In most U.S. zip codes, electric vehicles are cost-competitive with their gas-powered counterparts, according to a new study. And regarding emissions benefits of EVs, individual driving patterns matter as much as regional factors like the local electricity mix.
This has been in the back of my mind ever since I last rented an apartment. Short of dangling an extension cord off your balcony, there’s not much that can be done here. You might luck out and get a job somewhere that has charging stations, but that’s a big “if”.
This also generates a deep concern in my mind for poor folks that can only afford to rent. As they say, “it’s expensive to be poor” and having little alternative but to drive gas-burning cars to/from work is only going to crunch budgets harder as time goes on.
Meanwhile, we can’t count on landlords to install these things. My last one was the sort that couldn’t be bothered to hire painters that understood what masking tape was; moving day was half spent picking paint out of light switches and electrical sockets.
That’s the perfect place for government regulation. Start a tiered approach where larger apartment complexes have to electrify a certain percentage of there parking spaces. Every year make the size of the apartment building that has to do this shrink and increase the percentage of parking spaces that require electrification. Also make it a requirement that these electrified spots can’t be more than x dollars per kilowatt hour or have them tied to the owner’s electrical usage.
There are a lot of ways you can do this, but this is really something that needs to be done through the government for it to happen for low-cost apartments.