My neighbors regularly host two overnight guests with electric cars. They recharge them by running an extension cord out the window. It’s short and fat so I’m guessing it’s about a 12’ 10 gauge cord. They done it many many times so it seems to be working out for them.
A lot of apartments are in cities and a lot of city dwellers live near work and services so don’t drive much anyway or have alternative places to charge. It could be fine for them. I have a 20 amp 120 volt dedicated circuit for my garage. If I got an electric car, I might consider adding a 220 volt charger but I could probably make do with the current situation.
Interesting. What car?
I believe Tesla owners can pick the charging rate in amps. Perhaps this is standard in electric cars these days. If so, and the problem is tripping circuit breakers or overheating extension cords, you could mitigate it by slowing the charging rate.
Teslas do the same. In a pinch, you can reduce the charging current, which reduces the voltage drop. I’ve done 10 amps through quite long and under-gauged cords.
The charger that came with my Lightning has plugs for both 110 and 220. When charging with 110, it will add 2 miles for every hour plugged in. On 220, it is 18-20 miles per hour. I have the standard battery model.
An F-150 is a large and not particularly efficient vehicle. It gets ~2.4 miles/kWh, and a standard outlet can only sustain 1.44 kW, so it’ll only charge at ~3 mi/h even under optimistic conditions, and probably a bit less in practice. On the other hand, smaller sedans/SUVs like a Model 3 or Hyundai Kona get >4.5 mi/kWh, and can optimistically get a ~6 mi/h charge rate (which might be more like 4-5 mi/kwh in practice).
So far, I love it. In keeping with the spirit of the thread, though, I am fortunate to be a homeowner. It is in the garage every night. I don’t have a 220 outlet in the garage at home, but I installed one at work. Between charging at home and at work, and three times at a level 2 charger at the grocery store just because it was available, I’ve had no complaints with range. My biggest complaint is that they come with bucket seats and a console shifter. The shifter should be a knob or some buttons on the dash or even a column shifter, and a 60/40 bench available, like in their other, cheaper trucks. The backseat area is huge. I towed a float in the Christmas parade in town last weekend, with a tree and lights powered by a 20 amp plug in the bed of the truck. Performed parade duty perfectly. I had never even driven an electric vehicle until I got behind the wheel of my Lightning when the dealership called to say it came in. I am smitten. I love the quiet. I love the effortless acceleration. The headlights are amazing. Very comfortable, and I only have the XLT model, with cloth seats and a lack of fancy features. It also has the 18" wheels, which I personally find to ride better than 20" wheels that come on the fancier models, based on my experience with other trucks. One of my other trucks is a plain 2013 F150 STX with basically the cheapest radio and I’ve always hated how Ford Sync worked with any phone I’ve had. The base radio in the Lightning works flawlessly with Apple CarPlay, so that takes care of pretty much all I need from the infotainment system. I have nearly 5000 miles on it now.
If I had no means of charging either at home or at work, I likely wouldn’t have considered an electric vehicle. The benefits of fueling at home every night was one of the selling points in my situation. I only heat the garage to 55 degrees, so being able to have the cabin warmed up to 72 while plugged in, at the time my wife and I leave in the morning is great. The range is diminished quite a bit in cold weather, but I only really drive 22 minutes to work, and 22 minutes home. Being in my fifties, and never having had a car I had to plug in before, it has also been a challenge to remember to plug it in at night. I’m getting better, but there have been numerous nights I have forgotten. More my problem than the truck’s, though.
I will also admit I wanted to take it on a trip from my home on the coast of Maine to a rural area of Vermont, and chickened out at the last minute. There weren’t many chargers along my route, and I started reading reviews of some of them that included complaints of them not working, and I knew I would fret the entire time about whether or not I’d be stranded so I took another truck. I am fortunate to have multiple vehicles as well, which also softens the anxiety of going EV.
Living in an apartment or condo without a dedicated charging spot would likely be a deal killer for me.
Just curious, but what selections are there on the shifter? The reason I ask is that my understanding is that most EVs just have a forward and reverse, which can be accomplished by a button somewhere.
PRND, and the shifter is an electronic gimmick, that can fold flat into the console, allowing you to fold out a laptop table that I’ll never use. I noticed it will also shift itself to park if it is in ‘D’ and you open the driver’s door.
I have two or three big Kenworth diesel trucks at work that have push buttons on the dash shifting, and some of them are several years old now. The technology is certainly there. Ram has rotary knobs on the dash that are totally electronic that work fine with conventional transmissions.
I had originally asked because I would like to get an EV but living in an apartment and having to find a place and time to charge it would seem to be a hassle. I would not run a cord out a window due to fear of someone tripping on it as it would have to cross a sidewalk. The apartment company would not approve of a cord either. I think that the charging issue would be a big inconvenience to most apartment dwellers. Finding another apartment or rental house would be impossible in Oregon or a lot of other places. What are some state laws trying to push for more charging stations or incentives for rental companies to install them?
Me too. I’m a huge fan of EVs, but I wouldn’t like going from “never worrying about starting the day fully charged” to “always having to plan the next charge.” I know it can (usually) be done, but it removes one of the nice features of owning an EV.