codezer0 I’ve yet to drive or ride in one, so I can only glean from how differently they work and infer that they would be universally, as boring as a broadcasted reading of War and Peace.
While up north for a funeral I rented a Tesla for a few days and other than charging it was a real fun to drive car, the acceleration is akin to a 69 RoadRunner with a 383 V8, the only difference is it is super quiet.
Would I buy a new one, no, the cost is not justifiable and charging with a level 2 charger would require my utility to install a upgraded transformer, will I get a used one someday yes, when I can find one at a price I like and only if it has a range of at least 75 miles or so.
The downside is they are not very nice inside while the seats are very comfortable the trim appears to be a tad cheap and ill fitted, come on Elon you can do better than that.
However as you discovered for many the roadblocks of charging are just too much, apartment dwellers are the most screwed, if the place has chargers they will be limited, so lines will form and lord help the guy who connects to one and tries to leave his EV there overnight. Homeowners in gated communities somewhat screwed Community Associations are a real PIA to deal with, mount a charger on the front of the home oops VIOLATION, gotta hide that ugly puppy. which is going to require buying a expensive long charging cord.
MDU’s same as apartments.
Public charging what fun, first one must find one close to the route they are taking, then hope there is a open charger or at least a short line, from there is payment, very few take plastic, most require an account using a in car or cell phone app, then comes the big one, will the charger work, maybe, maybe not or maybe real slow.
Tesla fast chargers seem to be the best, Charge America so-so, however Charge America lately is really marketing their chargers to electric utilities so maybe they are getting their act together.
And speaking of electric utilities they can really put the screws to someone trying to setup a public charging station, yes they love selling electricity, what they don’t like is installing a new circuit from a substation to that charging station, I recently worked with a company who found what they considered a prime location for a public charging station adjacent to a existing privately owned gas station/restaurant just off I-4, the owner of the property wanted a charging station there to drive business to the location, so setting up the deal looked like it was going to happen.
The only problem not enough power, the local electric utility made what they considered a very generous offer to bring in a new circuit for the bargain price of only $2.5 million and about a year or two for engineering and construction to be completed.
I visited the site and noticed the restaurant had a natural gas connection, so I contacted the gas company, they where more than glad to install a new connection for a generator and where willing to pay half the cost of the generator and the installation, five months later the charging station opened.
Now the cost of using a generator doubled the operating cost versus electricity, but saved the owner $2.5 million and maybe as much as a two year wait, plus NG will be flowing and the generator will be running when the power is out making the charging station a valuable local asset.
Not to mention the additional costs will be passed to those using the charging stations anyhow.
And the sweet part is I was paid $12K for setting the deal up, not bad for a few weeks work.
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