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Americans’ junk-filled garages are hurting EV adoption, study says

⁨136⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨return2ozma@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/08/junk-filled-garages-hurt-ev-sales-as-people-dont-have-room-for-chargers/

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Comments

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  • oh_@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    What about transit? Why do Americans always have to drive. We need real alternatives to cars.

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    • BussyCat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The suburban sprawl makes building transit a lot harder but to fix that we need to increase density but then it’s hard to increase density when you need space for cars because you have no usable transit

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      • bluGill@fedia.io ⁨55⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Most suburbs have plenty of density to support transit as proved in other countries that provide good transit to their areas of similar density. However most suburbs have such bad transit you can't use it for anything and to people start believing the idea that it is impossible to get them good transit and so they won't agree to get it.

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    • thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Chicken and egg situation, Americans drive because that’s how their cities and suburbs are laid out (excluding NYC, for the most part).

      They don’t rely on alternatives because they are slow, inconvenient or non-existent; alternatives can’t be built up as the costs can’t be justified based on existing patronage levels.

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      • _stranger_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

        Plenty of US cities are built like NY, on grids, as circles, etc. The problem is that everything is far away.

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    • ulterno@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      transit

      “We mean electric cars, you commie! The next time you talk about that thing, you are going out that window.”

      \s

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  • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It ain’t $80k worth of junk in the garage, it’s the $80k

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    • aword@feddit.online ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yup. Find me a car that respects my privacy and won't advertise to me and I'm in.

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      • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        How clean is your garage? Do you have one? Just curious.

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      • acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        my ford has no subscriptions that are needed (other than the usual sirius XM and nav subs that all cars have). There is data collection but you are able to opt out.

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    • Vakbrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      As opposed to what your comment implies, the drivetrain (EV or ICE) has nothing to do with cars spying on you. You should not blame the technology itself because shady car companies spying on your internet connected car. Most of them are well known ICE car brands that does the spying (GM, Volkswagen for instance)

      Yes, most new ICE cars are Internet connected now, not just EVs.

      Blame those greedy compagnies, not the technology.

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      • acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        exactly, that is an issue with new cars in general. It’s not a reason to buy a new ICE car instead of a new EV.

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      • jjlinux@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        As a matter of fact, ICE cars were connected to the internet way before the first EV was connected to the internet.

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    • artyom@piefed.social ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      What does that have to do with EVs?

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      • atticus88th@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Apparently people are living double lives and are afraid their secret identity will be uncovered by checks notes corporations who already know more about us because we have a smartphone in our pocket.

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      • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Well my next car will be an EV so I’m holding in to what i got for now

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    • acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      with the used EV tax credit there are good options at ~20k.

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  • M0oP0o@mander.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    People can’t afford a new car, let alone an EV, let alone a carport or car hole.

    This is just tone deaf poor blaming.

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  • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    How about talking to the landlords who refuse to install EV chargers? Or maybe talk to manufacturers who won’t sell a basic EV that isn’t overpriced?

    This is just “Am I out of touch? No it’s the children who are wrong!” again.

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    • shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      What do landlords have to do with it? Can you not power the charger off 110V or 220V? Do you need a higher amp circuit cut in, larger than 30A? (American question obviously.)

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      • Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Some apartment buildings are nowhere near where tenets park vehicles. Running extention cables would be a mess and dangerous

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      • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I rent a house. Our lease is explicit about no battery charging in the garage, including EVs. Yet they seemingly have no problem with my welder or RC cars…

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      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        fast charging requires a larger service connection than a wall outlet. you can slow charge from a normal wall outlet, but it will take ages to fully charge a modest battery.

        generally people have it installed by an electrician, running a new conduit from the circuit breaker.

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  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Stupid article. You don’t need 240 V , you can charge with a regular wall plug. For a lot of usage patterns this is more than enough.

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    • Skysurfer@slrpnk.net ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      You can make it work on 120V, it just uses ~20-30% more energy due to the overhead of running all the vehicle systems for so much longer while charging.

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      • spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I think that number is a bit off. Yes, there is overhead when charging a car to run its battery management system, heat losses in the wiring, etc. But it’s not 20-30% of the ~kilowatt of power you’d run through level 1. A quick search says that 20% loss is at the higher end for level 1 (probably 15% on the lower end) but even level 2 has about a 10% loss.

        The bigger issue is that level 1 just doesn’t have nearly as much power as level 2. Most cars charge at level 1 at 8-16 amps. Most level 2 setups charge at a few times that, plus the voltage is doubled so the total power ends up being about 10x as much. But that’s not to say everyone needs that power either. Honestly, for the average driver it’s quite easy to make level 1 work.

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  • simplejack@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If you need to top off with 200 - 300 miles of range every night, you commute sucks giant donkey balls.

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  • cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    pretty sure it's the lack of money that's hurting ev adoption.

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    • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      There can be multiple factors.

      People with garages big enough for a nice car that also have it stuffed with things probally have money too. Right?

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      • HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I have a garage that could hold 4 cars if you parked 2 rows of them…

        My single income household of 3 is just barely above the national poverty level.

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  • Bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Money and options are hurting my adaption rate

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  • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I moved in to a house with a garage and my in laws are constantly trying to give us crap to fill it up.

    I don’t even know where they’re getting this stuff, they just show up and are like “oh, we’re getting rid of this dresser, we thought you’d like it” or “or, I bought this antique trunk at a yard sale, can you hold on to it”.

    I don’t know where the boomers get so much stuff!

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    • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Same here. Luckily our basement flooded and we were like “oh well, guess it’s all ruined and has to be thrown away 🤷”

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    • Blackfeathr@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah, my bfs dad is constantly filling his house, garage, and yard with a bunch of crap that he’ll never use. It just sits there and gets forgotten and deteriorates. Took us 6 years but we got like 90% of what he was storing out of our house too.

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    • tyler@programming.dev ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Too real

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  • calmluck9349@infosec.pub ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Pretty sure it’s the range and charge times. Especially in the Midwest. I need a car that can take me to Florida in under 16 hours. Also I own a EV

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    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The real problem is having to go to Florida so regularly. I feel for ya.

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  • acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    you don’t even need a garage to charge your EV, just install it on the exterior.

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    • frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah lemme just do that on my apartment

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      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Does your apartment have a garage? No? Then what does this add to the conversation?

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      • acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        this article is aboug junk filled garages, so clearly not talking about apartment dwellers.

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  • officermike@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    We have a one-car garage and two cars. I have a table saw, therefore we have a no-car garage.

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  • Devmapall@lemmy.zip ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    My parents have a garage full of junk. It used to drive me crazy. We have strong storms where we live and a tree/branches falling are a real possibility of damaging their cars. Plus hail storms sometimes.

    It’s mainly my moms stuff. Some of it is worth money but it’s not being sold or anything.

    If they used the garage as something other than storage it would be one thing. Instead it’s full of stuff for no real reason.

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    • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Some of it is worth money but it’s not being sold or anything.

      My mother refuses to admit she’s a hoarder, and none of her things are really valuable. She’s clean, it’s not like she lives in filth, but she lives in 4000 square feet (main floor + basement) and has three full wall closets plus a room in the basement all filled with every item of clothing she has ever owned. I can barely fill a small closet with all my clothing. Her closets aren’t small, either. They are about 15 feet wide, each. So three 15 feet wide closets absolutely crammed with shit, and each one of them has storage space broken into three sections, about three feet tall each above each closet. Everything is crammed full. None of it is ever pulled out to be used for anything. She has all these things from her family she has kept for “memories” but 1. they mean nothing to me because I hate my extended family and 2. I won’t be able to afford to store them and won’t have reason to when she’s gone.

      I don’t fucking get it, it’s a massive house, and it’s just stuffed to the fucking brim with crap crap crap!

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      • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        There are lots of factors that lead to people of her generation ending up like this. It’s really common.

        One factor for some people, is not wanting to face how wasteful we are. It’s putting off the reality that it’s all landfill. Just one of many reasons. And it think it might be common with people who are not exactly hoarders, but also manage to hold on to so much.

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  • artyom@piefed.social ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I know lots of people who just run the cable under the door...

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Me, who doesn’t even have a garage: Yeah… That’e what stops me from getting an EV…

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  • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    lol, this totally makes sense to me.

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