darkvader

netrox said:

Why are they still betting on Apple Car when we have no evidence of it happening? It seems like it's all centered on CarPlay, not the actual car itself.

mpantone said:

One thing that happens over time is that the number of free charging points decline as deployment becomes more widespread.

Places like car parks (parking garages for Yanks) are more useful than petrol stations unless the latter are the fast supercharger variety. Even then I'd rather have a supercharger quick charge my electric car while I'm grocery shopping or watching a movie rather than sitting in my vehicle at the petrol station for 30 minutes.

One thing that has emerged from publicly available charging stations is the penalty for using the charging station as a parking space. Naturally the vehicle operator pays for the electricity used to charge their vehicle but after the charging is complete, there's often a smaller time-based fee assessed if you don't remove the vehicle in a timely manner. This dissuades people from parking their electric vehicle at a charging station and then going away for a long weekend making the charger unavailable to anyone else.

I live in a Common Interest Development (CID, a.k.a. "condominium complex") where the property owners own their units but common spaces (like a swimming pool, parking lots, clubhouse, laundry rooms or garages) are managed by a property association, typically hired by the homeowners' association's (HOA) board of directors (which in turn are representative residents elected by other residents). While each unit has its own designated parking space, there is no simple way to get the correct power to each parking stall. The only legal way is to have the HOA create the charging stations and have the entire community share the initial costs. From a cost perspective, it's cheaper to put a group of charging stations together (like ten of them in a row) rather than 2 charging stations in five different locations around the complex since you're only digging one trench instead of five.

The last time this came up for vote, the residents shot down the proposal since it meant a special assessment (out of pocket) of about $5000 per unit for the one-time buildout costs.

If you have a single family dwelling entirely on your own real estate, this isn't a big challenge. It's more of an issue in CIDs and places with more stringent regulations. Each jurisdiction handles this differently.

So while you can have someone install an electric car charger in your building doesn't mean someone elsewhere can do so. Frequently it's a case by case scenario based on what regulations are in effect (which can always change).