Chargepoint to offer charging for condo/apartment dwellers

i suppose it depends on the kw cost. and what incentive to 'prep the parking lot'? easier said than done.

 

It will likely show up in new construction first. Might not new wiring out to the parking spot, but just the conduit. That makes installing a charger at a later date much easier than digging a trench later. Some California localities already require garages in new homes to be prewired for a charger. Requiring such with condos, town homes, and apartments can be done.

I think what stops this is what ChargePoint will charge. Too greedy, and the resident will rethink a plug in.

 

What they need, I think, is a central EVSE controller box that houses the electronics, power relays, cellular data hardware and RFID card reader, and then has outgoing lines that can run through conduit to each parking space where it is hooked up to a J1772 cable and provides a cheap low-tech holster when the cable is not in use. That would lower costs for large scale apartment and office installations -- maybe 8 charging cables per central EVSE box? Drivers would pull into their space, plug the cable into their car and then walk over to the central unit and authenticate using their cards.

 

If the industry went with Tesla's charge standard, an EVSE wouldn't be needed, just a 15-40 RV outlet.
A low tech lockable outlet could used to discourage electric theft. A card reader type probably wouldn't be too difficult to source if desired.
Then the building owners could charge a flat fee.

 

Next. The spot get ICED and nothing happens with management not caring.

 

I'm going to disagree. People, including Tesla drivers, don't want to be dragging a cable out of the back of their car and plugging it into a 15-40 socket. And then unplugging it the next morning in the rain (that socket is GFCI-protected, right?) and placing the dirty wet cable back in the car. Sure, they could leave the EVSE cable at their apartment parking space but those cables are worth hundreds of dollars and many owners would worry about them being stolen. And don't they really need to be carrying one in the car with them for emergency use?

I think long-term realistic use in office complexes and apartments requires that the charging cables are provided at the site (as is typical today) and are ready to use without fuss.

 

The way the ChargePoint stations already work is that when you install multiple units, some of the internal guts are actually shared between units. Each one has a RFID reader, but then they communicate with each other using WiFi or Bluetooth...and only one unit has the more expensive cell phone connection to do the authentication and payment.
It doesn't seem like there is much savings to having only one RFID reader. An RFID reader and a WiFi connection is probably cheaper than connecting a data cable between two units.

Mike

 

Yes, I know. But, there is still a display screen of some kind, a fancy enclosure, a more sturdy base to hold everything in place etc. Now multiply that by 8x and it's enough to make a significant cost difference. At least that's my assumption. I realize that other costs like trenching and labor can overwhelm the difference for some installations but for other sites those costs may be minimal.