Adapting to the electric car

We have already talked about how to increase energy efficiency at home, now we go one step further and focus on how to adapt our parking to be able to have an electric car and be more ecological in our daily live.

The thing that can worry us the most when we buy an electric car is to know how we can charge it, where and the extra cost.

The cost of adapting a parking space to an electric vehicle can change depending to the size of the parking lot, the previous installation, the power needed the steps that we need to make the installation. To clear up any doubts, there are companies that do previous visits to make an assessment showing the different options available in each case.

However, the question before deciding to buy an electric car and make the corresponding installation is how much does it cost to charge it? On average, and depending on the contracted electricity rate and the moment when we the charge the car, it will range between € 1 and € 3 per 100km. It is important to charge electric vehicles at night taking advantage of the rates of the electricity companies (depending on the rate chosen and the recharging schedule can be lowered by € 1 for every € 100).

Now that we know this, is it easy to adapt our parking space to an electric car? The fact of having a community parking space or a private parking can change the decision-making process. If you are the owners of a community parking space with an electric vehicle, you have the right to place your individual charging installation, but you must inform the community before to do it. Although if you are not the only one who is interested in having a charging point in the community parking lot there are many options that we will show you below.

First, you must decide what types of recharging you want to install. It can be a linked, robust and exclusive point Wallbox type with a specific hose for electric vehicle. On the other hand, a simple and economic charging point with a box on the wall. In addition, you will have to check the available electrical power. Normally this is 5.75kw, enough to charge the vehicle overnight through a 3.3kw power plug. Once we have this clear, we will have to decide what type of electrical supply we want.

Types of equipment

• Installation of individual charging in community parking: in these 2 cases each user is in charge of their charging point.
  1. Connection to the meter of the home of the person using the electric vehicle (it’s only possible if the home and the parking space are in the same building). In this case, the contract with the electric company is the same that already exists.
  2. New electricity supply for each vehicle. We need to process an exclusive supply registration for recharging the car in that parking space and install a new meter that generates an additional electricity bill. For this reason, we need to make a new supply contract.

• Common recharging facilities in community parking: the common supply of the building is shared to also dedicate it to recharging electric vehicles sharing the communal infrastructure.
  1. New collective supply only for electric vehicles. You have to request a new supply and a new meter exclusively for recharging where all the points that need to be connected will be. To manage it, it’s a good option to establish a sub-community of owners of electric vehicles in the community, this way it doesn’t entail any cost for parking users who do not have an electric vehicle.
  2. Use the existing supply for common elements of the car park such as lighting or the door. A new electrical line is added to the electrical panel to power the charging points, in which there will be an additional meter to know the consumption of each user and to know that they must pay for recharging.

Connections can be simple or smart, in community car parks smart charging is recommended because it offers more security and the possibility of reducing economic costs, since it allows managing the charges of various electric vehicles at the same time.

In Més Energia’s blog you will find more publications that can answer questions and doubts.

In any case, new construction car parks are already suitable for installing charging points for electric vehicles. We have several new developments where the property developer already provides the pre-installation, or if the buyer requests it, the charging point is installed. In addition, we also have apartments for rent in which everything is already prepared.