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Comment by coolbreezetft22 | Hacker News Reader

even if the EVs are cheap how will they be charged? Most people who can only afford lower priced cars won't own a home with a charger

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Sorry for my ignorance but is not having a home charger a deal breaker for most people? I understand apartment buildings that it can be an issue, but for a private residence is it an issue?

No, it's not an issue to charge on a basic plug for most people. You can get 5 miles per hour on 120v. When charged overnight it is plenty for the average commute.

Yup. Several people have commented that they planned on installing an EVSE ("charger") when they bought an EV but never bothered after finding out that 120V was enough. 120V will let you empty the battery on the weekend, commute and errands during the week and then have a full battery by Friday.

I’m renting a car and using the chargers in front/near restaurants and the mall. 20 minutes of level 3 charging lasts me a day on a Kia Niro. This car is an ev conversion on a 260v architecture. It’s about 90 minutes from 20-90% at 50kWh charging. On a level 2 in the same area a four hour dinner with friends netted me 20kWh or about 1/4 of the battery.

So long as you have a meaningful reason to use public chargers you can get away without a charging space, but I definitely enjoy being able to charge my car at home.

It can be. Of the houses on my block, there are only two that have a garage. More than half don't even have a driveway. Even if you have a driveway, most are only big enough for one car; so, if you have two EVs, you're moving cars around to charge them. There is street parking on only one side of the street.

My neighborhood was laid out more than 125 years ago. The two houses on my east side were built in 1898, years before the Model T. By contrast, the neighborhood were I grew was mostly built post-WWII. Until a few new townhouses were built in the 1990s, only one didn't have a driveway.

So, just because you own a home, doesn't mean you have a space to charge an EV.

For a small EV, charging overnight at 110v is plenty.

Yeah but with which 110V socket, from where? If you don't live at your own house and live at a rental apartment complex then you have no charging point at your parking space either way, be it 800V or 110V, until the building management or the city council decides to invest in EV charging infrastructure where you live and park your car.

What are you gonna do then, implement those Slav-Engineering™ solutions you see in Eastern Europe where EV owners run household AC extension outlets from their balcony window to their car parked in front of the commie-block? I mean, it works, but it's not legal to code everywhere and would get you in trouble in the more rigorous countries.

EVs are currently best suited to those who live in their own homes and can install their own chargers, or have chargers at work. Those without chargers at home are left holding the bags in the switch to EVs, hence why adoption is so slow.

Hey, my Slav neighbour charges his Model 3 that way!

Now, in all seriousness, EVs are for houses, not apartment buildings. If you have a driveway, and want an EV - by all means go for one.

But if you live in an apartment block where it's hard to even find parking after 7pm, then stick to ICE now.

I saw exactly that in my first apartment complex in Mountain View.

Is Mountain View the Eastern Europe of California? Is it run down and cheap?

It was decades ago, but now it's where Googlers live, and the apartment prices have gone up to match. I lived in an garden apartment complex built in the 1960s but recently renovated, with rents therefore somewhat elevated. The apartments nearby were of the same vintage but not remodeled, so were a little cheaper but much more run down and overcrowded by people trying not to be forced to move far away. This was the period where Mountain View implemented rent stabilization.

I mean, you just described what I am doing. It is always adrenaline to have a cable dangling from 4th floor in the thunderstorm.

And yes it is annoying PITA, and I am trying to sell the car, but surprisingly there is no demand for used 40-50k EUR Enyaq iv80 where I live.

Yeah, but 1.21 GW though...

I have neighbors just run extension cords from their front door or window across the sidewalk and plug into their car on the street.

> across the sidewalk

I reward the hacker spirit, however this is an accessibility concern for older people and wheelfolk.

I have seen some better hacks, like using (maybe even planting?) a small tree and running the charging cable over its branches and down to the curb - that way it isn't a trip hazard. Of course it'd be more practical to bury a small pipe under the sidewalk, I guess horizontal boring is pretty much a solved problem, so retrofitting one might not be too hard.

That works until electric cars get popular and people start stealing their electricity (plug their car charger to the 220 extension cord with "free" electricity on tap).

Guess you’re not in an HOA? There would certainly be complaints in my neighborhood if extension cords were running everywhere. Maybe there will be EV charging built infrastructure on day but not for now or the near term.

NIO are doing battery swaps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNZy603as5w

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