05-03-2025, 05:00 PM
Robert M wrote:
Speedy,
That's incredibly easy to say but, for many people, it isn't an option. You need to live in the real world where people don't necessarily have the luxury of charging an EV at home or at an office. I very fortunate. I can install the charging station in my warehouse since I own the company. Other people aren't so lucky.
Like pqrst, the building where I reside lacks the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging solutions without a significant expense and agita. Many other issues are much higher priority and must be taken care of before charging solutions become a consideration, let alone a reality. Offering charging stations for our residents isn't going to happen anytime soon. Heck, I;'d be astonished if the building installs charging solutions for residents anytime in the near future. More likely, my family will be long gone from the building by the time charging solutions are in place.
Robert
"Simple. Charge at work and you’ll be fine unless you drive 300+ miles a day in which case take an ICE vehicle. I suppose you let the shop that does your maintenance come pick up and drop off your vehicle at your office thus not costing you time, only money; money that you wouldn’t spend if you drove an EV."
You must drive a great distance to not be able to recharge sufficiently during a normal workday because there are cars and EVSEs that can give you nearly 300 miles during a typical workday.. Weekends would be tougher but soon, as the Chinese have demonstrated or claimed, you will be able to fast charge in the same number of minutes as gassing a car. Fueling at a workplace will almost always beat fueling at a gas pump. As C(-)ris mentioned in another thread, plugging in and unplugging takes five seconds each.
Even now most new residential construction doesn’t provide for charging. I imagine in more progressive areas with lots of EVs, demand requires upgraded wiring and the ability to charge. It’s a bit ironic that in the late 60’s, early 70’s I lived in an apartment complex that had 20a outlets in the parking lot to run vehicle engine heaters during our cold winters. These would have been sufficient today for many residents to get enough charge overnight for their usual daily driving needs.
We are having a builder construct a new house for us right now. I specified a 400 Amp panel to handle two 100 Amp EVSEs plus the regular household needs (all electric); future proofing more for the next owner more than what we will ever need at my age (74) and driving needs because we are having 40 and 60 Amp EVSEs installed (I already had the 40 Amp one). But there are continuous 80 Amp EVSEs out there now that require 100 Amp wiring. To my surprise, single family homes are limited to 225 Amp panels so I had two 200 Amp panels installed side by side in our garage (Home Depot, etc. sells 400 Amp panels so I thought I was good when I was pricing but they are for commercial use only).
Our co-op in Texas (Magic Valley) sells electricity at 8.5¢/kWh but has, IIRC, a $60 monthly fixed charge. Also, you cannot go off-grid with your own solar and batteries, you are required to connect to the grid and pay the $60 + other fees even if you draw zero kWs. Also, they don’t buy excess generation and even if they did it would cost more to install and use solar than to buy this very cheap power from the co-op (special posted a link awhile ago to google.solar that I used to research that I would be in the hole over $40k, and counting, in 20 years if I installed solar).