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Comment by tehwalrus | Hacker News Reader

I can't afford one of the Model Ss, but I am totally in line for when they make the budget model in a few years. Very excited that they'll be making a proper-hand-drive one for the UK too, now all I need is a house (hah) with a driveway (even worse)...

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The driveway requirement is an interesting problem. I live ~7 miles from the center of London. Driveways are very, very scarce, and I can't guarantee being able to park in front of my house due to the number of cars on my road. I also don't know how legal/practical trailing a cable from my house is.

I basically can't own a Tesla (even though I would like to!) as I would never be able to charge it.

If I lived that close to central London, I don't think I'd bother owning a car and would rely on TFL.

Ah but I have two small children...Besides, that's not the point...

I'm 38 and have never even had a drivers license. I grew up near Oslo, Norway, and moved to London when I was 25 - it's always been so easy to just use public transport that I've never gotten around to it. Keep thinking about it, as it'd be nice to have a license for the occasional car trip for vacations etc., but it's pretty far down the list of "nice to have"'s. Can spend a lot on taxis for what a car would cost me.

Hopefully a combination of superchargers, EVs in public parking spaces in shopping centers (for example, to attract wealthy EV owners to shop there) and arrangements to have EV charging points near work places will serve people in this situation.

Perhaps your council will install a EV charge point in your road if you ask them, then you can charge it for free and get a dedicated parking spot ;)

This is such a deeply unsustainable practice it would be incredibly foolish to make any long term plans based on it. Special EV charging points (with the dedicated parking that comes with them) will disappear the moment more than a handful of EVs are used. It's just not feasible to install charging points at every parking space, and once the demand for those spaces that exist outstrips supply the resulting politics will almost certainly either kill them completely or result in them becoming expensive quickly.

Perhaps councils will see them as a way to make money and start charging for the electricity they provide. Could be a nice little earner when they become popular.

Councils already have a 'nice little earner' in charging for parking permits for residents. And then there is the fines for people parking in a residential area without a permit. They are already making a ton of money from parking without having to install a single wire.

I can't speak to the legality of the building codes where you live, but I don't see any technical reason why you couldn't have an outlet installed near the street to charge a car. It's pretty common for electricians to run conduit out to the street and install convenience outlets for things like landscape or sign lighting or powered gates.

EDIT: The electrical nerd in me had to see if someone has done this before, and yes, it would look like this: http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/19974-NEMA-14-...

NEMA-14-50 is the kind of outlet used by RVs and Campers, so putting one outside is pretty much a solved problem.

Though as other commenter have mentioned, actually getting a parking space outside your house may be the biggest challenge!

Supposing that's possible, he still has no guarantee of getting that parking spot. I have a similar parking situation: when I'm lucky I get the stop in front of my apartment, other times it's taken and I end up parked 50 feet down the road.

What's the solution to this? Maybe municipal EV charging networks or people charging their cars while they're at work during the day? And if you have a charger at work, trying not to drive too far over the weekend until charging stations become more widespread?

This is un-related to the actual problem. If you live in a major city (like SF, London, NY, etc) you cannot park your car in front of your property unless you have a legal claim to the land. That will cost you somewhere around $500K.

Also, there may not be any available even then. Certain areas in europe, in particular, are not architected for vehicle co-habitation with residential real estate in urban centers. So, by all means you can own a Tesla for your country home. But it may be rather impractical for your town-house. Even in NYC, its quite normal for people who own cars to keep them garaged off-stite. Athough, presumably, this is less of an issue as over time professional parking storage businesses could make a nice secondary income stream by charging a "convenience fee" to Tesla owners. Maybe 100 to 200 a month, maybe a whole lot more more. This type of fee is what they charge currently for a Range Rover or other SUV.

What is wrong with the offerings currently available in the lower price points? I am really trying to understand the desire to wait on a car that is essentially vapor ware at this point.

With batteries being the constraining cost I do not see how they are going to have a low end car with any real range beyond 100 or so. I just don't see the math.

I am seeing Leafs popping up all over, they may have hit their price threshold for that to occur in my area (US). It fits the commute profile of a large number of people, I would suspect that is true for those here.

see my answer to blah.. - nowhere to charge it, and I don't need one for at least 6 months in any case.

Why wait?.. you can just get a Nissan Leaf now

I currently live in London, I don't need a car. Soon, I'll be moving somewhere else (undetermined as yet), where I probably will. If I don't have a driveway though (which is likely), then an electric car of any type becomes very difficult to charge.

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