To reach a very high percentage of BEV ownership there are two key infrastructural issues to deal with:
(1) MDUs such as apartment buildings and condos
(2) On-street parking.
On-street parking would require government action and I don't want to discuss that here.
While I think that enough people have control of off-street parking to allow market growth, and that cheaper, better BEVs will increase demand and lead to more market pressure for landlords and management boards to install or allow the installation of charging in MDUs, I still think that:
(1) Access to charging in MDUs has a piecemeal approach (like much public charging), rather than with a long-term view to enabling charging in all parking spots.
(2) Current attitudes are curtailing market growth
Changing at MDUs isn't an issue that affects me directly (I'm a homeowner with a garage with its own electricity supply!) but it is something that exercises my brain so I thought I'd start a thread to discuss how the MDU problem might be solved in a structured way. I'm hoping that Tesla is working on this.
So, here goes...
The aims:
(1) Low cost
(2) Fair apportionment of costs
(3) Reliable
(4) Easy to manage
Ideas:
(1) Plan ahead for charging to all parking spots: gradually add charging spots but avoid unnecessary retrofitting costs.
(2) Use a single utility meter: minimize utility costs;
(3) User accounts: no complaints of cross-subsidy; "accurate enough" usage tracking; allow dwellers to use any charger
(4) Local authentication: no dependency on Internet
(5) Remote and local management: convenience of Internet; reliability of not depending on Internet access
(6) Multi-plug EVSEs: lower cost per stall?; service sharing; installation enables multiple spots; (risk: higher impact of failure)
I hope that Tesla's looking into this problem, because I think that being proactive and providing a solution that helps resolve the MDU issue sooner rather than later would be a good way to help sales now, and would help the brand overall.
(1) MDUs such as apartment buildings and condos
(2) On-street parking.
On-street parking would require government action and I don't want to discuss that here.
While I think that enough people have control of off-street parking to allow market growth, and that cheaper, better BEVs will increase demand and lead to more market pressure for landlords and management boards to install or allow the installation of charging in MDUs, I still think that:
(1) Access to charging in MDUs has a piecemeal approach (like much public charging), rather than with a long-term view to enabling charging in all parking spots.
(2) Current attitudes are curtailing market growth
Changing at MDUs isn't an issue that affects me directly (I'm a homeowner with a garage with its own electricity supply!) but it is something that exercises my brain so I thought I'd start a thread to discuss how the MDU problem might be solved in a structured way. I'm hoping that Tesla is working on this.
So, here goes...
The aims:
(1) Low cost
(2) Fair apportionment of costs
(3) Reliable
(4) Easy to manage
Ideas:
(1) Plan ahead for charging to all parking spots: gradually add charging spots but avoid unnecessary retrofitting costs.
(2) Use a single utility meter: minimize utility costs;
(3) User accounts: no complaints of cross-subsidy; "accurate enough" usage tracking; allow dwellers to use any charger
(4) Local authentication: no dependency on Internet
(5) Remote and local management: convenience of Internet; reliability of not depending on Internet access
(6) Multi-plug EVSEs: lower cost per stall?; service sharing; installation enables multiple spots; (risk: higher impact of failure)
I hope that Tesla's looking into this problem, because I think that being proactive and providing a solution that helps resolve the MDU issue sooner rather than later would be a good way to help sales now, and would help the brand overall.