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> In urban areas, most people park on the streets Isn’t this the main problem? People parkig on the streets simply cannot buy EVs cause charging would be a roy

> In urban areas, most people park on the streets Isn’t this the main problem? People parkig on the streets simply cannot buy EVs cause charging would be a royal hassle for them

auto 3y ago
This is my main rub, I live in one of these situations (like I'm sure a huge percentage of Americans do), and there's zero way I could own an EV. Are we all supposed to run the charging plug across the sidewalk? We've had kids mess with cars previously, undeterred by security cameras, so now we have to worry about them unplugging our cars in the middle of the night too? I'm strongly in support of alternatives to ICE cars, but the idea of auto makers being able to sell only EVs in America by 2030 or whatever is an absolute farce.
- dzader 3y ago
  [dead]
- dagw 3y ago
  I know people who live like you do with EVs and they have zero problem. Either they can charge at work or they charge when they're parked while out shopping or similar or, worst case scenario, they just have to drive down the road to the nearest super charger and just sit there 15-25 minutes watching YouTube while their car charges.
  - bakje 3y ago
    I think there is probably some selection bias here, you know people in those situations that don't have any problems because they wouldn't have bought those cars if they would have problems. But I don't want to make any assumptions about the people you know, some people are also just less bothered by these things or care enough about driving an EV that they take it in stride. I'm sure that when you want 100% of car owners to switch to EVs there are those that will run into issues. Like people that work from home and can't charge at an office, or when there's no charging spot available when they're out shopping and they really don't have time this week to go charge their car somewhere. Not to mention the fact that charging at home is likely a lot cheaper than charging from public infrastructure (I don't own an EV so I don't actually know how the prices compare) I'm not saying that these are insurmountable problems, or that some of them won't get solved along the way (like if we end up getting a surplus of chargers at public parking spots), but there are some genuine disadvantages to owning an EV when compared to an ICE. I personally wouldn't want to buy an EV until I have my own driveway and can charge my car at home, but with current housing prices (and EV prices) I don't see this happening for a while.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  Most EVs have locked charging ports, so they can’t disconnect it without unlocking the car. However, they could just cut the wire for laughs, although the result of that might be shocking. Where I live, street parking is rife with catalytic converter theft and gas siphoning (they drill a hole in your tank). 2030 is the date for some European countries, but in the USA 2035 is the date being set by some states.
seanmcdirmid 3y ago
You could add charging poles on the street.
peab 3y ago
Definitely. I just bought an EV (Model Y) because I needed a new car (I would have waited longer if I could have), and I live in an apartment that doesn't have chargers. I work from home, so I don't have a commute, so it's not a deal breaker, but it's definitely not ideal. I live in Austin, which has a network of public chargers that you can use for only 4$ a month, so that helps, but still not ideal. With my ICE car, I can run it until the gas light goes on, and even then I know I can drive for 20 miles without worries, because there's invariably a gas station within < 5 miles away. With the EV right now, that's not the case. There are slow chargers nearby, but fast chargers are about 7 miles away. In my situation, my worst case is that I have to go to a supercharger about once a week. I did this for the first time recently, another gripe I have is that the range I get out of the car (Model Y LR) is a lot lower than what I expected to get (~200 miles vs 330). At current gas prices, it's actually MORE expensive to charge the Tesla at a supercharger (0.38$/kWH @ 74KW capacity / 200 miles = 0.14$ a mile, than it was to fill up my Elantra at a gas station (3.50$ per gallon at 30MPG = 0.11$). If I lived in a house, obviously I would save a lot more money, since electricity prices are only like 0.11$/kWH I think. It's an interesting problem. In dense urban environments, the infrastructure has a long way to go. However, I think this is probably the minority, since most people live in the suburbs or smaller cities in America. In those cases, they can simply charge at home, and they might have to visit a supercharger on road trips or odd cases. Therefore the demand for charging will be lower than it would be for gas cars.
cduzz 3y ago
Street charging at 10-30a wouldn't require much more infrastructure than existing street lights; most cars are parked on the street for hours at a time (depending on if parking near where the owner lives / works or "just visiting"). An hour at 16a / 240v is 10-15 miles of added range. An AC charger is basically just a smart extension cord. A public AC charger is a smart extension cord plus a payment terminal or 3g backhaul to payment APIs and maybe power balancing (draw 30a if nothing else is charging; draw 5a if every other charger on the circuit is also charging). You could have a street with 20 of these things and it'd draw the same power as a normal house (IE it's not big infrastructure). It wouldn't be perfect, but it's certainly possible. The key to thinking about charging EVs is you can do it without the person attending to the process. Plug car in; walk away.

> In urban areas, most people park on the streets Isn’t this the main problem? People parkig on the streets simply cannot buy EVs cause charging would be a royal hassle for them

auto 3y ago

This is my main rub, I live in one of these situations (like I'm sure a huge percentage of Americans do), and there's zero way I could own an EV. Are we all supposed to run the charging plug across the sidewalk? We've had kids mess with cars previously, undeterred by security cameras, so now we have to worry about them unplugging our cars in the middle of the night too? I'm strongly in support of alternatives to ICE cars, but the idea of auto makers being able to sell only EVs in America by 2030 or whatever is an absolute farce.

dzader 3y ago
[dead]
dagw 3y ago
I know people who live like you do with EVs and they have zero problem. Either they can charge at work or they charge when they're parked while out shopping or similar or, worst case scenario, they just have to drive down the road to the nearest super charger and just sit there 15-25 minutes watching YouTube while their car charges.
- bakje 3y ago
  I think there is probably some selection bias here, you know people in those situations that don't have any problems because they wouldn't have bought those cars if they would have problems. But I don't want to make any assumptions about the people you know, some people are also just less bothered by these things or care enough about driving an EV that they take it in stride. I'm sure that when you want 100% of car owners to switch to EVs there are those that will run into issues. Like people that work from home and can't charge at an office, or when there's no charging spot available when they're out shopping and they really don't have time this week to go charge their car somewhere. Not to mention the fact that charging at home is likely a lot cheaper than charging from public infrastructure (I don't own an EV so I don't actually know how the prices compare) I'm not saying that these are insurmountable problems, or that some of them won't get solved along the way (like if we end up getting a surplus of chargers at public parking spots), but there are some genuine disadvantages to owning an EV when compared to an ICE. I personally wouldn't want to buy an EV until I have my own driveway and can charge my car at home, but with current housing prices (and EV prices) I don't see this happening for a while.
seanmcdirmid 3y ago
Most EVs have locked charging ports, so they can’t disconnect it without unlocking the car. However, they could just cut the wire for laughs, although the result of that might be shocking. Where I live, street parking is rife with catalytic converter theft and gas siphoning (they drill a hole in your tank). 2030 is the date for some European countries, but in the USA 2035 is the date being set by some states.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago

You could add charging poles on the street.

peab 3y ago

Definitely. I just bought an EV (Model Y) because I needed a new car (I would have waited longer if I could have), and I live in an apartment that doesn't have chargers. I work from home, so I don't have a commute, so it's not a deal breaker, but it's definitely not ideal. I live in Austin, which has a network of public chargers that you can use for only 4$ a month, so that helps, but still not ideal. With my ICE car, I can run it until the gas light goes on, and even then I know I can drive for 20 miles without worries, because there's invariably a gas station within < 5 miles away. With the EV right now, that's not the case. There are slow chargers nearby, but fast chargers are about 7 miles away. In my situation, my worst case is that I have to go to a supercharger about once a week. I did this for the first time recently, another gripe I have is that the range I get out of the car (Model Y LR) is a lot lower than what I expected to get (~200 miles vs 330). At current gas prices, it's actually MORE expensive to charge the Tesla at a supercharger (0.38$/kWH @ 74KW capacity / 200 miles = 0.14$ a mile, than it was to fill up my Elantra at a gas station (3.50$ per gallon at 30MPG = 0.11$). If I lived in a house, obviously I would save a lot more money, since electricity prices are only like 0.11$/kWH I think. It's an interesting problem. In dense urban environments, the infrastructure has a long way to go. However, I think this is probably the minority, since most people live in the suburbs or smaller cities in America. In those cases, they can simply charge at home, and they might have to visit a supercharger on road trips or odd cases. Therefore the demand for charging will be lower than it would be for gas cars.

cduzz 3y ago

Street charging at 10-30a wouldn't require much more infrastructure than existing street lights; most cars are parked on the street for hours at a time (depending on if parking near where the owner lives / works or "just visiting"). An hour at 16a / 240v is 10-15 miles of added range. An AC charger is basically just a smart extension cord. A public AC charger is a smart extension cord plus a payment terminal or 3g backhaul to payment APIs and maybe power balancing (draw 30a if nothing else is charging; draw 5a if every other charger on the circuit is also charging). You could have a street with 20 of these things and it'd draw the same power as a normal house (IE it's not big infrastructure). It wouldn't be perfect, but it's certainly possible. The key to thinking about charging EVs is you can do it without the person attending to the process. Plug car in; walk away.