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Apartment landlords often now disallow anyone to charge in garages that they pay rent for. They have to use provided charging spots, which absolutely sucks for
by Robotbeat 6y ago
Apartment landlords often now disallow anyone to charge in garages that they pay rent for. They have to use provided charging spots, which absolutely sucks for every day use and is totally unrealistic unless you have a large battery EV.
There are outlets everywhere but folks aren’t allowed to use them. Electric cars are not normalized.
Teslas and PHEVs are the only electric cars I can unreservedly recommend. Teslas (new ones at least) have substantial batteries, often comparable to standard gas cars, and extensive charging networks at high speed. Still kind of sucks if you can’t charge at home or work, but possible.
PHEVs are really where we need to go to massively normalize EVs. We could, today, replace everyone’s vehicle with a PHEV version (like a Volt) & everything would work fine. People would nag landlords to let them plug in, and it’d become a legitimate differentiation if apartments allowed plugging in (as it’d reduce the cost of energy for transport by a factor of 2-3), so competitive pressure would accomplish what landlords currently don’t allow because they’re lazy, poorly informed, and/or ambivalent about it.
Pure EVs should be at LEAST ~250 miles in range, and probably at least 100kW charge speed, too.
What we need is a mandate that by 2030, all new vehicles must be at least plug in hybrid. That’s way better than the 60% zero emissions cars by 2030 I’ve seen going around.
- cortesoft 6y agoThe cost of electricity for landlords would go up quite a bit if everyone was charging their car all the time. It is cheaper than gas, but it isn't free.
- Robotbeat 6y agoIt’s really pretty cheap. The cost of the electricity is less than the fully burdened cost of a parking space; certainly than a full garage space. And people already have to pay for that. So if it was normalized (ie everyone did it, not just 5% of renters), then it wouldn’t be a problem as you just roll that into the rent for the spot. And if it was significant they could add a cheap submeter or a timed smart outlet (there’s a startup opportunity here, BTW...).
- cortesoft 6y agoMy EV gets about 2.5 miles per KWH, if I drive conservatively. If I commute 25 miles daily, that would be 10 KWH a day, which is about $2.00 a day depending on a number of factors. $60 a month is a lot, and you know people would drive more if they weren't paying for the energy. Not to mention, you would need to upgrade your circuits if everyone was charging.
- Robotbeat 6y agoElectricity where I live is about 13¢/kWh residential, but large property owners may pay commercial rates for their garages which is cheaper. In large cities, a parking space in a garage is about $150/month. So still much more than electricity. And I don’t think people would drive a lot more if electricity was free versus 13¢/kWh. At that point, electricity cost is a small part of the cost of driving.
- cortesoft 6y agoI think an extra almost 50% cost for parking would be a pretty big deal. And most people in apartments aren't paying that much. I am sure for luxury apartments with high rents and parking fees won't notice the difference, but most apartments aren't like that.
- Robotbeat 6y agoThe increased cost is swamped by lower gas costs. Gas is two to three times the price plus takes time out of the week to fill up.
- cortesoft 6y agoRight... but landlords don’t pay those gas costs. I am not arguing that an electric car is not cheaper to drive than a gas car (I have one myself)....I am just saying it isn’t free or near free, so expecting someone else to pay for your electricity to charge your car is unreasonable.
- masonic 6y agoThe bigger cost is liability and insurance. A landlord can count on idiots running multiple chargers off a cube tap and using cheap extension cords with fake UL stickers.