this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2026
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The thing a lot of these people dknt understand is that not everyone has a garage where they can charge a car. I love in an apartment, where am I suppssdd to charge an EV? My parking space is too far away from my parking spot to charge, and I'm positive that my complex would never pay to add charging spots connected to each apartments meter.
Even if they did, I wouldnt trust my neighbors to plug tjeir EV into my charger. This alsomapploesmto people in houses that don't have a garage. An I supossed to run an extension cord to the street st night so that anyone driving by can llut into my electricity?
There will need to be systemic improvements to get more chargers to more people (apartments, office buildings, parking garages, etc), but for L2 charging the electrical work is minimal since all the charging circuitry is in the car and the "charger" is just a fancy wire connector and authorizer.
Ultimately as other commenters have pointed out the problem is political rather than technical. Expanding access to things without a profit motive is continuously difficult under our economic and legal system. Chasing faster and faster charging speeds is not really a solution to the accessibility problem.
most EV chargers can be locked so only you can use them (normally with a RFID or BLE tag).
Also, having chargers in apartment parkings is absolutely viable. it is more expensive to install than in a house. Not sure about the US but where I live (Spain) I know people that have them without issues
It's not a technical problem, it's a people problem. We know how to run wires, count electrons and keep stuff safe behind locks (digital/normal).
Issue is (a) getting someone to pay for it upfront while you could pay for it in your rent (b) getting everyone in apartment to agree to a rent increase if they have a parking spot
This is absolutely a valid concern.
There are various available solutions, but little incentive for landlords to bother. Either ev charger for every renters parking spot with some mechanism to lock it out (expensive) or a large pool of chargers that are shared, but you have to badge in and get it billed to you. The latter if too small barely helps and if too large will piss off gas vehicle tenants that hate the "wasted" space.
Exactly.. the issue is the reluctance to install something simple as electric power to your parking space. This is not a technical issue.. purely ideological nothing else.
I live in a cold climate and so my apartment stall is electrified in order to run a block heater. The way that it works here is that I am charged for power usage off of that stall outlet, but my unit has a breaker that allows me to turn it off and on. I think charging ports could operate similarly, hopefully offering some kind of smarter scheduling that allows you to only have it active when your car is in the stall and needs charging.
And you think the apartment complexes are going to foot the bull to install that here? Every parking lot would have to be torn up to install that. Its a ridiculous assumprion.
Cutting a narrow trench so you can run electricity out to parts of the parking lot you can't get to otherwise isn't exactly a big deal. Utilities do that sort of thing all the time. We can patch parking lots - we do it all the time. Or even just put a pole and run the lines overhead. And, in many parking lots, you can just run the trench or conduit around the edge of the parking lot. You also don't need every space to be electrified, at least at first.
And who's going to pay for that? I promise you, my shitty complex won't.
Why would a parking lot need to be "torn up" to add a power outlet
Because the parking lot is paved? And you have to break throigh that pavement to run power lines?
You can cut a small trench with a specialized tool.. easy enough.
You don't need to break up the pavement to add chargers. Indoors they usually add chargers to the wall spots, outdoors add them to (solar paneled) shade structures.
Not that it answers all your questions, but many EV chargers have access control. The Chinese one I have you have to tap an access card. Tesla charger allows you to limit to Tesla only or even specific Tesla VIN so you can just plug and change while others can't.
It takes 20 mins, and many grocery stores have chargers, plug in when you do your shopping
Grocery store chargers are usually Level 2. I can typically recharge enough to cover my round trip to the grocery store while I'm shopping, but you'd have to camp there for 9+ hours to full charge.
All the ones near me are level 3
Most grocery stores here don't have chargers. If they do, its like 6 spots and theyre always full. Now, how do I charge an EV?
Hell I've never seen one at the grocery stores in my area. In fact in the whole city I can only think of one place that has EV Chargers it's a shopping center that I only go to once a year maybe. Its got like 6 or so Tesla chargers. There could be a couple others, but I've never encountered them.