|
Having a place to plug your EV in is important.
That would be a big discouragement to people who don't have a garage.
In the long run, it would be easy to create parking meters that have a plug in them, or have electricity available in big city parking garages.
I have noticed that Christmas is a great time to find out where electric outlets are.
My local grocery store has outlets on all the parking lot light posts, which they wrap with Christmas lights.
In the downtown of the small city I live 2 miles from, they have electric outlets by the base of the trees planted in the space between the road and the sidewalk proper. They also plug X-mas lights in there in the winter. I don't know if they turn power to those outlets off the rest of the year or not.
A person could parallel park their EV, plug right in to the outlet, go shopping or to a restaurant (bringing money into the local economy) unplug their EV and zip off to somewhere else.
I have only plugged-in in public once or twice so far, at the grocery store. I did talk to the manager. I told him about my EV project and how I would like to charge in public and spend my money at his store.
He told me the parking lot is actually owned by some giant real-estate management company, and that I would have to check with them. He said he was personally OK with it.
If it looks like your car has a bad battery and you are just toppping it off with a charger you happened to have with you so you get it going again, I don't think anyone would stop you.
If your car says "Electric Vehicle!" in huge lettering, and it looks like you are STEALING electricity, you might get in trouble.
I still sort of want a small metal sign with a magnet on it that says "OFFICIAL Electric Vehicle Charging Station" - then I can just slap it on whatever outlet I happen to be charging from.
|