Orange Charger bills landlords based on energy usage instead of the number of outlets installed. So far, the company has installed about 2,000 units nationwide.
“You have no downside to install 50 outlets day one,” Johnson said. “We only charge when the device is used.”
But it also says the chargers cost $600 or $750, plus more for installation. Do they charge for both? Either way, I guess it’s the apartment owner’s choice, but god damn I am sick of everyone trying to get a subscription or on-going payment out of me.
This doesn’t sound like a subscription, so much as consumption based billing. They make their money back by cornering the building-level market (perhaps landlords can put in competing chargers?) and charging a higher charging fee… okay that’s confusing. Charging a higher “fillup” fee.
Is that what they’re doing differently? Because I live in an apartment, and like most people in my city, parking is street parking. This isn’t exciting, it’s just a regular charger with a modified installation cost. Even for people with driveways, the issue isn’t what kind of charger, the issue is that the landlord has no motivation to make an improvement like this.
Also, many, many, many apartments buildings aren’t built to handle such electrical loads (I’d bet loads of money most aren’t capable - why would you engineer a building for more than it’s projected to need? That just costs more).
In every apartment and rental house I’ve been in, you’d have to install a new service to be able to charge anything, because they’re already running close to max current capacity.
What’s that charger going to pull, in amps, for how long? It’ll need to be 220v, at least, and those are dedicated runs (think electric dryer or electric stove).
And of course those expensive chargers will become bricks when the company goes out of business or just decides to stop supporting them.
Maybe. Or maybe someone buys them out, or the landlord is given the option to flip them open for free use. The good news is it should leave the infrastructure in place.
Hahahahaha, right, sure.
Not like we don’t have plenty of current dead hardware as an example of just this issue.
How about we build on knowns, rather than corporate promise fairytales?
Company adds credit card reader to a level 2 charger and doubles the price!