Charging-friendly apartments in DC?

[emog81]

Hi everyone,

I just found out I'm moving to Washington, DC for a year starting in August. Since I'll only be there for a year, I'll most likely get an apartment downtown. Although I'll take advantage of the metro, I'll still need to drive quite a bit.

I currently own a 2013 Model S, so I'm looking for an apartment complex that has on-site charging, if such a place exists. It might not always be feasible for me to drive to a charger, so I'd prefer to be able to plug in every night.

I thought I'd reach out to the Tesla community to see if anyone has any insight into this situation or currently owns a Tesla in downtown DC! Thanks.

- Matt

 

[Max*]

This is a bit old, but someone made a list here: Apartment Living in DC/NoVa with a Tesla

There are also a bunch of garages in downtown that have public charging. All that I've seen have been paid, but there might be free ones somewhere...

 

[jthompson]

I would add that since it seems that you are not going to drive the car much during the week (you referenced taking the Metro to/from work), you could charge up at Montgomery Mall Supercharger (7101 Democracy Blvd, Suite 1272, Bethesda, MD 20817) and have plenty of charge to last all week. There are also quite a large number of Destination Chargers, and somethimes those businesses don't mind you using them or will charge a small fee.

 

[Max*]

I would add that since it seems that you are not going to drive the car much during the week (you referenced taking the Metro to/from work), you could charge up at Montgomery Mall Supercharger (7101 Democracy Blvd, Suite 1272, Bethesda, MD 20817) and have plenty of charge to last all week. There are also quite a large number of Destination Chargers, and somethimes those businesses don't mind you using them or will charge a small fee.

IIRC, the Bethesda SpC is going to be decommissioned once the Laurel, MD SpC is up and running. Both Laurel and Woodbridge are a haul from DC just to charge.

 

[bhzmark]

City center dc

 

[emog81]

Thanks everyone, I've got a few places to check out now next time I get to DC. Relying completely on a supercharger doesn't make me too comfortable, as I may be driving to and from work several times a week or more...my exact work location is subject to change (from far SE near Anacostia to NW in Bethesda) so it's tough to say how much I'll be able to commute via metro.

City Center looks great...if anything it has more amenities than I actually need (and is slightly more than I'm looking to pay), but the number of chargers might win me over.

 

[paulkva]

The City Center garage is indeed really nice overall, and it apparently has quite a few EV spaces, I've heard 18 and 35 but haven't seem them all. Beware, however, that they do not appear to enforce ICEing. I parked there on a recent weekend and the 5 EV spaces I saw (didn't realize at the time there were so many others) were all ICEd.

 

[mikeash]

If you'd consider living in Virginia and riding Metro in, it looks like there are a few apartments with J1772 chargers near Orange Line stations. I see 2001 Clarendon Apartments, Virginia Square Towers, and Modera Avenir Place. There's also RiverHouse Apartments near the Pentagon City stop on the Blue/Yellow lines. I can't speak to how good they actually are, but might be worth checking into.

 

[DiamondDave]

I'd also suggest checking out downtown Silver Spring, just over the DC-MD line. I don't know the charging availability in the various apartment buildings, but it is walking distance to metro and convenient to Bethesda. It's less than 10 minutes from the beltway as well. The city there has a cool vibe with lots to do.

 

[Skipdd]

Additional Suggestion

Thanks everyone, I've got a few places to check out now next time I get to DC. Relying completely on a supercharger doesn't make me too comfortable, as I may be driving to and from work several times a week or more...my exact work location is subject to change (from far SE near Anacostia to NW in Bethesda) so it's tough to say how much I'll be able to commute via metro.

City Center looks great...if anything it has more amenities than I actually need (and is slightly more than I'm looking to pay), but the number of chargers might win me over.

If you are going to be driving all over the area you might also want to consider getting a Chademo adapter if you don't already have one and a subscription to eVgo. Several times a month I find myself criss-crossing the area with limited time to re-charge. I pop in to one of the eVgo locations and use the Chademo charger (usually delivers ~135 mi in an hour), and am off to finish what I need to do; I usually only need 30 min worth. There are eVgo sites in DC, MD, and NVa. Walgreens also has Chademo adapters at some of their stores.

Welcome me to the area..commuting is so much nicer in the MS

 

[Pdub2015]

I live in a great apt building called The Exchange at Wheaton Station. It's right across the street from the Wheaton Metro station, and there are several EV charger-equipped parking spaces in the garage, that are mostly unoccupied.

 

[republic]

As a DC resident, I highly recommend a CHAdeMO adapter and an eVgo subscription. The Giant at 7th and P has two CHAdeMO stations and two hours of free parking with validation. No store purchase required.

My apartment, Capitol Park Plaza, has 110V outlets in its underground garage. I get most of my power via trickle-charging at 4mi/hr.

 

[notblueclk]

You will find that the DC area is fairly straightforward to get your car charged in alternative ways. I live out in Loudoun County, so I have a HPWC in my garage, but many of my other Tesla friends rely heavily on eVgo and CHAdeMO, which is fairly abundant in the area. Plus, as you move around the area, there are a number of L2 chargers in the area, such as in Reston Town Center, which provides up to 4 hours of free charging at 30A. Even out and about, for example the L2 charger on the corner of U and 14th provides an excellent parking spot in that area. You can also go to Tyson's Corner, call the gallery and ask to plug into an available HPWC.

The only places I've had resistance is at Nissan dealerships, that represent themselves as 'public', but they hate it when a non-Leaf shows up to charge.

 

[republic]

DC proper has limited charging options. The only publicly available chargers other than eVgo are:
(1) one Chargepoint stall at 14th & U, which is almost always taken
(2) four Chargepoint stalls at Canal Park in the Navy Yard area

Many downtown garages have chargers but you'd pay an arm and a leg for parking there.

 

[jcal0820]

Hashing this thread up, since I’m about to move out to northern Virginia myself. It’s been a couple of years since the last post, so imagine must be a much more robust charging infrastructure now, at least I hope so. Got a long range RWD Model 3, looking for apartments or housing units in the area with at least some charging capability. Anyone with direct experience?

 

[mrjwen]

Hashing this thread up, since I’m about to move out to northern Virginia myself. It’s been a couple of years since the last post, so imagine must be a much more robust charging infrastructure now, at least I hope so. Got a long range RWD Model 3, looking for apartments or housing units in the area with at least some charging capability. Anyone with direct experience?

I'm working with the board of my community to install EV chargers. They should be online by the spring. The community is The Gates of McLean, in Tysons, VA. Address 1510 Spring Gate Dr. McLean, VA 22102

 

[XHokie]

I literally just visited two new apartment complexes in the Tyson's area that offer EV charging spaces. They only have two spaces, but it's better than nothing. Also, it seems that newer (i.e. less than 12-24 month old) and higher-end properties are starting to offer EV charging as an "amenity" and differentiator. Not sure if this is just in the Tyson's area or other parts of NoVA, but I've heard there are at least a handful of new developments and buildings that offer EV charging now, which is more than I expected and had heard about previously.

 

[jcal0820]

Looking around the Potomac Mills area, just south on the 95