EVs and apartment dwellers.

With all the new parkless apartments being constructed in Auckland (and probably other places), where are the EV users going to park up. Can't imagine the powers that be will like extension cables across the footpaths.

Aren't parkless apartments built for people who cycle or use public transport?

Why would they have EVs?

There are actually other ways of getting around than a car. Places like Hong Kong and London,people don't use them. Even in Auckland a lot of people don't bother.

Lots of apartments, even those built 20 years ago like The Guardian in lower Queen St have no parking.

You can walk to supermarket, work and everywhere else like Britomart. Catch a train to places a bit further away.

If you want a car for a few hours, you can hire one from CityHop - and the parking buildings close by have fast chargers

Yeah hiring cars is actually pretty cheap, especially compared with owning one.

I love cars and would never be without one but this car hire thing will become the norm for a lot of people in cities. A simple app will direct you to the nearest rental, unlock and start it for you and away you will go whether you need it for a ten minute trip or the whole week will not matter.

If you usually just get around by bike, electric bike, electric scooter, or electric cargo bike, and just want to go touring every now and then, may as well not bother owning a car, and just rent one for $21 a day.

It's great, just rock up, fill in the form and drive away. No need to clean it afterwards (unless you really soil it bad) and no admin of owning a vehicle to worry about.

I would probably consider it, but I do too much towing. If I was a slightly different person and lived in an apartment, I wouldn't bother with owning one. Real pain in the arse actually, car ownership.

It's been the norm for many years in many cities. That's exactly what it was like when I lived in Vancouver 5 years ago. There were 3 main companies doing it - Evo, car2go and Modo - each with a slightly different business model. Modo had lots of different types of vehicles (cars, vans, people movers etc) and Evo just had Prius. It worked really well for those one or two trips here and there where public transport wasn't ideal.

I never thought I'd be able to live without owning a car but I did it for two years and didn't really notice.

Sold my car over a year ago. Never missed it . Bus stop outside my house
And transporti is free for me locally. Win/win

They will probably park in the same place their ICE cars used to park in.

Depends on your lifestyle, hobbies, families, work.

As far as I am aware, if I want to get to Hampton Downs for example, there is zero public transport.

Getting my wife to a dance competition at Mangere, or the Cordis or St Matthews in the City, all dolled up, let alone social dances at the Pt Chev RSA or Target Rd Glenfield, I don't see viable public transport options.

Uber? So the Uber driver does two runs empty and two runs with a passenger? How is that better than using your own car and picking up two or three passengers on the way and dropping them back safely maybe after midnight?

Auckland using public transport or London using public transport. No comparison.

Even with all the apartment dwellers in Auckland, unless they have a very limited set of social interests and work requirements, I can't see many happy with relying on public transport or a bike.

Can the public transport be improved?

Only with privatisation. Certainly should not be subsidised. Socialism is corrosive.

The roads are subsidised 100% apart from the toll roads.

You are correct that extension cords across the footpath are frowned upon.

I lived in a carpark less apartment in the Auckland CBD for a while. Paid for a carpark in the building across (and 100m up) the road. When EV's become mainstream It is logical that parking building operators will start to provide EV charge points in order to continue to retain their client base. Ultimately that car (not an ev) was written off by a fatigued driver on the motorway, and I chose not to replace it, instead walking, biking, taking the bus / train / ferry etc. Also had a cityhop membership with a car in the same parking building, and would rent a car for longer trips (all worked out a lot cheaper than the price of the leased car-park alone).

I imagine new apartments in the Auckland CBD or town centers with EV owners will just simply lease an carpark with a charging port.

Outside of the town centers, it is pretty clear that Auckland council is not keen for the purchasers of these units to be dependent on street parking. They have so far rolled out 17 residential parking area's, and (post 1944 build) apartment dwellers are the lowest ranked in terms of getting parking permits. Would strongly recommend renting / buying elsewhere if owning a car is important to you.

https://at.govt.nz/driving-parking/parking-permits/resident-parking-permits/residential-parking-zones/ Skipping over the new apartment example, as a current EV owner I wouldn't recommend it to somebody that doesn't have the means to charge at home. Come 1 Jan 2022 a new Toyota Corolla Hybrid will pick up a $3210 rebate, and will give a much better ownership experence.
Long term (say if we follow the UK and go all EV in 2035), it is likely that most EV's will have 450km+ ranges (The Kona electric gets that today). For most people, plugging in to the fast charger at the supermarket (there is allready a 50kW unit at my local new world) once a week will be quite sufficient for local running.

Wellington is currently running an on street EV charging trial. Potentially this will become more common on the future, and we will see a charge point on every lamp post, power pole etc in area's where steep hills mean few houses have off street parking.

https://wellington.govt.nz/parking-roads-and-transport/transport/smart-transport/electric-vehicles