Have We Worked Out How To Charge EVs in an Apartment Building?

If you’re lucky enough to own an electric car, you probably know that one of the challenges is finding a place to charge it. While there are public charging stations out there, it’s also possible and even necessary to charge your EV at home. This is because recharging an electric vehicle takes a lot longer than stopping by a petrol station to refuel the way petroleum vehicles would, placing a lot more strain on communal charging stations. Most EVs will take several hours to fully charge, so it’s best to plug in your car overnight. That way, you’ll wake up to a full charge and be ready to go for the day.

So you need to recharge at home. Easy enough.

First, you’ll need to purchase a home charger. There are a few different types of chargers available, so you’ll want to do some research to find the best one for your needs. Once you have your charger, you’ll simply plug it into an outlet in your home and connect your car.

But what if home is an apartment?

What about renters, or apartment residents who lack a private parking space, garage or other permanent parking bay as part of their living arrangement?

With electric vehicles on the rise and fully supported by both Australians and government initiatives, we need to start thinking realistically about how to charge EVs in an apartment.

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EV Charging Bays and Strata

If you work in strata, EV charging may be catching you off guard right now. In a whirlwind development, new buildings will now all need to provision for wiring to charge EVs.

Many apartments are presided over by strata, which understandably comes with some responsibility on strata’s part to cater to this growing user base. While no legislation or mandates currently exist for minimum electric vehicle charging bays on existing buildings, the need for charging bays will only increase, and with it each apartment will need to determine its own path to resolution.

Charging your EV at home is a great way to save money and make life a little easier. Many strata groups have already begun addressing this need for their residents, by ensuring there is access and infrastructure to support electric vehicle charging. For many, this means ensuring communal EV charging bays within the apartment complex, allocated in the same way strata considers visitor parking or disability parking.

EV Charging Bays and Property Values

Existing residents are only one demographic apartments need to consider. What about prospective or would-be residents? Features such as access to EV charging will increasingly be seen as a competitive edge the more people adopt this mode of travel. This will over time have an impact on value perception. If somebody’s relatives, friends or so on have electric vehicles, or the potential buyer is considering an electric vehicle, this may influence their evaluation of whether they want to commit to the building or be the tipping factor when deciding between two different apartments.

It’s an evolving conversation that many are seeing more as an opportunity than a problem.

What about ICEing?

ICEing refers to the practice of petrol cars parking in electric vehicle parking spaces, which naturally is more than inconsiderate to electric vehicle owners. It’s disabling.

With apartments being shared spaces by nature, and visitor parking already proving a massive pain point for strata, the risk of ICEing is ever prevalent. As is the risk of competition over EV charging bays if demand exceeds supply.

Even though it’s the last thing strata members want to hear, the fact is that combatting this issue will be even more important than combatting regular visitor parking issues. EVs will depend on reliable access to charging stations to get about their daily commute.

That’s My Spot has not only been closely in talks with strata, but has also done numerous case studies to help understand these pain points and how best to respond to them.

That’s something we’re working on, and you can follow on our sister site Parking Spotz.

But in the meantime…rolling out all across Australia are our parking bollards, which have routinely proven the tried-and-tested solution to mitigating EV bay misuse.

If you’re watching the rising trend of electric vehicles in Australia right now, it’s easy to get a little flustered. But don’t be! See it as the opportunity it is to improve not only how our apartments handle fair parking usage, but also how our cities handle sustainability.

And the New South Wales Government has done a great job putting a guide together to help make your residential strata building EV ready. You can see these resources at :
Making your residential strata building EV ready