This post is the first in a series of Featured Plug In Sites to highlight apartments and condos that have installed EV charging stations for their tenants.
One of the advantages of plug-in electric vehicles is that you can “refuel” them at home by plugging in every night. But what if you live in a condo or an apartment building? That was the caveat of a reporter who lived in an apartment in San Francisco and attempted to test drive an all-electric Nissan LEAF for a week. Without a regular place to recharge every night, the results were predictable. The headline on his article in Wired read, “A Two-Day Battle to Charge My Car Convinced Me We’re Not Ready for EVs.”
The Beacon Hill Apartments in the Groveton area of Alexandria, Virginia has two SemaConnect stations in front of their leasing office. The high visibility of these prominently placed stations may convince current tenants to consider a getting a plug-in car.
However, I hope they reconsider their pricing structure. It costs $1.50/hr. for the first four hours and $10.00/hr. after that. This two-tiered pricing is designed to encourage drivers to move their cars once they are finished charging. However, I’m not sure this is the best plan in this particular case. Imagine coming home at 11:00 PM and plugging in your car before heading to sleep. If you don’t wake up at 3:00 AM to unplug, you’ll end up with a $36.00 bill by 6:00 in the morning. I hope they reconsider the pricing. Perhaps a prospective tenant could negotiate a more reasonable price for EV charging with the management as a condition of signing a lease.
Although there may be some adjustments to be made in the pricing model, it is good to see EV charging stations offered at more apartments.
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