People who like a challenge go kitesurfing at wind force 11, overtake a police car on the right with 140, buy a Rolex on the dark web, or request a charging station for the joint parking garage from their Association of Owners.
Just as your own fireplace is worth gold, so is your own charging station. After all, anyone who can charge their electric car in their own parking lot has a full ‘tank’ every morning and never has to look for a public pole along the street in all weathers.
Heavier grid connection
Owners of a home with a driveway have it relatively easy. But residents of an apartment complex with a shared parking garage have to overcome quite a few bumps before they can enjoy personal charging luxury. Just placing a pole in the communal area is not allowed according to the deed of division of most Owners’ Associations (VvE’s). Because changes must be made to the building, an application must be submitted and a majority of residents must be in favour during a general members’ meeting.
This is often problematic, because of those adjustments and also because a heavier grid connection is sometimes required. That leads to costs. The question is often who will pay for it. If the first e-car owner has to do that, VvE members who follow later will benefit. On the other hand, there will always be roommates who want to continue driving their fuel car for years to come and do not want to invest in something that does not directly benefit them.
Potential risks
‘It has become a thorny subject’, says Kees Oomen of VvE Belang, which represents the interests of more than 12 thousand VvEs. ‘It was much less, until about three years ago.’ Not that applying was much easier then, but a broadcast of the consumer program Checkout, made the charging station in VvE garages controversial, says Oomen. In that broadcast, the possible risks of fire with indoor charging were pointed out. If an e-car catches fire while charging, When the battery of an e-car catches fire, the fire is more difficult to extinguish than with a normal car. The temperatures are also higher.
At the same time, the risk of fire with an e-car is small: in recent years, an e-car caught fire at a charging point in the Netherlands only once, according to figures from the Institute for Physical Safety. Nevertheless, many HOAs see indoor charging as a risk, which created another hurdle.
Notification
Statistics Netherlands cannot say how many of the estimated 30,000 VvEs with a parking garage have installed a charging point. And therefore not whether there is a question of stagnation. But the government is concerned and fears that VvE members will refrain from buying an electric car if they cannot charge in their own parking space, delaying the transition to emission-free driving.
That is why the last cabinet presented a bill last autumn in which permission from VvEs is no longer required for the installation of a charging station. Reporting should be sufficient from the summer of next year.
This so-called notification scheme has been criticized by those involved. The idea that a report must be sufficient for placement, according to them, falls short. A pole often does not come alone, adjustments to the building are often necessary. And that is common property, which means that permission from the VvE is still required. In many cases, a charging station can still be stopped.
‘The notification scheme has gone too far’, says Oomen. A better balance must be sought between the ‘loading wish’ and what he calls directing during implementation. According to him, that direction must be placed with the VvE board as soon as a member reports. ‘Let the VvE choose an installation company and make agreements with other residents.’
Subsidy
Since last year, VvE boards have received a subsidy for advice on installing piles. Oomen is also in favor of a subsidy to improve fire safety. He sees benefit in a technology under development that can detect whether a battery is in danger of overheating. In this preliminary stage of a possible fire, the electricity supply can then be switched off centrally and the car can be taken outside in time. This could be a solution for existing buildings that makes expensive interventions superfluous.
And the costs? These can be limited for the first few e-cars by opting for smart charging technology, which distributes the available capacity among several vehicles without overloading the building’s power grid. For example, several e-cars can often be connected to the existing electricity connection, says Oomen. By keeping costs as low as possible, support can be increased.
Roadmap
If a need arises for a charging point within a VvE, it is wise to work according to a step-by-step plan. What that step-by-step plan will look like depends on many factors. On the website vveladen.nl these choices are elaborated. What are the points of attention?
1. Map out how many electric cars are expected to be installed among residents in the coming years.
2. Once that is clear, an estimate can be made whether the current electrical installation is sufficient, or whether a heavier connection is required.
3. A heavier grid connection leads to higher costs. Who pays this? If the VvE expects that more charging points will be needed in the coming years, it may not be fair to pass these costs on to the first e-parkers.
4. Are interventions necessary to make the garage fireproof? How are the costs of this distributed?
5. Where are the charging points? For fire safety, close to the exit is best, but this is not always feasible, as parking spaces are often allocated to owners. Just ‘exchanging’ with the neighbors seems useful, but can lead to problems later on. For example, if the neighbors move or if they later get an e-car themselves and want to charge at their place.