It’s not that expensive to run one 240V feed but your panel needs to have the capacity or it’s a super expensive upgrade (ask me how I know). It’s also likely that the condo complex won’t allow it and the parking spaces may not be assigned. It’s definitely worth exploring though because it’s a great solution if possible.
We are a converted apartment complex.
There is no money.
This is Tennessee, land of low incomes.
You missed the good ol’ days. I’m grandfathered into the original net metering plan and have negative bills some months. It’s glorious.
This particularly bad stretch of May Gray aside, seems like it’s been getting hotter here. We finally added AC (mostly because our solar install made me not fear the cost).
Their take-out margaritas got me through the worst part of the lockdown.
Back to the topic: I drove our Tesla there to get them.
I was wondering how it worked for the old timers. I’m glad that they didn’t screw you. My neighborhood is generally a lot cooler than the rest of town. I’ll never need AC but I will replace my gas furnace with an electric one if I go solar. My winter gas bills are absurd.
Re charging stations for condo buildings: I’ve never lived in a condo, but I have several friends who have or do currently. I’ve heard the stories. I can imagine the heated discussions over ANY improvement or change that does not benefit all the unit owners. One friend described many meetings over landscaping issues that were perceived as being beneficial only to the units on the first floor. (“Our unit is on the third floor. I don’t care if there are shade trees outside the first floor windows.”) Plus, there’s always the attitude about early adopters ruining the situation for others. (“It cost $5K to install the first 240V outlets, but now we have to upgrade our service and every future outlet will cost $15K.”)
The most reasonable solution I would see would be to enter into a contract with some third-party provider to install charging stations and bill appropriately for usage. But I don’t see how the revenue could cover this type of arrangement.
This is a good idea if the ROI is reasonable for someone.
Grants to build public charging stations:
Another push for the addition of EV charging stations in the commonwealth is to reduce the barrier of “range anxiety,” or the angst of running out of battery life before reaching a charging station.
Under the NEVI plan, charging stations are required to be within 50 miles of an Alternative Fuel Corridor, a network of highways and interstates that have charging stations.
Charging stations funded by the NEVI plan must contain at least four charging ports with a minimum of 150kW per port and a minimum of 97% uptime.
Instead of installing a charger on my elecrical system, I installed a 240V plug in my garage. (With 50A breaker). Then I got a range cord (oven power cable) for the charger that plugged in. If there’s a problem with the regular charger, I can use that outlet for the portable charger that came with the Tesla. (back when they provided them free). But- 240V 40A - use a qualified electrician, use a quality socket, be sure every connection is screwed down firmly. And if I ever take up bodywork, I can plug an electric welder into that too.
For me, the lack of available charging stations and the constant hassle and anxiety associated with them were the reasons why I sold my EV and went back to a traditional ICE vehicle.
Since I live in an apartment, I knew charging at home would be an issue so I would have to rely on public chargers, but I didn’t think that would be so bad since I live in Southern California. I learned a hard lesson. The charging infrastructure around here isn’t great, with only a couple of chargers here and there, and many of them ChargePoint chargers which tend to be iffy about both whether they work properly and whether they will let go of my car once I try to stop charging. The EVgo chargers located at Walmarts became my go-to level 3 chargers for that reason, since they were better and closer to my apartment and other places I tended to go.
Constantly charging my car was a big hassle since I had a max 150-mile range, so even for a trip down to see my friend who is 30 miles away, I would end up having to charge both before and after I leave, adding 40-60 minutes to my trip. Driving a very long distance was undoable since it would generate too much heat on my battery after a while. I had to cancel a drive to Vegas once I realized I would not have made it there without my car overheating.
The final straw was when every EVgo station at every Walmart I went to was taken out completely, leaving me with even fewer options to charge. I sold my EV back to the dealership and bought a ICE car instead and I’m much happier, even though I still have to pay off part of my EV that selling it didn’t cover.
I’m a huge fan of EVs, but if I couldn’t charge at home I’d have to really think about it. For most drivers, relying on public charging exclusively would indeed be a pain in the butt. I can imagine some exceptions where it could work, but the beauty of owning an EV is having it fully charged every morning if you want it to be.
It makes no sense at all if you don’t have home charging or easy charging at work.
Wife and I are retired, have an EV, do public charging and do road trips. The retired part helps some but instead of a commute, I/we do school transport, athletics, shopping for the family including 3 grandchildren.
The only home charging we do is with the wimpy 110v plug in that came with the car. Overnight at the cheap rate, we get about 20 miles so mostly I don’t bother. Public charging here is tiny (Augusta, GA) but sufficient.
Your opinion is yours.
Um, yeah, no shit. Just like every other opinion.
For most people, it makes no sense at all if you don’t have home charging or easy charging at work although there are, of course, exceptions.
Happy now?
But every opinion here counts . . Which focuses the point of the OP. I have to consider my long-term trip against “refueling”.
Tripler
Open to the idea of EVs , , , but cautious . . . .
I have a young relative that lives in the Seattle area and she has an EV. No charging at her apartment or her work. But, she knows of places to shop/have coffee/etc that have it (she says it is everywhere there) and she has no problems keeping her car going. She said she would never go back to an ICE while living there. So, maybe it makes sense depending on where you live…
Then it wouldn’t make sense for many people with that attitude. Good luck getting mass market acceptance if people aren’t able to easily charge their cars.
1.4 million EVs were sold in the US in 2023 which was a 50% increase over 2022. It’s expected to be around 2 million this year. If that’s not mass market, it’s certainly approaching it. Of course a lot of that is regional. In Santa Barbara, you literally can’t go more than a minute of driving without seeing one. I was just doing some consulting in rural Pennsylvania and I hardly saw any of them.
I do like that the numbers have been increasing, but they haven’t been increasing fast enough to meet California’s 2035 deadline. EV sales in 2023 were still only 18% of all cars sold. We need to do better and the lack of public charging infrastructure in many areas is a key issue.
I do agree that in places like LA or San Diego, you have a lot of options. Here in the Inland Empire where I live, chargers are few and far between compared to them. Although I think you might be exaggerating about Santa Barbara, PlugShare shows only a few stations there.
There’s no way that deadline will be made although I believe it includes plug in hybrids which will help a bit.
I am definitely not exaggerating and most of them are Teslas. We have three supercharge stations and they are never full. Most are able to charge at home. The office parks in Goleta all have lots of stations too for employee use.