Americans' Junk-Filled Garages Are Hurting EV Adoption, Study Says (arstechnica.com)
(Thursday August 21, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the clutter-vs-climate dept.)
- Reference: 0178815038
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/08/22/0020202/americans-junk-filled-garages-are-hurting-ev-adoption-study-says
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/08/junk-filled-garages-hurt-ev-sales-as-people-dont-have-room-for-chargers/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
> Time and again, surveys and studies show that fears and concerns about charging are the main barriers standing in the way of someone switching from gas to EV. A new market research study by Telemetry Vice President Sam Abuelsamid confirms this, as it analyzes the charging infrastructure needs over the next decade. And one of the biggest hurdles -- one that has gone mostly unmentioned across the decade-plus we've been covering this topic -- is [1]all the junk clogging up Americans' garages . lThat's because, while DC fast-charging garners all the headlines and much of the funding, the overwhelming majority of EV charging is AC charging, usually at home -- 80 percent of it, in fact. People who own and live in a single family home are overrepresented among EV owners, and [2]data (PDF) from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from a few years ago found that 42 percent of homeowners park near an electrical outlet capable of level 2 (240 V) AC charging.
>
> But that could grow by more than half (to 68 percent of homeowners) if those homeowners changed their parking behavior, "most likely by clearing a space in their garage," the report finds. "90 percent of all houses can add a 240 V outlet near where cars could be parked," said Abuelsamid. "Parking behavior, namely whether homeowners use a private garage for parking or storage, will likely become a key factor in EV adoption. Today, garage-use intent is potentially a greater factor for in-house charging ability than the house's capacity to add 240 V outlets." Creating garage space would increase the number of homes capable of EV charging from 31 million to more than 50 million. And when we include houses where the owner thinks it's feasible to add wiring, that grows to more than 72 million homes. And that's far more than Telemetry's most optimistic estimate of U.S. EV penetration for 2035, which ranges from 33 million to 57 million EVs on the road 10 years from now.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/08/junk-filled-garages-hurt-ev-sales-as-people-dont-have-room-for-chargers/
[2] https://docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/81065.pdf
> Time and again, surveys and studies show that fears and concerns about charging are the main barriers standing in the way of someone switching from gas to EV. A new market research study by Telemetry Vice President Sam Abuelsamid confirms this, as it analyzes the charging infrastructure needs over the next decade. And one of the biggest hurdles -- one that has gone mostly unmentioned across the decade-plus we've been covering this topic -- is [1]all the junk clogging up Americans' garages . lThat's because, while DC fast-charging garners all the headlines and much of the funding, the overwhelming majority of EV charging is AC charging, usually at home -- 80 percent of it, in fact. People who own and live in a single family home are overrepresented among EV owners, and [2]data (PDF) from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from a few years ago found that 42 percent of homeowners park near an electrical outlet capable of level 2 (240 V) AC charging.
>
> But that could grow by more than half (to 68 percent of homeowners) if those homeowners changed their parking behavior, "most likely by clearing a space in their garage," the report finds. "90 percent of all houses can add a 240 V outlet near where cars could be parked," said Abuelsamid. "Parking behavior, namely whether homeowners use a private garage for parking or storage, will likely become a key factor in EV adoption. Today, garage-use intent is potentially a greater factor for in-house charging ability than the house's capacity to add 240 V outlets." Creating garage space would increase the number of homes capable of EV charging from 31 million to more than 50 million. And when we include houses where the owner thinks it's feasible to add wiring, that grows to more than 72 million homes. And that's far more than Telemetry's most optimistic estimate of U.S. EV penetration for 2035, which ranges from 33 million to 57 million EVs on the road 10 years from now.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/08/junk-filled-garages-hurt-ev-sales-as-people-dont-have-room-for-chargers/
[2] https://docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/81065.pdf
They just put them outside (Score:2)
by locater16 ( 2326718 )
Car chargers outside work fine if the car is parked close enough. Live in coastal California, see it every day. Maybe some company should make an easy extension line all the way to curb so they can park it on the street too.
Re: (Score:2)
by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 )
Then you have people running the EV cable under (and pinched by) a closed garage door. I see this all the time, also.
Americans' Junk-Filled Brains (Score:2)
by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 )
are hurting democracy, world peace, science, human progress and ecology.
This is so funny (Score:2)
In my neighborhood, every house has a garage. I would say, 1/3 of these garages are filled with junk or exercise equipment and the cars are parked outside. I see Tesla wall chargers on the *outside* of the house (in the elements) because these people don't put their car in the garage.