Providing reliable home EV charging remains one of the toughest barriers for renters. Yet it’s also where Munro’s teardown approach clarifies which design and cost choices truly scale.
In a recent conversation, Moon Five CEO Stephen Ng detailed how the company’s multifamily system gives tenants dedicated Level 2 charging while sparing landlords the CapEx and OpEx burden. The result reframes “right-to-charge” from an abstract policy to a deployable engineering and business model built for real properties.
The Renter Barrier Is a System Problem
Apartment dwellers often face broken shared chargers, unclear maintenance responsibility, and slow utility coordination. Moon Five tackles the problem as a whole system: sales direct to the renter, a building agreement that sets expectations, and a packaged install that limits building-wide electrical impact.
The company avoids house power that triggers costly upgrades and long approvals. Instead, it branches from each resident’s metered service and manages load at that breaker. This shift reduces friction and accelerates installation. For engineers, it reflects disciplined constraint management — control what you own, monitor the rest, and schedule within safe headroom.
How the Hardware Stack Segments Work and Risk
Moon Five separates the visible EVSE from the heavy-duty mounting and switchgear. The “energy dock” carries the rugged bits, while the removable EVSE module handles electronics. This decoupling reduces repair time and avoids electrician call-outs for many field swaps; it also supports aesthetics without driving cost.
In addition, the units ship untethered, keeping the vehicle cable with the driver. This design removes a common vandalism point seen on public chargers. As a result, fewer high-abuse parts stay exposed, repair times drop, and modular swaps support costed field returns — clear gains for teardown and reliability analysis.
Level 2 Performance Sized for Overnight Reality
The system targets ~7.7 kW Level 2 charging. At that rate, a typical overnight session adds roughly a full week of commuting for many drivers, and Moon Five quotes about 240 miles restored overnight.
Engineers will recognize that the real value is scheduling: by charging when the apartment load is low — usually while the resident sleeps — the controller can keep the apartment breaker within limits while maximizing delivered energy. This aligns with measured usage; most home charging is nighttime, and few households hit peak panel draw at 2 a.m. Consequently, the management algorithm can allocate current without expensive service upgrades.
“Home Charging for Renters” as a Business Model
Landlords hesitate because shared chargers create CapEx, OpEx, and customer service they did not plan to manage. Moon Five’s pitch flips the incentives: zero CapEx and zero OpEx for the property, revenue share during the contract, and the building retains the installed conduit afterward.
For renters, the offer is a small monthly fee plus their own utility energy cost. The company’s direct-to-renter approach turns the building from owner-operator to host, while still ensuring site standards, safety, and maintainability. For investors, the result is a serviceable recurring-revenue contract married to physical assets and predictable install workflows.
Design Choices That Favor Uptime
Untethered connectors remove copper-theft and broken-pin incidents. Minimal external UI eliminates fragile displays and buttons. The dock-and-head design allows quick module swaps; in many cases a user can remove the head without an electrician, reducing truck rolls and downtime.
Compared to public chargers where the operator bears every repair, this architecture shifts maintenance toward simpler, faster interventions. In teardown terms: fewer unique parts at the edge, simpler ingress protection, and a clearer bill of materials partition between outdoor-rated hardware and electronics that benefit from enclosure economies.
Right-to-Charge Meets Deployability
Policy helps only when installations pencil out for all parties. Right-to-charge laws exist in a growing set of U.S. states; yet retrofits still burden individual renters with permitting, incentives, and removal obligations. Moon Five uses legislation as a fallback, not the default, preferring cooperative building agreements that reduce process time.
This pragmatic sequencing — collaborate first; use statute if needed — is a reminder to product teams: requirements are multidimensional. Electrical code, permitting queues, incentive paperwork, and lease clauses all shape cycle time; design your program to succeed across those interfaces.
Home Charging for Renters: Cost and ROI
Total cost of ownership matters. For many renters, affordable home charging unlocks EV ownership by shifting energy use to off-peak hours and avoiding public charger fees. DC fast charging retains near-uniform pricing across regions, while residential electricity prices vary. In many Midwestern markets, that spread grows, so at-home Level 2 yields larger monthly savings than exclusively using public DC fast charge. Moon Five characterizes typical fuel savings in the West Coast case as $80–$110 per month, with more upside where residential rates are favorable.
For investors, the cost gap justifies a modest subscription while keeping savings with the renter. At the same time, revenue sharing gives landlords a return on lot space without added service burden. Together, these incentives align economics across all stakeholders and support faster adoption.
Engineering Takeaways for Multifamily EVSE
- Segment responsibilities. Give each stakeholder a clear role: the renter manages usage, the property hosts infrastructure, and the operator maintains reliability.
- Design for predictable abuse. Address theft, cable damage, and UI failure at the source instead of over-engineering around them.
- Monitor and manage load. Track power at the panel, schedule charging within the renter’s breaker limits, and define clear installation boundaries for inspectors and property managers.
- Plan for bidirectionality. Moon Five’s roadmap includes AC and DC paths for future grid services — size enclosure volume, manage heat, and rate contactors accordingly.
What Munro Readers Should Watch Next
From a Munro perspective, this is lean design in action. Cut part count at the curb. Keep complexity in a replaceable module. Match the business model to how charging actually happens overnight. Then refine and scale.
As Moon Five expands across California, real data will reveal service cycles, vandalism trends, and user habits — insights that drive sharper teardown analysis and better second-generation designs. Watch for changes in styling, sealing, and sensor layout that improve reliability and reduce false trips.
Explore More with Munro
For more expert teardown insights, cost breakdowns, and lean engineering analysis, explore Munro’s full library of EV and charging content by visiting Munro & Associates or following us at Munro Live. Compare designs, benchmark systems, and learn how Munro’s data-driven methods help teams cut cost, improve reliability, and speed development from prototype to production.