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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Several states have laws that require apartment building and condo managers to allow tenants/owners to install EV chargers (at their own cost). I expect this trend to continue slowly across the US.

If you can't charge at home, public charging is going to continue to expand rapidly (as electricity is everywhere). It'll just take some time, and effort on the part of local citizens and policy makers.

If you own an EV, get involved! Advocate for home, workplace, and public charging stations where you frequent.

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There are quite a few single family homes that just have on-street parking with no dedicated parking spots (myself included). EV isn't an option for my unless my workplace had charging for nearly every vehicle. The current 2 charging stations are already taken most days.

Have you spoken to your local city about getting charging pedestals installed? Or having chargers added to street lights? Have you spoken to your workplace about having any amount of chargers installed? Progress is not a function of time.

The transition to electric mobility will require effort, but is not impossible. I am happy to speak to whomever is required to work towards having chargers installed near your home or workplace.

"Progress is not a function of time", this is a really deep quote.

I use it too much, but it's true. The world gets better when people put effort into it, not just because time passes, and its important to remind others that complaining is cheap but doesn't pay dividends like fixing problems. Along with the idea “A society grows great when old men [people] plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”. Learn to enjoy planting the proverbial trees, the future will be thankful; and to be frank, we owe the future better than today. It is on loan to us, and we should act accordingly.

Several states have laws that require apartment building and condo managers to allow tenants/owners to install EV chargers (at their own cost).

Which states?

California, Colorado, Florida, and Oregon. Shorthand is typically "right to charge" laws.

California for Condo/Townhome owners. However, in my experience, it didn't help. I had a condo with a shared garage, and the HOA said I had to pay for not just a line from the electrical room to my parking spot, but also the equipment/piping to scale it to any of the other parking spots. What would have been a $2000 installation turned into much more. My point being, even though there are laws that allow you to do this, there are ways they can make it out of reach if they want to.

Sounds like your HOA needs a visit from your lawyer. Making pay for all costs for your needs is one thing, demanding you pay for costs for everyone else is another.

Bet if you did pay for it all, the HOA would not credit you for any other BEV owner you attracted and tapped into the power lines.

Sounds like they want the benefits but none of the costs.

Yea, exactly. The bill leaves this part of it in a grey area. What are "reasonable" costs that an HOA can impose? Getting a lawyer involved would have been very costly. I eventually sold the stupid place and moved on.

Those laws seem like such a raw deal, though, since it's not like you can take the charger with you. You're allowed to upgrade your landlord's property at your own expense, providing you also take out an insurance policy at your own expense. And even if you're fine with that, it doesn't really help "garage orphans," since you can only do it if you have a garage or assigned parking space with access to electricity.

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