I’m looking to get an electric car. I currently live in a manufactured home (basically a single family house) and it already has a 120v outlet in the carport and adding a 240v outlet shouldn’t be hard. Charging would be easy and cheap.

That said, I am 34, still living with my mom, so I need to move eventually. Despite years of trying to get a home in LA, I’ve failed so far and the only thing I could afford to get would be an apartment style condo or simply an apartment. It’s been a few years but I didn’t notice many chargers a few years ago when I looked at complexes. Not sure how it is now.

Are people that live in multifamily homes able to get charging done at home these days? Do they have to rely on public charging? How expensive is fast charging compared to gas prices? I’m curious before I pull the trigger on getting an electric car.

  • deztructo@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Homes, whether multifamily or single family get charging done at the garage, or where-ever is closest to the breaker-box. Fast charging is cheaper than gas in Los Angeles.

    For a Tesla Model 3 that replaced my old car that gets 25mpg driven over my work commute. It’s can be a quarter less. Gas has been $5+ most of the year. That’s $5 for 25 miles or 20 cents a mile on gas. My Model 3 over 3k miles same work commute averaged 215 watts per mile or 4.65 miles per 1kw. 1kw electricty at home is between ~25-30 cents, but peak 5pm-8pm is 60cents per kw. That’s 5-13 cents on electricty. If you are wise, you charge off peak and you let the car do the work by enabling off-peak scheduled charging and plug in sometime before you sleep.

    If you are really cheap, Tesla charging has been as low as 11 cents and pretty frequently at different locations but always between early morning hours. Just like gas, their pricing changes at different locations and cheaper average tends to be mid 20 cents off peak. If you are even cheaper free charging is available out here, but nearly all are slower level 2. Slow as in think 10% every hour.

    The biggest issue you’ll run into is probably insurance. My 1st quote just adding the new car to my existing policy myself online and reducing my old car to lowest until it sold was x3! Tesla Insurance was much more reasonable. It wasn’t until later when I called to remove my old car that they quoted me something that was closer to x2.

    In your case, I wouldn’t recommend unless you can get free charging at work or can lock in a quote that your insurance is affordable once you buy.