Sorry for my ignorance but is not having a home charger a deal breaker for most people? I understand apartment buildings that it can be an issue, but for a private residence is it an issue?
It can be. Of the houses on my block, there are only two that have a garage. More than half don't even have a driveway. Even if you have a driveway, most are only big enough for one car; so, if you have two EVs, you're moving cars around to charge them. There is street parking on only one side of the street.
My neighborhood was laid out more than 125 years ago. The two houses on my east side were built in 1898, years before the Model T. By contrast, the neighborhood were I grew was mostly built post-WWII. Until a few new townhouses were built in the 1990s, only one didn't have a driveway.
So, just because you own a home, doesn't mean you have a space to charge an EV.
I’m renting a car and using the chargers in front/near restaurants and the mall. 20 minutes of level 3 charging lasts me a day on a Kia Niro. This car is an ev conversion on a 260v architecture. It’s about 90 minutes from 20-90% at 50kWh charging. On a level 2 in the same area a four hour dinner with friends netted me 20kWh or about 1/4 of the battery.
So long as you have a meaningful reason to use public chargers you can get away without a charging space, but I definitely enjoy being able to charge my car at home.
No, it's not an issue to charge on a basic plug for most people. You can get 5 miles per hour on 120v. When charged overnight it is plenty for the average commute.
Yup. Several people have commented that they planned on installing an EVSE ("charger") when they bought an EV but never bothered after finding out that 120V was enough. 120V will let you empty the battery on the weekend, commute and errands during the week and then have a full battery by Friday.
