Renters Face Charging Dilemma As US Cities Move Toward EVs

The transition to electric cars continues for homeowners who can power through their garages, but for millions of renters, access to charging remains a major hurdle. Now, cities across the country are looking for innovative solutions for public charging, with drivers installing power lines on sidewalks, setting up private charging stations on city roads, and lining up in public spaces.

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Last month, the Biden administration approved plans by 50 states to expand high-speed charging networks on interstate highways over the next five years using $5 billion in federal funds. But states will have to wait to apply for an additional $2.5 billion in local grants to fill the gaps, even in densely populated urban areas.

"We have a big challenge today to make it easier for people to pay to live in an apartment," said Jeff Allen, executive director of Forth, a nonprofit that advocates for electric car ownership and access to charging.

Cities must understand that “the promotion of electric vehicles is also part of a sustainable transport strategy. When they make that mental shift, they can and should do very sensitive things."

Fast chargers, also known as DC Fast, can charge a car in 45 minutes or less. But the slowest Level 2 charger, which took several hours, is still nearly four times that. Charging from a regular household outlet or Level 1 charger is impractical unless you drive a lot or leave your car plugged in overnight.

According to the Department's latest data, there are about 120,000 conventional charging ports with charging level 2 and above in the country, and about 1.5 million electric vehicles registered in the country, more than one charger for every 12 cars in the country. Energy

A briefing prepared for the department by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory last year said there will be fewer than 19 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, with a projected need for 9.6 million additional charging stations.

In Los Angeles, for example, nearly a quarter of new cars registered in July were plugged in. The city estimates it will need to increase delivery capacity by 25-50% over the next two decades, with electric vehicles accounting for about two-thirds of the increase in demand, said Yamen Nanne, director of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. .. transport. . Program of water and energy electrification

At the height of the boom, the crowded urban environment quickly became a pressure point.

In Los Angeles, the city has installed more than 500 EV chargers, 450 on street lights and 50 on utility poles, and plans to add 200 more a year, Nanne said.

Similar pole-loading initiatives are underway or under consideration from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri. The Seattle City Light utility is also in the early stages of a pilot project to install chargers in areas with limited private parking.

Other cities want to change their building codes for electric crosswalks. Portland is considering a proposal to make 50% of the parking spaces in most new residential buildings electric; in complexes with six seats or less, everything will be prepared for electric cars.

The policy is critical to the spread of electric cars because tax breaks and the growth of the electric car market are finally making zero-emission cars affordable to more Americans, said Ingrid Fish, who oversees Portland's transportation decarbonization program. .

This initiative echoes initiatives that have been carried out in other countries that are far from introducing electric vehicles.

In London, for example, there are 4,000 chargers for street lights. It's much cheaper — just a third of the cost of installing a curbside charging station, says Vishant Kothari, manager of the World Resources Institute's electric vehicle group.

But London and Los Angeles have an advantage over many American cities: streetlights run on 240 volts, which is better for charging electric cars. Most street lights in U.S. cities use 120 volts, and it can take hours to charge a car, said Kothari, who authored a study on the charging capacity of U.S. city poles.

Because of this, cities have had to use a variety of solutions, from rezoning to workplace fast-charging policies.

For renters who already own an electric car, the change may not come fast enough.

Rebecca DeWitt and her partner plugged an extension cord into a wall outlet near the front door of their rental home, in the driveway, and into their new Hyundai Kona in the driveway. From standard outlets, it will take you two days and a lot of planning to fully charge your EVs during your travels.

"It's a problem," DeWitt said. "And if we didn't value electric cars so highly, we couldn't bear the pain."

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