The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers

Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by reaperducer on Friday December 29, 2017 @06:24PM (#16032747)

Building on your "lack of charging infrastructure," I think it's worth noting that there has been a huge shift from owning to renting in the last decade or so. It's easy to add an electric charger to a house you own, but if you rent the house or apartment, it's not going to happen.

If you live in a newer apartment building, you might get lucky and they'll have chargers in the parking garage. But when I lived in such a building in Chicago, the chargers were ALWAYS full. It was a large building, and there were probably 40 or 50 of them across a five-story garage.

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Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by toomuchtodo on Friday December 29, 2017 @07:40PM (#16033048)

Both California and Illinois mandate by law rentals allowing you to install a charger (at your cost). Other states have similar legislation pending.

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Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by chc on Friday December 29, 2017 @08:31PM (#16033246)

That doesn't seem like a very good deal, though. You have to pay a sizable chunk of cash to improve somebody else's property and insure it for a million dollars. That is a much worse proposition than installing a charger in your house. I'm not sure how useful it is to your average renter who is just looking to buy a car.

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Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by plorkyeran on Saturday December 30, 2017 @12:12AM (#16033944)

Installing a home charging station costs around $2000 these days. If you're buying a $30-60k car and move infrequently it won't be that huge of a portion of the total cost of ownership of the car.

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Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by davidgould on Saturday December 30, 2017 @07:46PM (#16038630)

Since I had room in the panel for an additional breaker installing a level 2 EVSE (charger) on the driveway side of the house was only $350. I paid $550 for the charger itself. Total cost $900. Offsetting that: - $500 rebate/credit from GM for buying a Chevy Spark EV and a charger. - $500 cash from PG&E - $150 or so federal tax credit - Increased value of my house with EV charger.

Overall, I think I made about $500 on this install.

Best part, I haven't been to a gas station more than a dozen times in the last four years. I love not going to gas stations.

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Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by reaperducer on Sunday December 31, 2017 @10:01PM (#16044423)

>I haven't been to a gas station more than a dozen times in the last four years.

Where do you buy your Andy Capp Hot Fries?

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Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by Dylan16807 on Saturday December 30, 2017 @12:52AM (#16034053)

And a dryer outlet, which is plenty for home charging, is just a fraction of that much.

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Re:The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers by toomuchtodo on Friday December 29, 2017 @08:40PM (#16033283)

It’s a happy medium until we can improve on the situation.

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