Apartment renter Adam has an electric SUV and an on-site garage to keep it in, but no dedicated power point.
- Learn how Adam charges using dedicated public chargers just metres from his apartment and how it's become a seamless part of everyday life
- Hear how Adam reduced his fuel costs by 75% buy owning an EV
- Adam has enjoyed the benefits of EV ownership without having access to private charging
“I suspect if I tried to charge from the unit block’s common power I’d be dealt with sternly by the body corporate,” he said.
Instead, he uses two street chargers, one 50 metres from his front door and another 300 metres away, both exclusively assigned to electric cars.
Adam lives in a highly congested beach side suburb but claims he now never fails to find a spot at one of the two marked chargers.
The secret is in trusting the technology.
Adam is a 20 percent-charger, untroubled by range anxiety and made completely at ease by the fast growth of the electric charging network.
“I’ll only charge when my battery tank drops below 20 percent and then I don’t necessarily need to fill right up,” he said.
He parks at the charge point after work and decides later whether to collect his car that evening or next morning.
“It’s a case of how much charge I need and what my motivation is to go out at 11pm,” he said.
In the first six months of owning his Kia EV3 Adam’s daily commute was less than 10kms, making charging infrequent.
Now he’s been seconded to a workplace 110kms from his home, but the principle remains the same.
“I’ll get at least three round trips from a tank, about double I’d get from my previous petrol car,” he said.
“The only time I’ve had a low gauge, I pulled into a fast charge service station and topped up to 80 percent in 20 minutes while I had a coffee and checked my emails.”
As part of his EV journey Adam had downloaded the apps of each of the major fuel companies and attached his credit card to each of them, so his choice of fast charge provider was unlimited. He’s not constantly searching for a place to top-up.
“It was simply a matter of googling to find the nearest available service station of any brand rather than being guided to one of them by their apps,” he said.
Compared to his previous four-cylinder car, Adam estimates energy costs have reduced by about a quarter of what they used to be.
“I would have been paying up to $90 for a tank of petrol compared to around $17-$20 for equivalent range in my new car,” he said.
Adam runs his EV under a fully maintained novated lease arranged through his employer. All running costs are bundled into a single pre-tax payment deducted from his salary.
“I pay $550 a fortnight to cover all running expenses including registration, insurance, service, and my fuel costs,” he said.
“I invoice the electricity charges online and receive a full refund, pretty much instantly.”
The budgetary consideration works for Adam and his partner Alexis. They are saving for their wedding next year and to buy their first home.
Far from being discouraged by living in an apartment without private charging, Adam says his experience shows that EV ownership can work well for renters, even in busy suburbs. And with more councils and developers rolling out street and shared charging solutions, Adam believes many more apartment dwellers will soon discover the same freedom.
“Street charging has turned out to be a lot easier than I expected,” he said. “If anything, it’s made me feel optimistic about where things are headed.”