet in the garage and use the charger that came with the car. Really wasn’t a big deal. It paid for itself within the first 2 months.
turtlebits 7y ago
If your total commute is <45 miles a day, you can easily just use a 110V wall plug, which gives ~4 miles per hour of charging.
- drdaeman 7y ago
  This may exclude emergency or otherwise unplanned situations, though. If you suddenly find yourself in a situation where you need to get somewhere distant, fast - you may not always be able to achieve this using a lower-range (~100mi) EV. Maybe I'm wrong, though. It's just that... coming from public transit-only life (I've only started driving very recently), what I really value about cars is that when you need you can just sit down and drive whenever and wherever you need.
octorian 7y ago
Except it seems like you mostly find slow L2 chargers that take 6 hours to do anything meaningful... In places where you are likely to only park for 30 minutes (maybe 2 hours at most). Might help if you have a Leaf with a tiny battery that constantly needs topping off, but useless if you have a Tesla.
- intopieces 7y ago
  Not sure why a workplace would limit charging to 30 minutes. I would have to move my car just as the coffee was kicking in.
  - octorian 7y ago
    I'm not talking about workplaces. Having slow charging at workplaces makes the most sense, because you actually will be leaving the car there for 8 hours.
    - intopieces 7y ago
      Oh, perhaps you meant to reply to someone else, as workplace charging was the topic of my parent comment.
jdietrich 7y ago
The British government covers 75% of the cost of a home charger and will subsidise workplace and on-street charging points too. The infrastructure is more of a challenge in the US due to your 110v system - most British garages already have 3kW sockets and the unsubsidised cost of a 7kW charger installation is typically less than $1,000. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-for-low-emission-vehicles https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-...

Retra 7y ago

How much does a home installation cost?

intopieces 7y ago
Around $2600 plus the cost of electricity. Not viable for renters or apartment dwellers, and not a good candidate for subsidy since it would be used by 1-2 cars at most.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  Local governments could subsidize installing 'at least x per y units' in a complex and increase the number as EVs get more and more popular. On a more hands off approach when they do start taking hold among more of the renting segment available EV parking will become a selling point. Subsidizing them would help get over that initial 'I rent so I won't have any where to charge normally' problem with EVs (ignoring they're out of the price range of many renters currently).
- jm4 7y ago
  How is it that much and where is it that much? I paid a fraction of that.
  - intopieces 7y ago
    Austin, TX apparently. FTA: “Level Two is a 240 volt socket, which are the weirdo-looking ones you see for your washer or dryer or some kinds of ovens. This is a much faster connection, adding 20-25 miles per hour, but most garages don’t have them, so you need to get an electrician to install them (that’s $2,000 right there) and then you need to buy the charger itself (usually about $600, though there are often rebates for this sort of thing).”
kingnothing 7y ago
An L2 charger costs about $750 to install at home. I paid an electrician $300 to run a line from my fuse box to garage and install the outlet. Then the actual charger, a Siemens VersiCharge, is $450. I still need to do a bit of drywall repair from where the electrician had to cut to run the line, but that's trivial.
- mceachen 7y ago
  FWIW, this was my cost breakout as well (I'm in the bay area).
jm4 7y ago
I paid a few hundred for an outlet in the garage and use the charger that came with the car. Really wasn’t a big deal. It paid for itself within the first 2 months.

turtlebits 7y ago

If your total commute is <45 miles a day, you can easily just use a 110V wall plug, which gives ~4 miles per hour of charging.

drdaeman 7y ago
This may exclude emergency or otherwise unplanned situations, though. If you suddenly find yourself in a situation where you need to get somewhere distant, fast - you may not always be able to achieve this using a lower-range (~100mi) EV. Maybe I'm wrong, though. It's just that... coming from public transit-only life (I've only started driving very recently), what I really value about cars is that when you need you can just sit down and drive whenever and wherever you need.

octorian 7y ago

Except it seems like you mostly find slow L2 chargers that take 6 hours to do anything meaningful... In places where you are likely to only park for 30 minutes (maybe 2 hours at most). Might help if you have a Leaf with a tiny battery that constantly needs topping off, but useless if you have a Tesla.

intopieces 7y ago
Not sure why a workplace would limit charging to 30 minutes. I would have to move my car just as the coffee was kicking in.
- octorian 7y ago
  I'm not talking about workplaces. Having slow charging at workplaces makes the most sense, because you actually will be leaving the car there for 8 hours.
  - intopieces 7y ago
    Oh, perhaps you meant to reply to someone else, as workplace charging was the topic of my parent comment.

jdietrich 7y ago

The British government covers 75% of the cost of a home charger and will subsidise workplace and on-street charging points too. The infrastructure is more of a challenge in the US due to your 110v system - most British garages already have 3kW sockets and the unsubsidised cost of a 7kW charger installation is typically less than $1,000. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-for-low-emission-vehicles https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-...