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Comment by tantalor | Hacker News Reader

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...

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