this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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Electric Vehicles

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Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.


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[–] isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

First, let's actually specifically define the problem. This has nothing to do with home ownership and everything to do with specifically living in rented apartments, not rental units in general. The typical person can meet 100% of their commuting needs by plugging an EV into a regular wall outlet. Unless you're a fringe case hypermiler, the same outlet you use to power or charge whatever device you're accessing lemmy on can cover your commute. So let's not blow this out of proportion and pretend it applies to everyone who rents.

We're talking only about the portion of the population that:

  1. Doesn't own a home of any kind.
  2. Doesn't rent a single family home.
  3. Doesn't rent a townhouse.
  4. Lives in an apartment without charging infrastructure.

Some searching suggests there are about 23 million apartment units in the US. So we're really only talking about 10% of the population here. People renting other housing types may not be able to install a 240V charger in a garage, but they can literally just use any 120V outlet.

For the 10% of the population that lives in apartment units? For these folks, they can continue to do what they already do - fuel their vehicle at a paid facility. The same thing every single ICE vehicle owner does. The absolute worst case scenario for EV ownership is the that charging your EV becomes as big of a hassle as fueling up an ICE vehicle. And the more people own EVs, the more landlords have to discount their outdated apartments without EV charging capability. At some point we'll just pass laws requiring EV charging. In most areas they already have parking minimums. The cost to add a bit of wiring is a rounding error in the cost of building a parking garage.

[–] wyldrstallyns@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I appreciate the writeup, though one salient fact is that rentals rarely offer parking spaces within reach of one's home, nevermind that they're often communal when they do. Until the traditional act of the fill-up changes to an at-home after thought, adoption'll continue to struggle, IMHO.

[–] isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 47 minutes ago

That's why I distinguished apartments from other forms of rentals. It's not all rental housing that's the issue, but specifically apartment units. Someone renting a single family home can charge the EV in the garage or driveway.