As more and more Israelis switch to electric vehicles, many of them are left with a singularly un-shocking problem — they have nowhere to charge their cars.
Battery-powered vehicles occupy a small but growing share of the Israeli roads. Encouraged by tax incentives, relative cost of fuel, environmental consciousness, and the allure of current offerings, both hybrid and full electric vehicle (EV) ownership has grown three- to fourfold in the five years from 2016 to 2020.
Charging infrastructure, however, hasn’t kept up with demand. Though there are about 234,000 chargeable vehicles on the road, Israel only has 1,000 charging sockets currently deployed for the plug-in public. And while the government is responding, vehicle owners have devised quintessentially Israeli workarounds to close the gap.
Owners of Teslas — Israel’s current market-leading EVs, representing about 60% of 2021 imports — say the process can take from “a few hours to top off” to “overnight, for a full charge” on AC power.
While installing an at-home charging station would be the most convenient option, it requires control over a private parking space. But, Tel Aviv has only 130,000 privately held home parking spaces for a population of over 460,000, and parking in the city is notoriously difficult.
Throughout Tel Aviv, thick cables dangle from apartment windows, connected to cars below in shared or street parking. Facebook groups for Israel-based Tesla Model 3 owners field scores of questions about how to recreate a home parking experience without home parking.
Tesla owner Sharon B. rents a private home, but without private parking, in Ramat Gan, an urban area bordering Tel Aviv. He parks his Tesla on the street, and constructed a device to jump a cable from inside his home, suspended above the sidewalk, down to the street to charge his car.
The current government-regulated price of gas in Israel is $8.10 a gallon, or $0.11 a kilometer for a car that averages 20 kilometers a liter. This makes the current cost of home-charging an electric vehicle almost 4 times cheaper than gas.
there will be plenty more of that to come.
ReplyDeleteMy son goes to school in Milwaukee and there is someone who lives near him that runs an extension cord out a 3rd floor window and down to a Tesla parked on the street.
ReplyDelete