Anyone live in an apartment, and own an EV?

In My Humble Opinion
21

That’s one of the things that put me off from getting an EV for quite a while. I’ve been driving mine for two years, and I’d still happily go back to driving stick.

In a situation like this, with the property owner wanting to install chargers (L3/L2 or even just 120v outlets), but won’t or can’t install enough, it’s helpful if they leave at least a few spots between them instead of grouping them all together. That way you can stick a sign in your windshield giving people the OK to unplug your car if it’s done charging and you don’t have to worry about moving it the minute it’s done.

At least that’s what I’ve heard some EV drivers will do if their car is charging overnight at a hotel with just a single outlet/EVSE available for everyone.

22

The garages for rent here have 120 outlets, (and automatic doors!) so I can charge a car that will charge with that capability, and can charge it overnight, so, no problem with a slow charge.

There is a garage practically right across from my apartment, and it’s one of the more expensive ones, because of the location, but it’s $100, and I know that I spend at least twice that on gas a month in my current extremely fuel efficient car.

Part of it has to do with my commute-- work is in a very expensive neighborhood I could never afford, and part because the boychik goes to school out-of-district, because his freshman year was 2020-21, and we got him into a school committed to staying open, and not using Zoom unless absolutely necessary. (He missed only two weeks due to COVID-- one when the teacher was positive, and his class was quarantined, and another when the whole school went to a “reduced load” schedule, and for three weeks, 1/3 of the students were on Zoom each week.) But we decided to keep him in this school for his whole 4 years of high school, and it means driving him to a bus drop.

23

Before committing to the garage, check if each one has its own breaker. A typical breaker might just be 15 or 20 amps. If the garages share a breaker, then there could be capacity issues if multiple people are trying to charge at the same time or if someone is charging and someone is doing something else like using power tools.

24

This is a good question and something EV people really have to consider before buying or buying and then moving. I love the place I have, but I couldn’t stay there if I really was gung-ho on buying one.

25

That was possible with my old Volt. With the new cars (that I’m aware of), the charge cord is locked in and can’t be removed by someone without they key.

26

My apartment (condo) building (around 250 units) is in the process of installing EV chargers (still looking at options now…a final decision has yet to be made). It will be up to each owner of a parking space whether or not they want one. It seems it will cost around $3,000 (subject to change) per spot. This cost is on the owner of the parking spot. The building is not paying for any of them.

I intend to have one installed in my spot when the time comes. I do not have an EV. It is an investment in the re-sale value of my place because I think you are correct, its time has come.

27

If you’re not going to have an EV before you move, won’t it be a negative investment, like any other home remodeling project? Common wisdom is that redoing the kitchen or finishing the basement will only increase the value of the house by about 50-75% of what you paid for the work. Wouldn’t the same be true of installing a charging outlet?

Of course, if you expect to buy an EV, never mind.

28

It’s pretty much a now or never thing. The building will hire a firm to install these things and then that’s it. You can’t get one installed later (unless the building decides to do another round).

I already re-did my kitchen and bathrooms when I moved in (no basement…apartment).

Also, I have family with an EV so it will get some use.

29

Okay, I thought you were doing it as an investment, with no expectation of actually using it, in which case you’d only be losing money.

30

who will pay for the electricity?

31

Each owner pays for their own electricity.

32

Don’t you just stick a credit card in the charging station, and it charges you by KWH or something?

The County I work for has a number of chargers in the parking lot. But I work from home now so it really doesn’t mater to me. Instead of driving 50 miles a day, I drive about 100 miles a week.

33

There are all sorts of ways they do it. Many require the use of the network’s card or app. Some allow credit cards. Some are free. I have a chargepoint and Blink card in my car if needed. Other apps on my phone. But honestly, I almost never charge anywhere but at home or the airport. Seatac airport just installed free L2 charges (when L1 was plenty sufficient when I’m parking during a trip.)

In an apartment parking lot, I think they could meter each one. (which I guess is what is being described here). I reckon they’ll have to restrict access by a key pad or card or something, to prevent interlopers.

34

Our condo management has made an arrangement with a company that will, on request, install a charger at my reserved parking place and hook it up to our meter. Since I am on the 4th floor I don’t know how this is done, but I guess they do. There is Tesla parked next to me and that spot has charger. I have no idea what they charge, but I figure I would get most of it back if/when I leave.

35

My condo is interested in chargers but the board doesn’t even know where to start. We don’t have assigned spots, the lines are all underground, and it’s not clear what sort of limits we have on whatever is coming off the street. So I read these threads with interest.

36

I did talk to the building manager today, who said that she has owned an EV, and doesn’t see why I couldn’t use the 110 outlets in the garage to charge, and if I rent to garage, I can be charging any time I am home. She also told me where the nearest fast charger was.

She also said that she has asked the owners (or, the board of directors of the company that owns the place, probably more correctly) and the answer was that there hadn’t been any interest in it from tenants or prospective tenants. Now that I had asked, she could go back and say tenants were beginning to inquire. She said they would probably have to survey residents, and see what other, comparable residential places were doing. She said they want to be ahead, but not too far ahead, because they’d want it to attract tenants, which I didn’t really need explained to me, but, whatever.

I pointed out that there must be access to 240 lines (lines with 240 breakers), since every unit has a full-sized dryer, and they were probably underground. That should make chargers at the outside spaces near the buildings easy, and she hadn’t thought of that, but conceded, but added that the lines were doubtfully near the garages.

We talked about the learning curve for people not parking long-term in the charging spaces, and I said that people managed not to park in handicapped spaces, and it was always possible to make the charging spaces available for “regular” parking from, say, 10pm - 6am, or midnight - 8am, or something. since overnight is the high load for the spaces, and also when there are probably fewer people wanting to charge their cars.

The short version was that she was encouraging, but didn’t suggest it would be easy. She seemed personally to believe, as some have said, it is an idea whose time has come, but it’s going to take a bit to convince some of the people on the board, who drive Lincoln Town Cars and Chevy Impalas, and don’t expect to be around for the brunt of climatd ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

37

I don’t recall you saying how far you typically drive in a day. But as others have said, 110 charging might be fine for you. I like the piece of mind of having L2 charging at home, but honestly if I plugged in every time i was home to a 110 outlet, I’d be fine 99% of the time. (on days I work from home, I’d get 20-24 hours of charging–enough to top off after almost any daily run around town)

38

@RivkahChaya is your garage and your apartment on its own meter? Because in my apartment building they are not, so if one user is charging their car using the outlet in the garage, the landlord is paying for the electricity.

39

Each charger is installed between two spaces and has two cords long enough to reach only those spaces. Whether each pair is adjacent or 1/4 mile apart won’t matter: those two spaces are the spaces each charger reaches.

40

When I rented an AirBnb in Hawaii (Kauai, specifically) a few years ago, one of the building’s residents had a Nissan Leaf. Their charger was just installed by running an overhead wire from the top of the building to a tall wooden post in the parking lot, with the charger mounted on the post. As an aside, the Leaf is probably the perfect island car, as it probably has just enough range to get you to anywhere on the island on a single charge (at least from Kapa’a, which is pretty centrally located, which is why I stayed there).