EV Ownership & Charging Access·October 01, 2026·@dbrandvold

Everyone says 'don't buy an EV without home charging' -- but is that really still true, or does it depend a lot on where you live?

Thinking about getting an EV, but I'm in an apartment with no charger access right now. Every time this comes up online, the advice is pretty absolute: 'don't do it, you'll regret it.' But then I also see people saying they went years without a home charger and it was fine -- relying on work charging, or a public charger near home, or just living somewhere the infrastructure is actually decent. Is the blanket 'you need home charging' advice outdated or too dependent on where in the US you happen to live, or is it still basically true for most people, and the folks saying it worked out fine for them are the exception rather than the rule? Trying to figure out which group I'd actually be in.

Filed under: EV Ownership & Charging Access

016 answers

Join the conversation

Summarize with AIChatGPT Claude Perplexity Gemini Grok

16 ANSWERS

@cwhelan88October 02, 2026

Condo, no home charging, Model 3 for almost 5 years now. It's fine. I work from home and drive maybe 5 miles a day, so I hit the supercharger every 7-10 days and it's about $12 a pop. I do it while I'm grabbing groceries anyway. The people saying "don't do it" are mostly people who have a garage and can't imagine life without one. It depends way more on how much you drive than where you live. If you're doing 60 miles a day with no charger at work, sure, that gets old fast. If you're like me, stop listening to the gatekeepers.

0 Reply

@jwozniakOctober 01, 2026

Depends almost entirely on your daily miles and what's within a few minutes of where you sleep or work...not on the state.

0 Reply

@craig_dentonOctober 01, 2026

Also depends on climate. I do a 100 mile round trip commute and my winter range is about 160 vs 225 in summer. If I didn't have home charging I'd be at a fast charger every other day in January, and cold batteries charge slow unless you precondition. That would get old. If you're in a mild climate with a short commute it's a completely different story.

1 Reply

@bkruegerOctober 02, 2026

Check what the chargers near you actually cost per kWh before you do the math on savings. Around here DC fast is $0.40-0.50/kWh, which on a Bolt is close to what I'd pay for gas in a decent hybrid. Home is about a third of that. It still works without home charging. It just isn't the cheap part of owning an EV anymore.

0 Reply

@dbrandvoldOctober 01, 2026

Commute is about 22 miles each way, no charging at work that I know of. There's a grocery store with a couple of L2s about a mile away and a Tesla supercharger maybe 10 min away. Mid-Atlantic so winters aren't brutal but they're not nothing.

0 Reply

@cwhelan88October 01, 2026

44 miles a day is basically a supercharger stop twice a week. Doable. Whether it's annoying is up to you. Ask your employer though, you'd be surprised. Plenty of places will let you run an extension cord to an outside outlet if you just ask.

1 Reply

@rsaldanaOctober 01, 2026

Also ask the landlord. Depending on the state they may not be able to just say no. In CA they mostly can't refuse a tenant who pays for it, though there are exceptions. Not sure about where you are.

0 Reply

@jwozniakOctober 02, 2026

Even 120V at work would cover 44 miles in an 8 hour day. Easily.

0 Reply

@bkruegerOctober 01, 2026

Close but not quite in winter. 12A at 120V is about 1.4kW, so maybe 11kWh over 8 hours after losses. That's 40ish miles in the cold. Close enough with a top-up on the weekend.

0 Reply

@nkowalskiOctober 01, 2026

Most people get this wrong. You don't need L2 at home, you need somewhere you can plug in every night. I've done L1 only for over four years and it covers a normal commute. Relying on fast chargers alone is a different situation. The superchargers near me are full most evenings now.

1 Reply

@sandra_whitleyOctober 01, 2026

My round trip commute is 44 miles too. I have a 14-50 in the garage, but most nights I charge at a county L2 0.9 miles from home because it's 10 cents/kWh cheaper than my home rate. I drop the car off after work, walk home, and walk the dog back over to get it before bed. So a public L2 a mile away can work. That said, I would not have bought the car without the option at home.

0 Reply

@kyle_ferrisOctober 01, 2026

Check if the grocery store L2s are free. Mine is. A free L2 changes the math completely compared to paying 45+ cents at a DCFC

0 Reply

@nkowalskiOctober 06, 2026

Also look into whether there's any outlet at all where you park, even a shared one in a carport. A regular 120V outlet adds 30 to 40 miles overnight, and most people don't believe it until they try it.

0 Reply

@dtorres22October 07, 2026

Southern California condo here, no home charging. HOA said no. ID.4, 68,000+ miles, all of it on DCFC. It works. I go to EVgo with the $12.99/mo plan and wait about 30 minutes per charge. At 44 miles a day you'd be doing that about twice a week. Whether that's worth it depends on whether you have something to do for 30 minutes near the charger.

0 Reply

@lpham_18October 08, 2026

EV9 in an apartment, no garage. I charge while shopping and it's been fine. Also check for subscription plans on whatever network is near you. Even with high public prices I still come out ahead of gas, but gas is expensive where I live. Mid-Atlantic gas might not leave you as much room.

0 Reply

@aldridge_sOctober 08, 2026

Before you price anything out, ask the landlord about a 120V outlet like @nkowalski said. I'm a renter too, and I ended up with a Pion L1/L2 unit. It's portable, so it comes with me when I move. Winter does matter though. My charging cost went up about 25% in the cold months compared to warmer weather, and that's at -20°C, which you probably won't see much. Still, 44 miles a day in January will use more than the summer numbers suggest!

0 Reply

Choose a topic

Everyone says 'don't buy an EV without home charging' -- but is that really still true, or does it depend a lot on where you live?

Delete comment?