EVs are great, and can unlock more transportation convenience with the ease of charging at home. But for apartment-dwellers, this can be a complicated conversation. So a nonprofit called Forth is here to help, through its Charge at Home program.

One of the main benefits of an electric vehicle is in the convenience of owning and charging the car in the place it spends most of its time. Instead of having to go out of your way to fuel it, you just park it at home, in the same place it spends at least 8 hours a day, and you leave the house every day with a full charge.

But this benefit only applies to those with a consistent parking space which they can easily install charging at. When talking about owners who live in apartment buildings, it can sometimes get more complicated.

While certain states have passed “right to charge” laws to give apartment-dwellers a solution for home charging, apartment charging is nevertheless a bit of a patchwork solution so far.

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And as a result of this, EV ownership among apartment renters lags behind that of single-family homeowners. It’s clear that apartments are holding back people from buying EVs, and that’s bad – lots of people live in apartments, and the gas those cars use pollutes the air just as much as any other.

Certain areas where EVs have hit a point of critical mass (namely, the large California cities) have pretty good EV ownership among renters, but it could still be better. And residents are clamoring more and more for easy EV charging in apartment communities.

So, Forth, a nonprofit advocating for equitable access to clean transportation, set up a program called Charge at Home, which is meant to connect renters, apartment building owners or other decisionmakers with resources to help install chargers at multifamily properties.

The site lets you select your situation – a resident or a decisionmaker for a new or existing multifamily development – and then gives you access to tools for your specific situation, whether you be a resident and developer.

The site houses links to help design a multifamily project, find electricians, inform you about right to charge laws or available incentives, and provide case studies, among others.

Charge at Home also hosts roundtable webinars periodically, and includes a library of past webinars with the information you need.

There are a lot of considerations for each of these projects, so it can be helpful to have someone with experience to help you go over it all. Personally, when talking to friends about getting an EV, charging considerations are usually the thing that takes up the bulk of the conversation.

So if the toolkits are still too daunting for you, Charge at Home is offering free charging consultations for multifamily developers, owners, property managers and HOAs.

The charging consultations have been made possible by funding from the Department of Energy, though that funding only runs through the end of September – so get your requests in soon. Forth may still offer consultations afterwards, but is still uncertain about funding so doesn’t want to promise anything – but the website will remain up for people to submit questions and find information, whether or not free consultations stick around.

But at the very least, as Forth points out, whether a multifamily development is interested in having EV charging at this moment or not, any developer should think about having the infrastructure, conduit and capacity ready to go for future install of EV chargers, and should consider the needs of current residents who are likely already considering EVs today.

It’s going to be necessary to install this capacity at some point, and doing so earlier can help save money down the line, make your development more attractive to renters today, and allow more renters to make the switch to cleaner transportation which helps air quality and to reduce climate change, both of which harm everyone on the planet.

Electrek’s Take

I’ve long said that the only real problem with EVs is the problem of access to consistent charging for people who don’t have their own garage. Whether this be apartment-dwellers, street-parkers or the like, the electric car charging experience is often less-than-ideal outside of single family homes, at least in North America.

There are workarounds available, like charging at work, or using Superchargers in “third places” where you often spend time, but these still aren’t optimal. The best thing is just to charge your car wherever it spends most of its time, which is your home. When you do that, EVs outshine everything in convenience.

We’ve highlighted some projects before which showed how reasonable it can be to install charging for developments. Every project is going to have its complexities, but when you see projects like this condo complex that managed to install chargers for just $405 per parking spot, all of a sudden it becomes a no-brainer not to have EV charging.

But the fact is, there just aren’t enough apartment complexes out there which have EV charging. So if Forth’s program can help residents or landlords with that, it can go a long way towards solving the only real problem with EVs.

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When I first got my hands on a Chinese electric mini-excavator, I thought it would be a fun little machine for digging a few holes and moving some dirt around. What I didn’t expect was just how useful and versatile it would become – and how often I’d reach for it for jobs that I never initially planned on tackling with a compact electric digger.

As I’ve watched all the fun reporting on new electric excavators, I’ve looked on in envy at what the current state of the art is… if you’ve got a quarter million bucks burning a hole in your hefty pocket. They are amazing machines, but I feel like the kid sitting outside of the sandbox and looking in, never able to play with the toys myself. But as it turns out, as long as you don’t need a massive machine, a mini-electric excavator wound up offering me many of the same benefits.

These battery-powered machines are cleaner, quieter, and cheaper to run than their diesel counterparts, which is great. That’s exactly why I started with NESHER in the first place. But what really surprised me was how many odd jobs around my parents’ acreage my little NX2500 excavator managed to take over. Here are five unexpected ways I’ve been using my Chinese electric mini-excavator.

1. Trench digging for irrigation

This was actually one of the first “off-script” jobs I tackled. My parents needed to run some irrigation lines through their property for a new garden setup, and while I originally planned to help my dad out the old-fashioned way (with a trenching shovel and a lot of sweat), I had my first mini-excavator delivered only a month ahead of time, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

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I figured, “Why not?” and before I knew it, I was carving clean, even trenches in a fraction of the time. What would’ve taken an entire weekend by hand was done in about an hour or two, and with zero back pain. It’s a perfect example of how machines like this can turn exhausting, sweaty work into something you actually enjoy.

Ever since I hurt my back a few years ago, a part of my rude welcome to how the mid-30s feels quite different from the mid-20s, I’ve been a little more aware of the kind of stress I put on my body. While I’m still quick to grab a shovel when I need one, the thought of hand trenching all day with a shovel versus an hour in the operator’s chair was a no-brainer.

2. Tree planting made way easier

Planting one tree is no big deal. Planting 10? Or 20? That’s starting to become a project. Planting 50? That’s a whole day with a shovel – or just a couple of hours with the mini-excavator.

The machine makes short work of digging perfect-sized holes, whether you’re dropping in fruit trees, palms, or trying to reforest a bare section of land.

In the beginning, there was some trial and error, but I’ve learned that you can fine-tune your technique to get the hole shape just right, so the trees don’t settle awkwardly or too deeply. It’s still manual labor in a sense, since those joysticks don’t work themselves, but it’s a lot less manual than working the shovel all day!

I also found that I can use a simple yard sled to load the spoils onto, then use the UTV to drag it away to the spoil pile elsewhere on the property. If you don’t have a dump truck or mini-truck around, a yard sled is a cool little way to move heavy things easily by dragging them around.

3. Mulch moving machine

I hadn’t originally planned on using the excavator for this one, but I had a big pile of mulch that needed to get loaded into the back of my mini-truck to bring over to a planting area. Instead of shoveling it by hand or using buckets, I figured I’d see how the excavator would handle scooping and dropping. And it worked beautifully.

Is it a perfect loader bucket? Not really. But it does save a lot of time and effort compared to doing it by hand. For loose materials like mulch, compost, or even sandy soil, it’s a no-brainer.

I still generally prefer to go with one of my loaders for bulk material like this, but in a pinch, the excavator can move 4-5x the amount I can per shovelfull, and each pass is a heck of a lot less exhausting on me!

4. Grading around trees for a shipping container pad

Here’s one I definitely didn’t expect to work so well. I had an area near some trees where I wanted to drop a shipping container. The ground was a mess – uneven, root-covered, and just generally not flat enough for the container to sit level.

I figured I’d give the excavator a shot at scraping and grading the area flat, and with a little finesse, it worked surprisingly well. It took some careful passes, and I wouldn’t call it laser-level precision, but it was more than good enough to get the container settled evenly and safely.

I’ve since put a second container next to it and built a roof structure between them, so now I have a 40×10-foot (12×3-meter) covered parking area between two shipping containers. I’d say it worked quite well!

5. Hoisting and lifting logs (and other heavy stuff)

Now this one’s a bit outside the box – and outside the manual. These machines aren’t really designed for lifting heavy objects the way a larger excavator or crane is, but they’re surprisingly capable if you’re smart about it.

I’ve hoisted several hundred pounds with mine, like awkward loads or cut log sections. A lifting strap slung over the bucket makes it easy to mount weird-shaped things, and you just have to be careful about swinging around too quickly.

I added a manual thumb attachment, and that proved to be a real game-changer. I can now pick up logs and branches, spin them around, and drop them into the bed of the mini-truck like a tiny mobile crane. Again, one or two logs are easy enough to toss by hand. But when a tree or two comes down after a storm and there are 20 or 30 logs, my back is going to thank me for not trying to toss each one by hand.

Final thoughts

It’s easy to write off these Chinese electric mini-excavators as toys or underpowered knock-offs. But after putting on real-world use for everything from planting trees to loading mulch and lifting logs, I can say they’ve proven themselves. No, they won’t replace a full-size backhoe or dozer, but they’re not trying to. These things are for the small jobs – the ones that wear you out if you try to do them by hand and don’t justify calling in a pro crew. They’re for the homesteaders, not the contractors.

Add in the fact that they’re electric – so you can run them in a garage or barn without worrying about fumes –and you’ve got a pretty compelling machine for landowners, landscapers, hobby farmers, or anyone who wants a quiet, capable, compact helper.

They aren’t without their downsides. Run times are only between 4-6 hours, and the roughly 1 mph (0.6 km/h) walking speed is excruciatingly slow when you need to travel to the farther flung areas of the property. But at least they’re relatively quiet and vibration-free, not to mention emission-free, for that long traverse!

Slate Auto, a new EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has poached a key Tesla manufacturing leader to build its electric pickup truck factory in Indiana.

Napoleon Reyes is a US Marine from Indiana who got a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue after leaving the force.

He then worked a few years at Subaru and Wabash before joining Tesla’s manufacturing team at the Fremont Factory in 2020.

There, he became part of the Model Y production ramp and was quickly promoted to lead the Model Y General Assembly in Fremont in 2022.

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Reyes led Model Y GA, one of the most critical parts of vehicle manufacturing, for more than a year before being promoted again to lead new pilot processes at the factory.

Most recently, he led the launch of the general assembly line for the Model Y refresh.

The new engineering manager announced this week that he is leaving Tesla to join Slate:

A bit late on the post but after nearly 5 years working at Tesla in Fremont, I made the difficult decision to leave the Company and move closer to home with my family. It was an incredible experience being part of multiple line expansions and multiple Model Y program launches. Leading and managing the Model Y Refresh launch for GA in Fremont this year tested me professionally however we ultimately succeeded due to our amazing cross functional team collaboration. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with such great people, and I will forever be proud and thankful for everything we accomplished together.

I will be taking on a new role as Senior Manager, Plant Vehicle Engineering at Slate Auto in Warsaw, In.

Slate emerged from stealth mode earlier this year to unveil a new type of electric pickup truck featuring modular customization and an affordable price.

The company raised over $700 million through two rounds of investments from several different investors, including Jeff Bezos. It is currently raising more, which basically guarantees that it will be able to reach production.

The startup acquired a former printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana. It is currently converting to manufacture its electric pickup with a team from legacy automakers and also several former engineers and leaders from Tesla.

Rich Schmidt, an early Tesla manufacturing director, is the head of manufacturing.