The HOA has received a proposal for installation of leased EV chargers. The idea is that the HOA would lease the chargers but pay for the electrical upwork and the installation/provisioning. The HOA would basically then be in the vehicle energy business for residents. That is, we would draw power from Dominion that we’d have to pay for, plus our leasing charges, etc. Then we’d have to figure out our pricing to meet our revenue target. The system would work via phone app where users would schedule a charging time and pay for how many kW-hrs that they need.
The vendor has two models available. One has a fancier display screen, but both work the same.
Option -1 Model AC5500 – Charger Details
Option -2 Model ACLF-22100 – Charger Details
Background on Atlas General Contractors
There is still a lot of information to develop regarding how much charging capacity do we need, what is our time horizon to break even, and how to manage the business process, and to do more due diligence on developing alternative bids. So to be clear this is not a project that necessarily slated to be executed any time soon. There is still a lot to work through.
Please be sure to read owner feedback/comments.
Here are 2 comments from owners received so far.
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I am adamantly opposed to any EV charging station being put into the HOA budget. EVs are total BS. See the links below:
Ford lost $4.7 billion last year on EVs and has suspended production.
Hertz has dumped 20,000 evs and purchased gas cars in their place.
There is no market for used evs. Their rate of depreciation is terrible and no one wants them.
A British EV company declares bankruptcy after years of never making the first sale.
In my opinion, evs will soon be a thing of the past and we, our HOA, should not be shackled with ongoing costs due to stupid decisions by a few.
https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/ford-lost-47b-on-evs-last-year-or
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/hertz-sell-about-20000-evs-us-fleet-2024-01-11/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/electric-cars-lose-half-value-060000890.html
https://fortune.com/europe/2024/02/06/british-ev-maker-valued-13-billion-administration-without-making-sales-nasdaq/
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I am against this. Is an expense we do not need. We already pay too much in HOA fee. People who pay as much as we do, have swimming pool, party room, and other services.
Electric cars can be charged at gas stations for the few people who have electric cars. I also saw a neighbor charging his car often from the townhouse.
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FWIW, EV charging is an emerging area of HOA law that we cannot ignore. In some states, laws have been passed that make it harder for HOAs to say “no” to EV charge requests. Known as “Right to Charge” laws, these laws prevent an HOA board from denying a resident’s request to install a charging station in an assigned parking spot when certain conditions are met.
Virginia has such a law, https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title55.1/chapter19/section55.1-1962.1/
There are details that are subject to litigation, the cost of which would probably exceed the cost of the installation many times over.
So the idea of the board heretofore has been to work through the issues in a well-considered manner.
We are only at the information gathering stage on EV charges. They are not provided for in our 2024 budget, and I don’t anticipate the project actually happening any time soon.
It does appear that the market for EVs is starting to sour. But lots can change in 5-10 years.
LSN