Electric car charging in the city

[Anonymous]

Hi - every time I think about getting a new electric car I always get concerned about the charging options. I live in a row house and I can’t always guarantee a spot outside my house to charge. I don’t really drive to malls and work remote most of the time so “opportunity” charging is limited.

Wondering what other people do in these sorts of situations and how you’ve found not being able to charge when you want. The thought of snaking plugs all over the side walk is another issue and I know technically DC regulations mean you have to put a high visibility ramp over the wires. A hybrid might work well but still not the greenest solution.

Any experiences and solutions welcome!

[jsteele]

Keep in mind that charging while your car is parked on the street will limit you to level 1 charging which is very slow. If you don't drive much, that still might work okay. But, it will probably turn out that you have to rely on public charging for the most part. There are quite a few DC fast chargers around town and if you keep your battery between 20% and 80%, charging will probably take less than 30 minutes. There are even more level 2 chargers around and many of those are free. Check plugshare.com to see what chargers are near your home. It might be possible to charge at a near by level 2 for a few hours every fee days.

[Anonymous]

People who don’t have a parking spot and/or don’t regularly park at a lot with charging shouldn’t get an EV.

[Anonymous]

Get a hybrid.