Having come out of school right when the housing market was ballooning I never bought a home. I called BS on the market then, and I'm glad I was right and held off. But even now I still don't think owning residential real estate is a good investment. It should strictly be a lifestyle decision. And considering that I like being mobile, I have always rented.
So, I'm curious what my options are for charging the Model S since I am a renter. Currently I rent a house on the east coast, but will be moving to Portland, OR for several months as a part of a contracting gig. But wherever I end up when my Model S is ready for delivery, I have two rental choices essentially (renting a house with garage, or renting an apartment with no garage). Renting a house makes it far easier, since the garage will presumably at least have a 110V outlet in it. However, I don't want to charge with just 110V, and feel like I'm either left finding a rental house that just so happens to have 240V outlets in the garage (rare, considering most washer/dryers are in a separate room) or asking the homeowner if he would allow me to install a 240V outlet in his garage. If I rent an apartment on the other hand, then I feel as if I'm completely SOL. I'd have to find some carport or garage (with electrical outlets in them) and even then, it would have to be next door to the apartment complex to make it practical.
So I have two questions. How are renters getting by who currently own a Roadster? How do renters who have reserved a Model S plan to charge their car?
And do you see owning an electric car as a renter to be impractical to the point that it limits the potential EV market? Let's face it, 1/3 of Americans rent their home (and that number may be greater when you only consider people of driving age) and that's a lot of people that are largely disqualified as being a potential EV consumer. The Leaf would be the perfect city car except for the fact that even fewer people in urban areas own their own home or have access to their own, individual carport with an electrical outlet (many use large, shared parking structures). What good is owning a Leaf in the city if you don't have anywhere to plug it in? I see this as a huge hurdle for EVs to gain truly widespread adoption. The whole renter's parking infrastructure needs to be retrofitted with electrical outlets / charging ports, and that's not going to happen overnight.
So, I'm curious what my options are for charging the Model S since I am a renter. Currently I rent a house on the east coast, but will be moving to Portland, OR for several months as a part of a contracting gig. But wherever I end up when my Model S is ready for delivery, I have two rental choices essentially (renting a house with garage, or renting an apartment with no garage). Renting a house makes it far easier, since the garage will presumably at least have a 110V outlet in it. However, I don't want to charge with just 110V, and feel like I'm either left finding a rental house that just so happens to have 240V outlets in the garage (rare, considering most washer/dryers are in a separate room) or asking the homeowner if he would allow me to install a 240V outlet in his garage. If I rent an apartment on the other hand, then I feel as if I'm completely SOL. I'd have to find some carport or garage (with electrical outlets in them) and even then, it would have to be next door to the apartment complex to make it practical.
So I have two questions. How are renters getting by who currently own a Roadster? How do renters who have reserved a Model S plan to charge their car?
And do you see owning an electric car as a renter to be impractical to the point that it limits the potential EV market? Let's face it, 1/3 of Americans rent their home (and that number may be greater when you only consider people of driving age) and that's a lot of people that are largely disqualified as being a potential EV consumer. The Leaf would be the perfect city car except for the fact that even fewer people in urban areas own their own home or have access to their own, individual carport with an electrical outlet (many use large, shared parking structures). What good is owning a Leaf in the city if you don't have anywhere to plug it in? I see this as a huge hurdle for EVs to gain truly widespread adoption. The whole renter's parking infrastructure needs to be retrofitted with electrical outlets / charging ports, and that's not going to happen overnight.
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