The popularity of electric cars is increasing globally. However, with this revolution, the problems of millions of people living in apartments are just beginning. While you look for an EV, electric car charging at home no driveway availability might be keeping you from doing so.
Most apartment buildings do not have any provision for Level 2 charging stations for quickly topping up EV batteries.
Under such circumstances, the residents of such buildings have the following options for electric car charging at home with no driveway.
Plugging Into A Level 1 Wall EV Charger
The first option for apartment EV charging is to just put the vehicle to charge by pulling a cable from your apartment.
You can do so by laying the cable on the pavement. However, this is not as easy as it may sound and has various risks and hazards involved.
The first and most obvious one is that people can literally trip over the charging cables and can be badly hurt.
So, you must ensure that:
- The cable is laid on a flat surface and is removed as soon as the charging is complete;
- The cable is connected to the socket on the same floor only. Never attempt to charge the EV by hanging the charging cable from another floor;
- Use of raised cable protectors with contrasting colours.
It is not illegal to lay a charging cable on the pavement. However, for ensuring safety, going the extra mile is always a good idea.
For areas where no other choice is available, another great option is building purpose-built tunnels under the pavement. These tunnels can then be used for pulling electric cables through them for charging EVs.
Charging At Work
If you work at a physical office, this might be another great place to charge your electric vehicle.
Now that the governments in several countries are offering special incentives to workplaces for EV chargers, your employer might also have installed one. You can use it for topping up your vehicle while you work inside.
If your workplace doesn’t have an EV charging set up yet, you can ask the management to install one and convince them.
Public EV Charging
Some people live in apartments and work virtually from their homes. In this case, the only option left for them is to charge their vehicles at the public EV charging stations.
If you happen to be one of them, you can connect your EV to the charging station while visiting the gym or while shopping for groceries.
The Android and iOS platforms have several apps that not just show the nearest public charging EV stations but also show their photos and reviews. This makes it easy to choose the closest and the best option while on the go.
Asking Your Landlord
The public charging stations might be your last resort for charging your electric vehicles if you live in an apartment.
However, these charging stations are much more expensive than the home chargers and thus it might not be practical to always charge your EV at them.
Thus, in such a case, you can ask your landlord to install an EV charging station for apartment EV charging. The total price of the station can be divided among the number of users if the landlord refuses to pay.
In most cases, even paying a small cost like this proves beneficial for the tenants in the long run.
Startups Coming To The Rescue
Several startup firms are now actively working for making the lives of EV owners living in apartments easier. Some of them include:
- Gravity Mobility: It offers fast charging solutions for congested parking spaces;
- Revel: It rents mopeds and recently opened a 25 plug fast charging setup;
- Beam Global: It uses solar and wind power for generating power for charging EVs.
With this said, we can rest assured that the apartment EV charging segment has a lot of growth potential.
This is true, particularly for startups aiming towards making the liv es of EV owners living in apartments easier.
Final Verdict
If you want to perform electric car charging at home, no driveway might be one of your biggest problems.
However, by making use of some of the above-mentioned options, you can still keep your electric vehicle charged thanks to apartment EV charging.
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