Part 2 of a 3-part series on EV charging infrastructure challenges and solutions.
In the first part of this series, we outlined why public charging stations are scarce, frequently broken, and often expensive. It might have you wondering if driving an EV is worth the hassle. But fear not: a different approach to charging is emerging that could solve many of these problems. Instead of relying solely on big public charging depots, the future of EV charging may be right in our neighborhood: at our homes, in our driveways, and shared among communities. In this post, we’ll explain why charging at home and in your community is becoming the go-to solution, and how new models like peer-to-peer charging networks make charging more convenient and accessible for everyone.
Home Is Where the Charge Is
Think about how most of us use our cars: they spend overnight hours parked at home and many of our work hours parked in driveways or garages. Unlike a gas car that you must take to a gas station, an EV can be “refueled” wherever it sits idle – if there’s a plug. It’s no surprise, then, that the vast majority of EV charging already happens at home. In fact, around 80% of EV owners charge at home regularly. They simply plug in their car in the evening (often using a Level 2 home charger installed in a garage or driveway) and wake up to a full battery every morning. How convenient is that?
Charging at home turns out to be incredibly convenient for day-to-day use. You’re essentially refueling while you sleep. As one EV driver quipped, “I don’t sit around and wait for it to charge; I just go about my life. When I’m ready to go, so is the car.” There’s no special trip to a station needed – it’s actually easier than going to a gas pump, because it fits seamlessly into your routine. Any EV owner with a garage will tell you that not having to stop at gas stations (or public chargers) regularly is one of their favorite parts of driving electric.
Home charging isn’t just convenient, it’s often cheaper and kinder to your battery too. Residential electricity rates tend to be much lower than public charging fees, and many utilities offer time-of-use discounts if you charge at night when overall demand is low. This means you might be paying a fraction of the cost per kWh compared to a public fast charger – saving money over the long run. Moreover, the slower speed of overnight Level 2 charging is gentle on the battery (fast DC charging creates more heat and stress). So from a cost and longevity perspective, home charging is a big win.
It’s clear that whenever possible, EV drivers prefer to charge at home instead of public places. Even in countries with excellent public infrastructure, home charging dominates: globally, there are about ten times as many private (home/work) chargers as public chargers installed. The public network is really just the tip of the iceberg; the bulk of EV energy comes from wall outlets and home charge units in everyday garages. This aligns with real behavior: people plug in their cars like they plug in their phones – at night, at home.
The Neighborhood Advantage
Of course, not everyone has a private garage or dedicated parking spot for charging. What about apartment dwellers, renters, or city residents without off-street parking? For them, home charging today is not an option – but neighborhood charging could be the next best thing. The idea is to bring the convenience of home charging to everyone’s backyard (or curbside). This could mean installing more chargers in apartment complexes, on city streets, in shared parking lots, and crucially, letting neighbors share chargers with each other.
Why is charging in neighborhoods so promising? Because it meets drivers where they already park. The reality is EVs don’t need special trips to a “fuel station” like gas cars do, they just need time and a plug while parked. Neighborhood charging hubs or shared residential chargers allow drivers to top up while their car is sitting at home overnight, even if it’s not their home. For example, imagine a scenario where a person living in an apartment could park on a neighbor’s driveway or a nearby street with a communal charger and fill up during the night. In the morning, both the homeowner’s EV and the apartment dweller’s EV are charged and ready. Compare that to the alternative: the apartment dweller having to drive to a fast-charge station late at night or early in the morning and wait there for an hour. The neighborhood approach clearly fits more naturally with how we live.
There’s also a community resilience aspect to this. If neighborhoods have lots of dispersed charging, there’s less strain on any single station and more backup options if one charger is down. Contrast a decentralized web of small chargers with a single large charging depot – if that one depot is offline, you’re out of luck, but if one home charger is offline, another is likely available down the street. Distributed infrastructure can be more robust and scalable, growing organically as EV adoption grows.
Several cities and utilities are already piloting curbside charging programs – installing chargers on light poles or curbs in residential areas for those without driveways. Meanwhile, some forward-thinking housing developments are incorporating shared EV charging spots for the community. Policymakers are starting to see that investing in neighborhood-level charging (like incentives for homeowners to install shared chargers, or grants for apartment charger installations) may yield better results than focusing solely on highway corridors. After all, if most charging happens where people live, it makes sense to prioritize those locations.
Peer-to-Peer Charging: Neighbors Helping Neighbors
One of the most exciting developments enabling neighborhood charging is the rise of peer-to-peer (P2P) charging networks. These are essentially the “Airbnb of EV charging.” They allow individuals and businesses to share their private charging stations with others, usually via a smartphone app. If you have a home charger that sits idle most of the day, why not let a fellow EV driver (who perhaps can’t install their own charger) use it? You could even earn a bit of money in the process to offset your electricity costs.
The concept is catching on: a significant chunk of users are apartment residents or people with limited charging access who rely on neighbors’ goodwill (and electricity) to keep their EV running. It’s a true win-win: the charger owners make a little side income, and the charger seekers get a reliable spot in a residential area to fill up, often cheaper and easier than a commercial station.
Other examples include community initiatives where, say, a local school or church installs a charger and makes it available to residents in the evenings, or simply informal sharing where neighbors run an extension cord for each other. There are even peer-to-peer networks being tried overseas using blockchain to manage access and payments, highlighting how universal the appeal is for a decentralized charging solution.
The benefits of peer-to-peer and community charging models are compelling:
- Convenience: Charging spots in residential areas mean drivers can charge closer to home, overnight or during routine activities, instead of making special trips.
- Increased Access: Every private charger that’s shared effectively adds to the public network. By unlocking privately owned stations, P2P networks dramatically expand charging availability without waiting for new infrastructure to be built.
- Cost Savings: Home chargers typically run on cheaper residential electricity. P2P charging sessions often cost less than commercial stations, since hosts usually price electricity at or near their cost (with maybe a small premium). There’s also less overhead – no need for a large company to recoup installation of an entire station – so prices can be fair.
- Community Building: These models encourage a sense of community and shared purpose. EV owners are literally helping each other out. This can further boost EV adoption, as people see that “EV life” is supported by neighbors and local networks.
- Fits Real Habits: Perhaps most importantly, neighborhood and peer charging align with how people actually use their cars. Instead of the gas station paradigm (wait until low, then drive somewhere to refuel), it’s a “grazing” model – top up whenever the car is parked for a while. This keeps batteries healthier and minds at ease.
By focusing on residential and community charging, we also relieve pressure on the highway fast-charging network for when it’s truly needed (road trips, etc.). If most drivers can handle 90% of their charging at home or nearby, the occasional use of a public fast charger becomes a non-issue. In fact, a recent analysis noted that the U.S.’s currently sparse public charger network “mostly works” today only because most American EV owners charge at home and don’t all drive at the same time. As EV ownership expands to more people without home charging (like apartment dwellers), expanding charging in neighborhoods is the logical way to meet that demand.
From Central Hubs to Distributed Networks
The shift we’re talking about is essentially moving from a centralized model (few big charging hubs, analogous to gas stations) to a distributed model (many small charging points spread everywhere cars live). History has shown that distributed networks can be incredibly robust and scalable – think of how solar panels on many homes contribute significant power, or how the internet works via many distributed nodes rather than one central computer. EV charging could follow a similar path: millions of small charging stations embedded in communities, all connected by smart technology.
In the next and final part of this series, we’ll paint a picture of how this people-powered charging network might look in the near future. We’ll discuss how such decentralized networks can integrate with the grid and even contribute to a more resilient energy system. The future of EV charging might just be on your block, not off some exit on the interstate. Stay tuned for Part 3, where we’ll explore this vision of charging powered by people.
