Electric car efficiencies

[basjoos]

Another factor that might limit some people's decision about buying an electric car is how often they typically have power blackouts due to weather (ice/wind storms, etc) or other factors. You get home on the last of your charge to find your house dark and lacking enough range to drive back into town. On the converse, if your EV was sitting at home with a full charge when the power dropped out, with an appropriate sized inverter you could use your EV as a backup generator for a period of time.

[oil pan 4]

Can the leaf or volt handle being owned by some one that lives in an appartment, where there is no where to charge it?
I think I read that some where around half of people rent.

"we would stop killing coal miners"
Sunshine and wind cant make steel, unless you want to cut down trees for charcoal (which don't bother me).

[Ladogaboy]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Can the leaf or volt handle being owned by some one that lives in an appartment, where there is no where to charge it?
I think I read that some where around half of people rent.

I, for one, couldn't do it. In fact, the only time owning a full electric car was ever feasible was when I lived in/rented a home, and I've lived in apartments/dorms for nearly half of my life at this point (totaling probably a dozen different apartments). The apartments aren't wired for it, and I see no interest from the landlords. It might be another one of those chicken and egg scenarios.

[Ryland]

There are a ton of people who rent and live in houses that they could plug in to, there are also a bunch of apartments at least around here that all have outlets in the parking lot.

The issue with blackouts comes up from time to time, but have you ever tried to fill up your gasoline car with gas in a black out? and if we look at natural disasters like last year in Japan after the hurricane they were bringing doctors in via electric cars because it was easier to set up and charge an electric car in a remote location then it was to get the whole gasoline infrastructure working to refine, pipe, truck and dispense gasoline to that remote area, safer too.

My Civic Hatchback is smaller then a Nissan Leaf but it still gets borrowed by friends who need a larger vehicle to haul stuff, it also gets borrowed by friends who's cars are not reliable enough to make trips out of town and I know a ton of people who's vehicles never leave the county let alone the state on these 120 mile weekend trips that people seem to be making with their boat, at night, in the snow, to the woods where there are no outlets.

The people that I know who an electric car would not work for tend to drive trucks and have them because they are a work vehicle that is hauling tools and other work related stuff, they also happen to own a regular car and drive short enough distances that an electric vehicle would work for them, but they account for part of that 10% who drive more then 100 miles per day as well.

[oil pan 4]

Not every one gets to rent a house and if they are renting anything they likely will never be able to take advantage of a more efficient and faster 220 volt charger.

[Ryland]

Seems like the folks that are most likely to buy a new electric car are also the most likely to own their own house, or at least rent a place that is nice enough that the land lord is going to want to keep them happy by allowing them to make some upgrades like EV charging.

[Ladogaboy]

I think that renting a place that is "nice enough" has nothing to do with it. Maybe "long term enough" would be more accurate. With a very small portion of the population buying/owning electric cars, landlords have no incentive to upgrade their facilities. Especially since most people I know rarely stay past the point when their lease agreement goes month-to-month. That means the landlord just invested in something that will not add significantly to the value of the property (i.e., it is not a selling point and might never see use).

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Ladogaboy

Maybe "long term enough" would be more accurate. With a very small portion of the population buying/owning electric cars, landlords have no incentive to upgrade their facilities.

Yep, the DOE projections show that by 2020 less than 3% of vehicles on the road will be EV or plug in hybrid.

And wouldn't it kind of suck to have a nice cheap rental house, where you charge your EV and have it sold out from under you when the lease goes month to month? Then find that only appartments where you cant charge your vehicle are in your price range?

I have had that happen, 3 months after my lease in virginia was up and it went month to month, suprize the owner wants to sell the house.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Ladogaboy

I think that renting a place that is "nice enough" has nothing to do with it. Maybe "long term enough" would be more accurate. With a very small portion of the population buying/owning electric cars, landlords have no incentive to upgrade their facilities. Especially since most people I know rarely stay past the point when their lease agreement goes month-to-month. That means the landlord just invested in something that will not add significantly to the value of the property (i.e., it is not a selling point and might never see use).

Around here people tend to stay more then a year in places that are nice, but what I meant is that the tenant should be able to convince the land lord to let the tenant pay for that upgrade, or split the cost of that upgrade, seeing as how every electric car out there can charge off a standard 110v outlet it can be pretty cheap to add in out door outlet, adding a 220v outlet in a garage would allow a number of higher voltage charging stations to simply plug in so the tenant could take their charging station with them when they do move but the infrastructure will still be there and would cost very little to have installed.
I own a Duplex and I installed one out door outlet for EV charging and had a tenant who wanted another installed on the other side of the driveway so I paid for the box an wire, they had it installed, other people I know who own rentals have said they would be willing to do that same kind of thing to keep their renters happy.
It's the same idea as providing off street parking or laundry in a rental, it can attract people who are willing to pay extra or it might keep your rental from sitting empty.

[GRU]

People need to deal with having a small/electric car. Just because once in a while they need to go 100 miles or move 4 pieces of luggage that can be done in other ways. But it's gonna be hard changing the way people think but it will have to change because we just can't keep going like this.