Americans' Junk-Filled Garages Are Hurting EV Adoption, Study Says (arstechnica.com) 377
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Time and again, surveys and studies show that fears and concerns about charging are the main barriers standing in the way of someone switching from gas to EV. A new market research study by Telemetry Vice President Sam Abuelsamid confirms this, as it analyzes the charging infrastructure needs over the next decade. And one of the biggest hurdles -- one that has gone mostly unmentioned across the decade-plus we've been covering this topic -- is all the junk clogging up Americans' garages. lThat's because, while DC fast-charging garners all the headlines and much of the funding, the overwhelming majority of EV charging is AC charging, usually at home -- 80 percent of it, in fact. People who own and live in a single family home are overrepresented among EV owners, and data (PDF) from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from a few years ago found that 42 percent of homeowners park near an electrical outlet capable of level 2 (240 V) AC charging.
But that could grow by more than half (to 68 percent of homeowners) if those homeowners changed their parking behavior, "most likely by clearing a space in their garage," the report finds. "90 percent of all houses can add a 240 V outlet near where cars could be parked," said Abuelsamid. "Parking behavior, namely whether homeowners use a private garage for parking or storage, will likely become a key factor in EV adoption. Today, garage-use intent is potentially a greater factor for in-house charging ability than the house's capacity to add 240 V outlets." Creating garage space would increase the number of homes capable of EV charging from 31 million to more than 50 million. And when we include houses where the owner thinks it's feasible to add wiring, that grows to more than 72 million homes. And that's far more than Telemetry's most optimistic estimate of U.S. EV penetration for 2035, which ranges from 33 million to 57 million EVs on the road 10 years from now.
But that could grow by more than half (to 68 percent of homeowners) if those homeowners changed their parking behavior, "most likely by clearing a space in their garage," the report finds. "90 percent of all houses can add a 240 V outlet near where cars could be parked," said Abuelsamid. "Parking behavior, namely whether homeowners use a private garage for parking or storage, will likely become a key factor in EV adoption. Today, garage-use intent is potentially a greater factor for in-house charging ability than the house's capacity to add 240 V outlets." Creating garage space would increase the number of homes capable of EV charging from 31 million to more than 50 million. And when we include houses where the owner thinks it's feasible to add wiring, that grows to more than 72 million homes. And that's far more than Telemetry's most optimistic estimate of U.S. EV penetration for 2035, which ranges from 33 million to 57 million EVs on the road 10 years from now.
This is so funny (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This is so funny (Score:5, Insightful)
absolutely. And that should be obvious to the authors of TFA and the study. it's pretty bizarre imo that they don't mention it.
But the broader point in the article, that EVs are pretty inconvenient in cases other than single family homes, was previously only made by supposed "haters". surprised that arstechnica is onboard now.
(and also didn't mention that fast charges are more expensive per mile than gas in many places. and even public L2s are not much cheaper)
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"But the broader point in the article, that EVs are pretty inconvenient in cases other than single family homes, was previously only made by supposed "haters"."
It was NOT made only by haters, it was made by EV supporters because it is a huge impediment to adoption. It is also a basic fact. I am a strong supporter of EVs, at one time I seemed to be the only one making that argument here.
"(and also didn't mention that fast charges are more expensive per mile than gas in many places. and even public L2s are
Re: This is so funny (Score:2)
They should come up with a way to use existing infrastructure, like putting charging sockets in lamp posts. Oh wait, they do do that already here in the UK! There are also dedicated on-street charging stations and some people even just run a cable from their home across the footpath (sometimes even with a cable cover).
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They should come up with a way to use existing infrastructure, like putting charging sockets in lamp posts. Oh wait, they do do that already here in the UK! There are also dedicated on-street charging stations and some people even just run a cable from their home across the footpath (sometimes even with a cable cover).
They have them at parking meters in some 'Murrican cities - usually in the far north where the original purpose was for engine and battery heaters. That electricity works just as well to charge batteries. That system exists now They even have multiple outlets in parking lots https://www.alaska.org/detail/... [alaska.org] .
In my area, but we have them in parking lots, grocery store lots, parking garages, convenience store EV along with gas/diesel stations.
The article is stupid level 1000 anyway. An EV can be charge
Re: This is so funny (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess if you want power cords rolling out from under the garage door into the driveway to your car....?
I mean a lot of things "can" be done...but most people don't want to if it is a PITA or looks bad...
I have a friend who charges his in the driveway. It looks as "bad" as a plug for an emergency generator. Nothing drags on the ground no trip hazard, just a short length of cable. - he just back into the driveway, the connector is maybe three feet from the charging port on his car. Seriously it is as much a problem as deciding not to use emergency power at the house because that port on the house is just too much trouble.
Next reason to not drive EV's?
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London is not representative of the rest of the UK.
We all wish it was.
You guys get orders of magnitude more investment than we do elsewhere in the UK.
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To be fair most public charging in the UK is a rip-off. If you can't charge on your own electricity tariff then you are going to be paying silly prices for energy in most of the country. It's something that needs addressing.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPo... [reddit.com]
Sorry, but your view of Europe is very skewed and NOT data-driven. It's only UK, Ireland, The Netherland and Belgium where that type of housing is the most common.
ALL other countries are dominated by housing types favorable to either public transit, or private parking with charing opportunities. Think detached houses with garage or parking, or multi-family homes with multi-car garages or parking lots.
For multi-family homes in the city centres of big cities, most of their res
Re: This is so funny (Score:2)
I am from Germany, live in a flat and have to park my Inster several minutes of walking from where I live. I usually charge it at the supermarket charger when I do my groceries, or at work when I am early enough at the office to connect to the only available charger - some of the colleagues also have an EV. Works well enough for me.
Re: This is so funny (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, right. Because the endless hours of your time wasted at a public charging point don't matter at all.
It's the exponentially longer charging time that's the problem. If EV charging to full capacity took 5 minutes, everyone would willingly have an EV my now.
People have lives to live and places to be. Hanging out in dark public car parks for hours like they are scruffy teenagers is simply not an option.
Re: This is so funny (Score:4, Insightful)
You just don't get it do you?
Most EVs now have a range of 250 miles + as standard and a majority of people use their car to drive to work each day and leave it in a parking lot. So if workplaces, hotels, shopping malls all got fitted out with slow AC chargers, the majority of people who cannot charge at home would easily manage by plugging in at their workplace parking lot.
Just like a gas car, on a longer road trip people need to stop for a comfort break every few hours, it is no hardship to stop at a roadside service station and plug-in to a rapid DC charger for 20 minutes (the average time it takes a modern EV to go from 20 to 80%).
People are so entrenched in the idea that you fill your gas tank once a week or whatever and can't change their thought pattern to constantly topping up. People are quite content to top up the charge on their mobile phone every day, nobody is complaining that oh, the battery on my phone doesn't last a week between charges. The same applies to an EV, there needs to be slow charging points installed in a mass scale in parking lots, so people get used to parking up and plugging in while they go to the grocery store or while they are at work.
Improvements in battery chemistry are making it quicker to charge and increasing capacity all the time, making rapid charging more convenient all the time.
Re: This is so funny (Score:5, Informative)
It's definitely a mindset change. You rarely go somewhere to charge, you go somewhere *and* charge. So on a long trip, I'm stopping for lunch somewhere with a fast charger, and if I rent somewhere, I'm renting somewhere with a nearby slow charger. I used to look for a nearby fast charger that I could plan a stop to, but I realise that for me that's the wrong way of doing things.
Recent trip to fairly rural North Yorkshire, and the supermarket car park had council provided 75kW chargers, so bobbed it on while we picked up a few bits, and left with more charge than we needed. That took less time of mine than it would have going to fill up an ICE car.
I'm not saying there's necessarily enough chargers at the minute - once we hit the mass installation you're describing it's all a lot easier, and the price difference between home and commercial charging is mammoth.
People seemingly ignore all those trips they used to make to petrol stations. I'm not sure how often we used to fill up, but perhaps every 350-400 miles.But that's something like 30 trips a year that just don't happen anymore
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> Why would anyone want to buy 1 of their vehicles that they have to "work around" with refueling and constantly topping off, etc?
For exactly the same reason a family with multiple cars might have a sedan, minivan/SUV and a pickpup truck; Even if they are all are daily drivers (which is NOT a guarantee), you'll use the van for moving people and pets, the truck for towing or hauling, and the sedan for a comfortable daily commute. All three of these vehicles have an EV equivalent and given the range of use
Re: This is so funny (Score:3)
The ideal setup - a single family home with a garage that could house a single EV primarily used for commuting - is extremely common. Don't engage in the perfect solution fallacy.
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Yeah, right. Because the endless hours of your time wasted at a public charging point don't matter at all.
It's the exponentially longer charging time that's the problem. If EV charging to full capacity took 5 minutes, everyone would willingly have an EV my now.
People have lives to live and places to be. Hanging out in dark public car parks for hours like they are scruffy teenagers is simply not an option.
It is just a different paradigm. You constantly "top off the battery". I know many people who have EV's, not one of them feels inconvenienced at all. They go about their lives just like those with the petrol vehicles. And since this is a brain dead whine piece article about how 'Murricans are so messy no one gets EV's because there's stuff in the garage - maybe some day one of these marketing droids might figure out that the EV can be charged just as well by emplacing a port on the garage wall outside.
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with some planning
That's the whole problem. It takes planning and an ICE doesn't.
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It does not, the planning is required by the apologist's argument.
The big problem with EVs that ICE doesn't have is availability of "gas stations", if ICE didn't have gas stations they've have the same range anxiety concerns. It's not refueling times, it's availability of bays. EVs don't take planning, they take chargers. Relatively slow "refueling" makes bay availability worse.
Re: This is so funny (Score:2)
If you're not limited to the charger in front of your bouse, you can park anywhere.
Re:This is so funny (Score:5, Insightful)
Only ridiculous if you are fucking stupid.
Cars can be parked on the street, but because the car is longer than the house is wide that means that theres no guaranteed parking outside your house. And often no guaranteed parking on your street
Lamp posts? Perhaps 1 every 100 metres, so sure that solves everything, especially when every other car is vying for the same socket
People like you really dont understand the problem - Im not against EVs, but its going to take a lot of work to make some towns compatible with them. A *lot*.
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I'll bet you're working with the assumption you need one on-street charger per car on a street. Not true. Each car is likely to be charged only once every 10 days or so. So a ratio of 1:7 chargers:cars is enough to provide wiggle room, especially when many of the charges will happen on trips / at workplaces / in supermarket car parks etc.
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In Europe there are some areas where there are small posts along the road where people park. EVs can plug into those and charge cars (and get charged for the power used). It's not rocket science, just something cities would need to install in more areas if EVs are going to be more widespread
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Your argument is pretty ridiculous - if you cannot have an EV because card is longer than home width - then how can you have ICE car?
Are they shorter than EVs?
You need charger where your car stays at night. Are there any lamp posts around? Because, you know, lamps use electricity and funny thing, this is the same electricity EVs use.... no diesel/petrol electricities ...
Disgruntled ICE addicts are getting to the point where they just make up "reasons".
Let us face it - when an article claims that people don't buy EV's because they have a messy garage, they have pretty much exhausted the so called reasons.
And I always wondered how inconvenient it is to charge a car while the owner is sleeping. Or at work, or in a shopping center parking lot.
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If I had an EV, I won't want to charge it in my garage either. Having your house burned down is very inconvenient.
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>"If I had an EV, I won't want to charge it in my garage either. Having your house burned down is very inconvenient."
I was somewhat concerned about that as well. But the odds of that happening are extremely low. And ICE cars causing fires in a garage are a thing as well. Plus, I think a good number of fires are due to old/faulty/improperly installed AC connections and not due to the actual EV. I have read shocking stories in forums about people who have done the most STUPID things that violate electr
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I recently found an adapter that turns my 220v dryer outlet into two 110v outlets. Just what I need for my purposes. I look forward to using it.
By the way, the Amazon version was only 1/3rd the price of the Lowe's version.
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>"I recently found an adapter that turns my 220v dryer outlet into two 110v outlets. Just what I need for my purposes. I look forward to using it."
Not sure that is very useful for EV purposes, though. Most people would want to split their dryer in a way that "shares" 220V with an EV. There are safe ways to do that, also. Splitvolt makes some interesting products. https://splitvolt.com/ [splitvolt.com]
>"By the way, the Amazon version was only 1/3rd the price of the Lowe's version."
Yeah, you can get some good deals
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No, you're right. I just mentioned it since the concept of using a dryer outlet for something other than a dryer came up.
I was surprised and happy to discover such a thing exists. I didn't know (so I wanted to share) and I wasn't looking for it when I found it (I was googling for 220v heaters). It turns out it's just what I need. Until I stumbled across it, I was planning to rewire things to take out that circuit at the breaker box and replacing it with two 110v circuits, which is a metric fuckload more wor
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Plus, nothing says you MUST charge at 240V 40 to 50A.
Yep. The article was pretty insistent on upgrading to 30A. Here, plug in chargers are generally 240V 10A. that's derated from 13A in case people have terrible wall socktets. Fun fact: BS1363 states pugs must still be safe temperature wise run at 14A for 8 hours (the test conditions have the plug in an enclosed box too).
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Here (USA), a lot of older dryer outlets (like mine) are NEMA 10-30. They were never designed for regular plugging/unplugging, are already old (obsoleted decades ago, replaced with 14-30), likely corroded from decades of exposure (humidity/airflow/etc), and the connections are often not tight enough or with enough metal contact. I have seen quite a few photographs of melted plastics around outlets and/or plugs from excessive heat due to poor connections.
I really to highly recommend that people who want to
Re: This is so funny (Score:2)
But not zero.
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EVs experience about 25 fires per 100,000 vehicles, compared to 1,500 fires per 100,000 ICE vehicles.
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Yeah. I don't generally park my ICE car in the garage either.
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>"EVs experience about 25 fires per 100,000 vehicles, compared to 1,500 fires per 100,000 ICE vehicles."
I don't think those stats are specifically for "while in garages", though. Also, I believe most ICE fires occur when first starting, or just after parking, but I am not sure. The risk factors vary a lot depending on use case. For example, you will be present and can take action for an ICE fire on startup. EV fires can be far more devastating and impossible to control. EV-related fires often have n
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The concern being that people have completely failed basic risk understanding and statistics?
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> Having your house burned down is very inconvenient.
I know this is a very common false consensus, however EVs are actually the safest kind of vehicles to park in a garage.
Now we might need adjusting by age. And of course this does not include propane powered cars that are sold in some countries (fortunately not in the USA).
If.
Re:This is so funny (Score:4, Funny)
If I parked my car in there, my wife might get the idea she should park her car in there.
I don't want her to get silly ideas like that in her head.
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You have to take the age of the cars into account. And I'm pretty sure most ICE vehicle fires are electrical related (coming from a BMW driver who keeps getting recall notices for risks of electrical fires, plus being on enthusiast groups where peeps BMWs have caught fire under the dashboard...)
Re:This is so funny (Score:4, Informative)
If I had brain damage, didn't understand basic statistics, or spent my day watching Fox News, I also would think this complete non-issue is scary and wouldn't want to charge my EV in the garage. Unfortunately for you reality is against you. No people aren't burning their houses down with EVs.
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What about fries?
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Indeed, modern EV batteries are extremely hard to ignite, even with power tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
You can see that when there is fire, induced with a blow torch, it's the plastic casing burning, not the battery cell.
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It is smart that you charge your phones and notebooks outside of the house...
having your houes burned is truly inconvenient...
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>"In my neighborhood, every house has a garage. I would say, 1/3 of these garages are filled with junk or exercise equipment and the cars are parked outside."
Yeah, I noticed the same thing. I feel like a freak that I have ALWAYS parked my car in my garage. That is what it is for. Why would I want to subject my car to the elements all the time?
>"I see Tesla wall chargers on the *outside* of the house (in the elements) because these people don't put their car in the garage."
Well, technically, what yo
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Usually not even fancy.
Just a standard 240V socket, like you'd use to plug in a dryer or range.
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>"Just a standard 240V socket, like you'd use to plug in a dryer or range."
Not really. First, nobody has a range in their garage or on the side of their house. Second, most homes use a 30A dryer outlet, and many have no dryer outlet in the garage (and certainly not outside). Assuming a 30A outlet is even available, it is not enough for some EVSE's which are mostly defaulting to 40/50A requirements right now. For example, the one that came with my car is stupid and on 240V is 50A only with NO ability
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First, nobody has a range in their garage or on the side of their house.
No, but dryers in garages are common, and many people have a 240V outlet in their garage for other reasons.
my car is stupid and on 240V is 50A only with NO ability in it or the car to limit current.
I don't believe you. Please cite the make and model.
30A is standard for 240V sockets. No sane engineer would design a car incapable of using that.
I bought my EV in 2015, and even ten years ago, it was able to auto-sense the carrying capacity of the circuit and stay below the limit.
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>"I don't believe you. Please cite the make and model. 30A is standard for 240V sockets. No sane engineer would design a car incapable of using that."
See my other reply on the topic (not reposting).
The car is capable of limiting to 24A (and many other amperages) automatically (not manually), but the included EVSE has no user-controlled settings and assumes 40/50A. I probably was not clear.
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>"Definitely not true. A good friend of mine has a range in his garage."
Your friend cooks food, in his garage? Well, that is... unusual. OK, maybe I should have said 99.99% of homes have no range in their garage or side of their house :)
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I said he has a range installed in his garage. I didn't say anything about using it to cook food.
He uses it for powder coating small parts of various kinds.
Another guy who uses his garage for projects of various kinds, it as a place to park cars. His two big projects are doing a ground-up restore of his (dead) father's MG and building an airplane (from plans).
Not the kind of guy who would own an EV either. (;
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>"Not believing it."
I am extremely familiar with the device I have. But I do need to clarify what I wrote- yes the charger can limit current based on what the EVSE advertises. But my included EVSE has no user-controllable settings and neither does the car...
>"If your current charger (pun intended) requires 50A then that is a design decision by your car manufacturer, but doesn't mean every charger has to be the same."
I never claimed all manufacturers or EVSE's have the limitations mine does.
In my case
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I haven't seen a 240v in a garage in decades, and those were low income housing with a clothes dryer in the garage. Hell, last I saw one was 1999?
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in the elements
They are designed to be installed in the elements. They are specifically IP 55 rated for outdoor use.
Re: This is so funny (Score:2)
They just put them outside (Score:3)
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240V extension lines are available on Amazon.
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Those already exist. In some parts of the UK you are allowed to trail a cable over the pavement, as long as you cover it to avoid tripping hazards. In other parts they are allowing a little gully to be cut into the pavement with a removable, lockable cover over it, that you can put your cable in. That leaves the pavement completely flat.
This Sounds Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
I read the article. Basically, this article has two narratives (people have range anxiety and people also have stuffed garages) that they try to link in one sentence. Very poorly written. The "fears and concerns about charging" are NOT about charging in the family home, it's about when the person owning the electric car takes a trip and is concerned about "can I get a charge for my car along the trip". Now admittedly, that concern is less now but it's still a fear. If your taking a trip along a main highway, you'll most likely find a charging station. If, on the other hand, you take a trip along the back roads of many states, you might find your charging options severely limited. Last year, I took a trip from California to Arkansas to see the Solar Eclipse. On the way back, I had to take a HUGE amount of back roads to a hole in the wall Oklahoma area to see a relative. I never saw one Electric recharging station on that section but saw 10's of gasoline stations.
The Article then goes into multi-family homes that can't easily run a line to a 240 VAC charger. That's not an "Anxiety" about charging, that's a hard limitation. So please stop trying to connect the two.
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If, on the other hand, you take a trip along the back roads of many states, you might find your charging options severely limited.
Here's the Supercharger map: https://supercharge.info/map [supercharge.info] - if you live along the coasts, you're fine. If you click on a supercharger on the map, you can then click on "circle on", this will show the circle with a tunable radius. You can also look in Plugshare at other charging networks: https://www.plugshare.com/ [plugshare.com] As of 2025, there are only a few places in the US where you can get stranded with a vehicle with a 250-mile range.
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That map correlates well with population density.
https://xkcd.com/1138/ [xkcd.com]
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The map is only of superchargers.
There are other chargers in the gaps, such as at restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, or shops.
So if you're driving across northern Montana, plan to spend the night somewhere with a slow charger.
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Man, they will come up with anything!! (Score:5, Informative)
My garage is for working on projects of various kinds. The only time I park my car in there is:
1). I'm working on it.
2). I have the hard top off and I don't feel like putting it back on because it will rain.
Other than that, I'm not wasting space in my garage to park my car.
You know where I park my car? In my driveway. Space that I can't really use for anything else.
But sure...keep coming up with excuses for why people don't have an EV. Anything other than "because they don't fucking want one."
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I use my garage as a workshop, but park my car inside during the 98% of the time I'm not actively working in the garage.
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Among other things, my car smells. I don't want it stinking up the garage.
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My car is an EV, so it produces no odor.
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It smells because the top leaks and so it is fairly moldy.
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Among other things, my car smells. I don't want it stinking up the garage.
If you had a range in the garage it would help. I sometimes BBQ in my garage (with the big door open) in rainy weather. It smells good in there for days afterward.
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But sure...keep coming up with excuses for why people don't have an EV. Anything other than "because they don't fucking want one."
I'm not really sure what's wrong with that. It works for me.
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That is what you use it for, but that is not the reason houses are equipped with garages
Ostensibly, but they make great workshop space.
There are places where the local government will issue citations and charge penalty fines for parking not inside a car port/garage.
That's a thing??
The acid rain and UV sunlight will eventually destroy components of the vehicle and much faster than if they are parked in shelter. Very common issue, for example; the radiators are made out of plastic, and with a couple years of
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There are places where the local government will issue citations and charge penalty fines for parking not inside a car port/garage. - That's a thing??
Yes. Usually it's a HOA, but for example San Francisco where a couple was famously fined 1500+$250 a day for parking in their driveway also has such strict land-usage codes and draconian enforcements with regards to portions of the front/side yard typically occupied by a driveway carry restrictions. ..no other obstruction shall be constructed, placed or ma
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My garage is for working on projects of various kinds. The only time I park my car in there is:
That is what you use it for, but that is not the reason houses are equipped with garages.
What do I care what some builder's intent is?
We converted the dining room into an office for my wife.
We converted a bedroom into my office.
We converted another bedroom into an exercise room.
Fuck what some builder's "intent" is. It's entirely irrelevant to me.
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What do I care what some builder's intent is?
I don't mean the builder's intent. I'm refering to the Planning commissioners' intent.
There's a whole army of sadistic individuals in various state, city, and other local governance agencies who have a concept of what the garage is for.
In many places it is mandatory result of zoning laws that there is a garage or carport for construction of a new home. I even mentioned San Francisco as an example they fined a couple $1500 plus 250 a day code enforcement for pa
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My jeep has been sitting outside for almost 20 years. It's fine. It's certainly going to outlive me!
I don't spend my time worrying about someone stealing my Jeep. I leave the keys in it sometimes. If I lived someplace where I was in constant fear of someone stealing my car, I'd find a new place to live. Besides which, there are far nicer vehicles parked on my street for someone to steal.
As for your mugging/rapist scenario.....all I can do is laugh at you.
I'd park my car in the driveway no matter how big th
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I'd park my car in the driveway no matter how big the garage is. If for no other reason, then because I'm too impatient to wait for the garage door to open and close every time I come home or want to go somewhere
It seems reasonable. I think what we need here is faster-moving garage door openers then, wouldn't you say? There are different opener speeds.. I think 6 inches/second is standard, but 12in/second openers are also common, and 24in/second openers exist, but it seems like what we really need is
Even better (Score:5, Funny)
If Americans grew wings we could all fly where we want to go. And that probably is more likely than cleaning out garages.
{O.O}
This doesn't make any sense (Score:2)
Our charger has a long cord, even if the charger was inside the cord could run outside and you could shut the door on it.
As it happens, that's not a problem either. I put the charger outside on a north facing wall under a large roof overhang where it's protected from the elements. The Tesla wall charger is waterproof and designed to live outside. I've had zero issues with it.
Besides, isn't it usually recommended not to park an EV in the garage due to fire hazard if something goes sideways?
The car parks
Wrong, wrong, wrong (Score:2)
This is just completely wrong. Sure, many people park outside their garage, or have no garage but have a place to put the car adjacent to the house. Either way people with an EV who park outside their garage/house just put a charger outside. Some people even prefer it because they would rather charge the car outside.
Yes (Score:2)
Junk filled garages are hurting a lot of good things: safety, finances, sanity, marriages, hobbies, health... And probably EV adoption too.
It's just that EV adoption should be at the bottom of that list.
Clear up your garage for your own sake -- not for some EV manufacturer's sake
Insurance companies hate ev's in garages (Score:2)
In the UK insurance companies increase the price on houses insurance if you have an ev and charge it.
Why is this a negative? (Score:2)
This shows that enough Americans give enough of a shit to keep stuff out of landfill and understand that the buying a new car incurs more of an environmental cost than keeping your existing vehicle and scrapping it at the end of its life.
In other words they recognise that business as usual is killing us.
Everyone scrapping their cars, emptying their garages of junk and buying new cars in the name of capitalism is not going to achieve anything positive nor is it what environmentally concious people buying EV'
The cost of AC home charging is a hurdle... (Score:4, Interesting)
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The EV fire danger is a myth.
ICE vehicles are 20 times more likely to catch on fire.
Mythbusting EV fire danger [topgear.com]
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Re:What you couldn't blame millennials? (Score:4, Informative)
Homeownership rates have barely budged in 60 years. They certainly aren't "plummeting".
62% of households own their homes.
62% of households owned their homes in 1960.
The difference is that houses today are twice the size, and the average household has gone from five people to three, so the floor space per person has tripled.
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