News already bashing

[EVer]

^ The average residential electricity rate is, KY is 7.83¢/kWh.

wow.

I pay almost 4 times that (San Diego Gas and Electric).

people are really paying 20+ cents per KWH?!?

My last invoice...

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[Maric]

I bought a new build house in CA. this year. In NorCal where I live, every new house is built with solar AND an EV ready garage (all I have to do is buy and install the charging station, the panel is set and the wiring is intact). If local ordonnances would let me completely off the grid, I could be 100% self sufficient in energy needs. As it is, I sell back power to the grid. This is probably the future of energy. Personally I love it and it was not much more than a home without any of these amenities.

 

[JamieGeek]

Sure, when everything goes as planned. But what about when a friend picks you up for drinks and you don't get home till 11pm. Or you're entertaining a guest in the bedroom. Or you leave your phone in the other room and miss the alert. Or you aren't feeling well and head to bed early. Or it's a blizzard outside and the last thing you want to do is bundle back up and traipse across the parking lot.

I know that's a lot of "what if's", but the point is life often gets in the way of a plan. Again, not necessarily a huge deal, but I think it's enough to make the difference for many buyers between "Oh yeah, a BEV is perfect for me because I have a place to plug it in when I get home for forget it until morning" and "Ugh, I don't want to have to babysit the car after I get home from work by having to run out later and play musical chairs with it".

"Entertaining a guest in the bedroom" that's like 3 minutes right??

That and dinner and the car still isn't charged. ?

 

[dbsb3233]

I bought a new build house in CA. this year. In NorCal where I live, every new house is built with solar AND an EV ready garage (all I have to do is buy and install the charging station, the panel is set and the wiring is intact). If local ordonnances would let me completely off the grid, I could be 100% self sufficient in energy needs. As it is, I sell back power to the grid. This is probably the future of energy. Personally I love it and it was not much more than a home without any of these amenities.

That's what's great about owning a home. People can choose to add any or all of that if they want. But I prefer to have the choice. Can be expensive.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

"Entertaining a guest in the bedroom" that's like 3 minutes right??

That and dinner and the car still isn't charged. ?

What are you doing that is taking three minutes? ? Is it like Quibi (*) or something?

(*) Remember Quibi? Me neither.

 

[BadgerGreg]

This isn't really all that bad. On long road trips, pushing on and stopping only for very short breaks (with an ICE vehicle) can induce fatigue, as you spend virtually all the time on the road with very few short breaks. I'm actually looking forward to my MME on road trips...it will force me to take a bit longer to recharge, which should allow me to stretch my legs a bit longer and rest my brain as well. It might ultimately be safer for me and other drivers around me.

 

[Badger_Prof]

Yep. There is no free lunch, as they say. Someone's paying for it, whether it be the apartment complex, taxpayers, etc. Whenever possible, it's best that the actual users pay for it. But that commonly requires costly equipment and administration to include POS (point-of-sale) capability, which can result in fewer chargers being installed.

What I suspect will be more common at apartments is not so much POS, but rather access control. The chargers will be "free" (no POS payment), but they'll be access-controlled to ensure only apartment residents use them. And possibly just select residents that pay a flat monthly fee as you mentioned. Maybe behind a control gate.

Some may just have them totally open and free right now, but as more BEVs hit the road, those are likely to have problems with people fighting to get on them. Leading to the necessary implementation of access control. When people are relying on their BEV to get them to work the next day, they want a guaranteed charger open when getting home at 10% that night.

That makes use of the chargers no more free than utilities that might be included as part of the apartment rent. The cost is built into the cost of rent. Plain and simple. Call it a service or call it marketing, the charger cost is built into the cost of rent. Not disagreeing with you at all. Your observations are solid.

 

[SnBGC]

$5500 is better than I was expecting for a full-featured unit like that. I was guessing $10k+, but really didn't know.

To clarify....that is just the cost of the unit. Installation and electrical service run to the location is additional cost and can vary wildly. Your estimate of $10k plus is very reasonable and probably a little low.

 

[dbsb3233]

To clarify....that is just the cost of the unit. Installation and electrical service run to the location is additional cost and can vary wildly. Your estimate of $10k plus is very reasonable and probably a little low.

I was actually thinking just the cost of the unit as well, since a "dumb" charger would need to be wired too. So that's largely a wash between the two. And in fact probably higher when weighting putting in 3 dumb chargers vs 1 smart one.

A basic heavy-duty dumb charger is probably ~$1000 (like we install in our garages). I'm guessing they could put in about 3 of those for the similar equip+wiring+labor cost to install that one smart one. The ongoing electric bill for 3 vs 1 would be higher, but there's no connectivity fee. So maybe a wash there.

If the parking spots were already reasonably well controlled to keep moochers out, I think I'd rather see 3 dumb chargers than 1 smart one if I lived there. But there's pros and cons to both. And by guesstimates could be way off.

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