Electric vehicles (EVs) are a green and cost-effective form of transportation that lowers carbon emissions. Electric vehicle charging in condos can be a significant hurdle to overcome, even though owning an EV can be excellent for your economy and the environment. The national EV charging infrastructure still has a long way to go.
We discuss several difficulties and solutions for EV charging in apartments in this post, enabling you to effectively identify EV charging options even if you reside in a condo or apartment complex with a small number of EV chargers.
How to charge an electric car at an apartment
If no EV chargers are available, charging an electric vehicle in apartment buildings might be pretty challenging. Since this is a complex undertaking in some buildings, especially ancient ones with minimal electrical capacity available, some forward-thinking condo councils intend to install EV charging stalls near parking spaces.
The primary charging method for electric cars in apartments is to use Level 1 Chargers with conventional 120V outlets, but this option can take up to 50 hours to fully charge an EV battery. There are a few intriguing and cutting-edge methods for charging EVs in apartments, but they come with risks, so be careful.
The difficulty of charging electric vehicles has frequently been mentioned as a barrier to rising ownership.
Find a supercharging station located near you
Finding automobile charging stations in your neighbourhood will be necessary if your apartment does not provide an option for electric vehicle charging. This is a beautiful alternative because there are probably multiple EV charging stations close to your place.
Run a heavy-duty extension cord from your apartment to your car
Suppose there are no electric car charging stations available in your apartment. In that case, you can establish a temporary charging station by buying a heavy-duty extension cord and running it from home to the vehicle. This isn’t the best choice since you might not have enough voltage for a complete charge.
Look for apartments with EV charging
Finding an apartment with EV charging stations installed is a sensible move if you rent or own an electric vehicle and are looking for a new place to live. Plugging your car in to charge at your designated parking location will save time and energy.
A search-finding tool can help you focus your search and locate the ideal apartment while looking for rentals with particular facilities. After entering the features you’re looking for, you’ll receive a list of potential rentals based on your preferences, such as two bedrooms, an on-site gym, a swimming pool, and apartment electric car charging.
The Challenges of charging an electric car at an apartment
When compared to charging an EV at home, where you have complete autonomy over your home’s infrastructure, charging an EV in an apartment may be a little trickier. Let’s look at a few of the main issues that prevent electric car charging in apartment buildings:
• constructions with limited electrical infrastructure.
• There are small capacity service panels in the parking lot area.
• Condominium councils forbid or only partially permit the installation of EV charging stations.
• Agreements between renters and property owners delay the installation of EV chargers.
• In underground parking garage spaces, there is fast internet.
• Private or communal EV parking arrangements?
• the project’s financial support.
• discussions with the condo board or landlords.
• It can be challenging to install at already-constructed residential buildings with underground parking.
The following section provides many alternate alternatives if you cannot charge your EV because of one of these issues.
How to Request EV Charging at an Apartment Complex
The property management company must grant approval (or HOA if at a condominium). They will question you regarding the EV charging installation, so be ready with an electrician or EV charging consultant on hand.
Questions about installation expenses, electricity costs, networking costs, and insurance needs are frequent. Also, it will be beneficial to let the property management business know how having access to EV charging can assist in drawing in and keeping tenants.
In most states, the property management firm decides whether or not to grant your request to install an EV charging station.
However, certain jurisdictions, like California or Florida, have laws prohibiting landlords, property management firms, or HOAs from forbidding a renter or owner from installing an EV charging station at their own expense. Before speaking with management about this, it is essential to get appropriate legal counsel.
What if there are no public chargers near the apartment?
Public charging stations are still insufficiently distributed in numerous places, despite improvements in the infrastructure along the highways. Of course, if you had no choice but to drive an EV, you could move, but it would be an extreme and expensive option. Alternatively, you might contact your local government and ask them to put chargers in your neighbourhood.
The On-street Residential Chargepoint System (ORCS), which the government funds, allows local governments to install chargers on their streets. If you get in touch with your local council, they should be able to let you know whether they intend to use the available budget and whether you’ll be able to have chargers in your neighbourhood.
It could take some time, so it might be worthwhile to think about a charger-sharing program in the interim. There are about 250,000 home charging stations in the UK, although not everyone is in use at once. Co-Charger and Plug-Share are smartphone applications that showcase nearby sites with domestic wall box chargers and off-road parking owned by other EV drivers and available for rent to others.
Costs vary because hosts can establish their minimum fee per kWh, but they are typically less expensive than public charging, and you can use the app to compare prices at various locations.
Conclusion
While the latter statistic is excellent for EV owners with off-street parking, charging an EV at home can be a more challenging proposition for the one in five Australian households that reside in apartments.
One of the biggest problems with apartment buildings, especially older ones, is that new drawdown requirements typically necessitate updating their electric circuits, load management systems, and main switchboards, which may be very expensive. Changes to the bylaws that control cost allocation and peak usage hours may also be necessary to install charging stations for residents.
Given Australia’s slow adoption of electric vehicles, apartment strata groups and body corporates are hesitant to implement significant changes. They fail to comprehend why the demands of a small number should be met by the many.