As a former landlord, I looked into this and I was okay with considering it CapEx costs. The tenants weren’t interested, but I figured free charging would get people thinking when it came time to buy their next vehicle.
Talking to other landlords, though, brought up the issue of poachers. If my tenants weren’t using them, some wily owner would notice them and start hogging tenant spots. Towing would be problematic - an additional expense for the building, and - as mentioned above - most vehicles now lock to the chargers because impatient EV owners tend to unplug unattended cars rather than waiting for people to finish. I decided to skip it and sold the building soon after.
Btw, the quote for adding two L2 chargers between the 4 tenant spaces was ~$3000, which didn’t seem too bad.
Our condo hired a consultant expert in this field who works to figure all that stuff out and provide options. This cost is picked up by the building HoA (for now at least…not sure if some goes back to the building in the cost to have a charger installed in your spot).
Costs more but I can’t imagine trying to do it without them.
On my car, if it’s charging, I have to ‘unlock’ the car to release it. If it’s not charging, nothing is locked, anyone could unplug it. IIRC, you can also set it so you always have to hit the unlock button to remove it or you never do.
My point was more that if you install 10 chargers in 10 adjacent spots, only 10 cars (maybe 12) can reach them at any given time. Spacing them out doubles or triples the amount of spaces they reach and people leaving their car in one of those spots after it’s done charging wouldn’t be as big of a concern.
Nope. Each charger sits between two spaces and has two cords that each are long enough to reach exactly one space. So each space is served by exactly one cord. If a car is in that space it either is being charged, or it is preventing a different car from being in that space and being charged.
I think we’re getting a bit off topic, but if the charger is in front of one spot with a cord long enough to reach to the adjacent spot on either side, that would be one charger accessible to three cars.
Even more if it’s freestanding (as opposed to mounted on a building) with parking spots in front of and behind it.
My charger, for example, has a 25 foot cable. Something like that could be mounted in front of one spot and easily reach the spots on either side of it.
In any case, my point was more about how property owners should have these spaced out, not all bunched up in one area.
Nah. I’m learning about being an EV owner, and that’s good enough. But honestly, anything touching on debates over how and whether to make spaces more or less accessible is perfectly on topic.
Something else I thought of. I understand this is likely too expensive for an experiment, but since your apprehensions (as is the case for a lot of people) revolve around your ability to keep the car charged, maybe you could see about renting one for a week or two. That way you could get some empirical data instead of just going by anecdotes from people in different situations than yourself. Plus, if you’re in a bind, you’d still have your car to fall back on so you won’t be stranded.
Just looking at a random Avis location, you can rent a Chevy Bolt for a week for $300 (plus whatever fees/taxes).
If they weren’t in such high demand, I could even see a dealer letting you do that if they think you’re serious about buying/leasing one. But it still might be worth asking them if it’s a possibility.
Are there car charger extension cords (I really do not know)? If not, I wouldn’t be surprised if they became a thing to reach a too short-cable charging station. Just carry one in your trunk.
I was curious, it turns out, yes, there are. Anybody can do a search for J1772 extension cord, but I’ve pasted an example below. This is only going to work for level 1 or 2 charging.
I have a 30 amp rated 25 foot extension cord I’ve used to charge a few times. It cost me $75, and works fine. It is very heavy. It is just a generic cord and could be used for a welder or whatever, too.
Don’t sleep on the idea of charging at work, too. I live in a condo in a city with no off-street parking, but there are chargers in the garage where I park for work, so I just charge there, once or twice a week, depending on usage. And as a bonus, my company subsidizes the charging rate as part of their “green” initiatives, so I can keep my car charged all the time for about $1-2/week. I’m saving ass-loads of money every year vs. my previous (pretty fuel efficient) ICE car.
Interesting. The only public chargers I have ever spotted are at the Mercedes and Porsche dealerships near me. And the map confirms that’s it, along with the Kia dealership. There is one at NASA where I am retired from.
Absolutely nothing at the mall or at any big box store or restaurant row.