In a bid to expand EV charging to their multifamily apartment building, property managers did the research and found an eco-friendly electricity supplier and a cost-effective solution.
Kay and Bruce Schilling manage an apartment building in Belmont, California and wanted to spread their love of EVs to tenants, according to a profile in Grist. However, they found DC fast chargers and even most Level 2 chargers, often found at grocery stores or office buildings, were too expensive to install and had permitting hurdles that could stall things for a year.
Luckily, the couple found an electricity supplier called Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE) with a program to help building owners get charging ports. As the article detailed, it offers support in installing Level 1 chargers, which may only provide a slow drip of power but use regular 120-volt outlets.
"Using low-power solutions seems to be the fastest, most affordable, and most scalable solution to get immediate charging access to where people live," Phillip Kobernick, head of transportation programs at PCE, told Grist. "So instead of putting one [fast] charger in, which is the default way, let's put in 20, and at a much lower cost."
Range anxiety may keep people on the fence about purchasing a new EV, but having access to a charger at home is one way to solve this problem. However, not everyone has their own place or financial backing to install a level 2 charger.
The financial and ecological benefits of this green technology should be democratized for the welfare of the planet. Prices continue to fall for these greener vehicles, and there are federal tax credits of up to $7,500 for new EVs, as well as $4,000 on used models, per NRDC. Plus, they're cheaper to fill than their gas-guzzling counterparts and up to 4.8 times more efficient per mile.
"We acknowledged that not everyone is affected by climate change at the same rate, and we put extra energy into vulnerable populations," as Pharr Andrews, a climate coordinator in Texas with a similar goal, shared with the Department of Energy.
Level 1 chargers have plenty of advantages, but they typically take 40-50 hours to charge a battery electric vehicle. Since they're cheaper and easier to install, outlets can be provided to each parking space. PCE also researched the situation and found that most cars are parked 12 hours a day, and drivers usually only go about 40 miles daily.
As Minneapolis apartment owner Dale Howey offered in another DOE study, "These amenities increase the value of our buildings and attract like-minded individuals who want to do right by the planet."
"You just kind of plug in and forget it," as Bruce Schilling told Grist. "It's good for the night."
Not long after the outlets were installed, a resident told them that now that he could charge at home, he was going to buy an EV.
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