Anyone live in an apartment, and own an EV?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m on the market for a new car, and, albeit my current car gets about the best mileage out there (41mpg), when I bought it, and gas stations having EV chargers wasn’t a thing in Indiana, back in 2016, I really hoped this would be my last gas-only car.

So, I’m in a different place now, where the “covered parking” for rent is actual garages, not just aluminum awnings (which where still better than nothing), and there are some gas stations around that have EV chargers.

I don’t currently have a garage, though, and even though there are places to charge less than a mile walk, I still have to cross a state highway, and walk along a busy road with no sidewalk, probably after dark in heavy traffic in the late fall and winter months.

Still really want an EV, or at least a hybrid.

Anyone have experience owning one and living in an apartment? How does charging work? Did you have to ask the landlord or property manager for permission to install a charger? do you have a designated parking space, so you won’t come home to someone’s gas guzzler in your charging space?

Do you end up doing something like Ubering home from the charging station? when it’s raining, or very cold or hot, for example? We’ve had some heat advisory days recently when a mile-long walk without shelter-- like a forest canopy-- would be foolish.

If you asked for permission to install a charger, how did that go? did you have to pay for any permits the property might need from the city? did you have to do any research on the increased desirability of a place that offered that, should you ever move out? Or did you just ask, and leave the rest to them?

The garages here are about $70/month to rent (they range from $50-$95; there’s a waiting list for the more expensive ones, because those are the ones you can get that are 50 feet from you front door; the cheap ones are on the side, and for me would be a walk of about a block and a half); I know I currently spend way more than that on gas every month.

I’m going to have to buy used, because that’s what I can afford, but locally, the range of prices for used EVs is $7,000 to $20,000. I’m able to put about $5,000 down.

What’s more important to look for in an EV, low miles, or age? I’m thinking that without engine parts to wear out (even though, of course, front end and suspension do), low mileage isn’t the gold standard as it is with gas vehicles; but, given the huge technological advances every year, an EV more than a few years old might be a dinosaur already.

For example, there is one (a Nissan) from 2017 with 36,000 miles, which is selling for $7,950. If it were a gas car, that would suggest it needs some kind of major work, but maybe with an EV, it’s just vastly inferior to EVs from 2021.

Any anecdotes and advice are appreciated.

2

Alec at Technology Connections did this and talked about it in at least one of his videos. I think it might be this one, but I didn’t take an hour to watch the whole thing. If that’s not it, at least it will have some good info about charging EVs for you. He’s done a lot of other videos about EVs that you might find helpful.

3

A few things to address here:
An L2 charger, the type typically ‘installed’ runs on 240. Your apartment almost certainly doesn’t have 240v outlets accessible to residents, so that’s something you’d have to have installed. Your landlord may or may not be willing to work something out with you to do that. If they are, you can get a ‘dumb’ charger that just plugs into it, as opposed to having a wall mounted unit. In either case, you might offer the landlord a few extra bucks a month for exclusive use of a spot near an outlet and to cover the cost of the electricity.

If you don’t drive too much, say, less than 100 miles a week, you may be able to get by with a simple 120v, L1 charger. They charge much slower, but if you’re just topping up each night (and maybe able to leave it plugged in all weekend) that’s a common solution. Technology Connections may have addressed that scenario in that video, but I don’t recall off the top of my head. As CommaSense mentioned, he’s done a number of EV videos, so that may have been in a different one.

Regarding using the charger on the other side of the highway, I don’t think walking back home is needed. Fast chargers are, well, fast. What might take all weekend on a 120v L1 charger, could mean sitting in your car at the fast charger for a half hour.

Lastly, look into plug-in hybrids. That might be a good compromise for your situation. They don’t rely on the battery, they just use it when it’s available. IIRC, most plug in hybrids will go about 50 miles before switching over to the gas engine.

I think the first thing you should do is get a rough idea of how much driving you actually do and go from there. It’s very likely that you’ll be able to get by with a L1 charger if your landlord is okay with it or going to the fast charger once a week.

One other thought, if you happen to work at a place with outlets near parking spots, ask your employer if you can plug your car in while you’re there. Even on an L1 charger, being plugged in for several hours a day, 5 days a week, will likely be plenty if you aren’t doing a ton of driving.

4

Infrastructure for EVs is a problem many places.

5

Someone on my block lives in an apartment and has a Tesla. Occasionally I’ll see an extension cord running from their 2nd floor to their car. I do not know how much teh cars is driven, nor if using an extension cord on a level 1 charger is a good idea, but it is apparently doable.

Brian

6

My cars are very fussy about extension cords. I can only use a heavy duty one and it can’t be too long. (they simply won’t charge if I do otherwise)

To the OP, I knew a couple that owned a Leaf and lived on a sailboat. They would go into town about once a week and plug into the free L2 charger on main street.

They didn’t drive too much, so it worked for them.

Even for me, (20-40 miles tops most days) I would consider a situation where I had no home charging a hassle.

7

I would think using an extension cord like this would be a safety and fire hazard. From the electrical aspect, it would need to be of a proper rating to not overheat since a L1 charger is like 12amps (?) and that is a long distance. I believe a 12 gauge cord would be sufficient, but the landlord will want to ensure the cord meets the appropriate standard as opposed to something someone picked up for cheap at a thrift sore. Then there is also the safety issue of having a cord draped across areas where residents may be crossing. For instance, if it goes across a sidewalk, it’s a trip hazard as well as being at risk of getting crushed from people stepping on it or riding bikes across it. It doesn’t seem like an extension cord would be a good long-term solution. Perhaps just once in a while to give the battery a bit of a charge, but not something that could be left out 24/7.

8

No sidewalk but again I’m not advocating the practice of using an extension cord, just reporting I’ve seen it done on at least two occasions. Google maps says it is about 40 ft from the balcony to the driver’s side of a car. so probably a 50 ft cord since it is from the second floor. I haven’t measured the gauge of the cord :wink:

Brian

9

I recommend avoiding the first generation Nissan Leaf. They can be purchased very cheaply, but use air cooled batteries, which often cook themselves, greatly degrading the battery capacity and lifetime.

With an EV, one of the big things you’ll look at instead of age or miles is how much the battery has degraded. What that means: when new the car claimed a 150 mile range, but after 3 years when completely charged now the car only claims a 135 mile range. Expect a 15-20% degradation as normal. That is probably the total degradation for the life of the car. Anything with a 50% degradation (like a first gen Leaf from Arizona) should be avoid.

I know you said you’re looking for used, but with some of the tax incentives a new car might still be affordable. The big catch is that the federal one is a tax credit. You can get up to $7500 of credit on one year’s taxes. That means you need to be paying at least $7500 in taxes that year to claim the full credit.

Somebody who understands taxes better may be explain it more clearly. It would be disappointing to plan on getting back $7500 from your taxes, and then find out that because you only paid $4200 in taxes that year, you can only get back $4200, and the rest of the credit is forfeited.

Charging an EV is different than going to a gas station. For gas, most people are used to going when they need gas, filling to full, and doing that again some other time. For an EV, you can opportunistically charge just about anytime.

Quick aside for definitions:

  • Level 1 charging = a normal wall socket, 110 volts, 12 amp (continuous), very slow
  • Level 2 charging = a high voltage charger, designed to fill a car in a few hours or overnight. These are the 220 volt chargers people install at home, and the “slow” chargers out in public.
  • Level 3 charging = DC fast chargers. These are things like Tesla superchargers, EVgo and Electrify America CCS chargers that are often in Walmart parking lots. Depending on the car, they can fill one in a few minutes to an hour.

Opportunistic charging just means that when your out and near a level 2 charger, plugin and get some charge. If you charge from 48-62%, great. The car doesn’t care. No reason to wait until empty to charge, and no reason to leave the car plugged in until it is full.

How to charge if you can’t do it at home?

First checkout https://www.plugshare.com/ and see what the charging situation is in your area, and the places you often go. If there is level 2 charging anyplace the you regularly spend hours of time, then you can charge there. That is probably not the case though. If there are level 2 chargers at enough of the places you do go, then you can probably get a good deal of your charging done without impacting your time too much.

The cost of level 2 chargers can also be all over the place. They range from completely free, to simply charging for the electricity used, to complex setups where you pay for time connected in some non-linear way. For example, $1.50 for the first hour and $2/hour after that. You’ll learn when it’s worth plugging in, and when it isn’t.

Sorry if that sounds confusing. Charging is still a rapidly evolving system, and requires some effort to learn the quirks. You only need to know it for your area, not the entire state. Pretty soon you’ll know that charging is free at library, so park there when visiting downtown; the west side Walmart has good chargers, so skip the east side Walmart; the mall has chargers, but the pricing is stupid; go to the third floor of the parking garage, that’s where the chargers are; etc.

10

Can the credit be spread over multiple years? I know that it can with residential solar panels.

11

The building has a full-sized W/D in every unit, so I imagine that there is plenty of 240 connectivity.

I will probably have to take a day off work to shop for a car, so I can visit the property manager’s office beforehand, and see about renting a garage and installing a charger. My brother, who lives in Cali, and therefore has owned EVs pretty much this entire century, because he gets lots of perks, says he can’t imagine it would be a bad thing for the property to have if I moved out for some reason (don’t intend to), and he also said that dealers help with charger installation in Cali.

I said if I buy used, that probably won’t happen and he said that it still might, if I buy from a dealer. I reminded him that I live in freaking Indiana, one of the few states that doesn’t have vehicle inspections. You can build your own car with a piece of plywood and junkyard parts, and it’s street-legal as long as it can go the minimum speed.

We don’t even have a motorcycle helmet law, not even on the highway (except for riders who are 16 or 17, after someone pointed out that they’d need a helmet to ride a bicycle).

There aren’t EVs with manual transmission, I suppose? gosh I miss driving that.

12

ETA: more recent.
https://www.edmunds.com/electric-car/articles/do-electric-cars-have-transmissions.html

13

No, I understood your post fine. I did power generator mech-maintenance, so I know about electricity.

Kinda laughed at the idea of Indianapolis having just 2 Walmarts, though. :laughing:

Looked up the cost of replacing a battery in an EV. Seems that it ranges from $2,000 all the way to $20,000.

That has kinda made me decide against buying privately. If I buy from a dealer, and the battery goes kaput. Indiana’s one strict set of auto laws in its “lemon laws,” that discourage dealers from selling defective cars, and also from disingenuously offering vehicles “as-is” when they are aware of a problem. But they also protect consumers from money pits on wheels, even if the dealer wasn’t aware. They apply to private sales, but you have to find the guy. Hard not to locate a dealer.

Not looking for a car with a lot of bells and whistles-- nor even a very big one-- just bigger than my current tiny one that my 5’11 & 1/2 son is having trouble fitting into. And he’s 16, so it’s not like he’s going to shrink. He’s also still got the shoulders that caused him to be born c-section. So I’ll have to take battery replacement-cost into account. Up to $5,000 I could do. Not $20,000.

14

This article from Jalopnik suggests a used 2017-19 Chevrolet Bolt. Because of a recall, these cars either already have the batteries replaced or you can get it done for free. And the car might be eligible for a $4,000 tax credit.

Edited to add that they do cost around $20,000 so on the high end of your range.

15

It’s not outlandish in principle. When I lived in Montana, starting in 1999, the apartments in my building had designated parking spaces, with an outdoor electrical outlet for each spot. They weren’t intended for electrical vehicles, but for electric engine-block heaters (it sometimes gets cold enough in Montana that you’re unlikely to start a cold engine), but still, it illustrates the point that if there’s demand, an apartment can install outlets for parking spaces.

16

My brother has an EV and parks it in a hi-rise garage with no charging available.

He drives the car to Whole Foods which has EV chargers. Does his shopping and the car is good to go by the time he is done.

Note: His EV (Tesla) is used almost exclusively for short commutes so one charge can last him a few weeks. On occasion he uses it for longer trips but that is uncommon. He has a second car (gas) that he will use if he really needs to take a much longer drive (over ~150 miles one way…give or take).

He is perfectly happy with this arrangement and has no problems.

17

Around here many of the fancier apartment buildings have, or are installing, chargers in the parking facilities.

My own building has about 400 apartments, about 500 parking spaces, and 8 spots with L3 chargers. They’re pay by the minute and the expectation is that folks won’t leave their car there all day or overnight. IOW, they’re meant to be shared among many cars per day.

I drive an ICE, so I don’t know how well it’s working. I often see some spaces empty. I also see all spaces full at other times. I expect my next car will be an EV.

I believe apartment and condo parking facility charging is an amenity whose time has come to much of America and will arrive in the rest in the next 3-5 years. The problem is convincing management the demand will be there if they’ll install the supply.

18

Two circumstances to share.

Both actually for the plug in hybrid.

L1 charging only at the previous house. Charged about 4 miles of range per hour. The battery (when new) had about 23 miles of range, which covered my then daily commute. Plugging in overnight always was enough to fill the battery and given at least 10 hours at home would for a BEV with 20 miles commute each way. Longer if there is one day a week to leave it plugged in longer.

Next home was the condo. New construction and had an L2 installed as part of the contract. Did not stay in the condo.

Current circumstance is irrelevant. Another house with a dual charger as a he other car is now a BEV.

19

My brother actually suggested I might do better with a hybrid, and he’s all over EVs like he’s a native Californian, not a Jewish kid born in the mid-West to parents from New York.

20

I was coming to post this. As has also been posted, this can get you 4 miles/hour of charging, which may be enough for you. Or not.
Good advice about the LEAF. I have one, but it’s been very good as I live in a mild climate which is perfect for the battery. There is a thing called a LEAF spy app, which connects via bluetooth to an OBD scanner that plugs into your car. This gives you a very accurate reading of the battery state of health (more accurate than the dashboard reading of “bars”)