Are you living in an Apartment Community in India, and looking to buy an Electric Vehicle?Are you concerned about all the debate about EV Charging in Apartment Communities?
Is your Apartment Community having Common EV Charging stations? In that case you may be facing the below issues:
- If the EV Charging Stations are Slow Charging, availability is a problem. This has created dispute in many communities and yours may not be different.
- If the EV Charging Stations are Fast Charging, you still have to manage your schedule and remember to park the car at the common parking of the Charging station. You must also remember to remove it in time so others can charge their EV. This could be quite a demand on your schedule.
Besides, it is known that fast DC charging deteriorates the EV battery in the long term, so this could be concerning you as well.
You may have often wondered why can’t I create a EV Charging plug point right at my individual parking slot.
Then it is complete peace of mind with the Car charging overnight?
Well, this is already done in a few Communities.
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INTERVIEW WITH A COMMUNITY THAT’S DONE IT!
We interviewed a Resident Shyam Sunder SS of Prestige Kews Garden in Bangalore who showed how simple this can be!
ADDA: What was the process of installing the EV Charger? What was the involvement of the Association?
SS: I picked this house because this community is listed as EV friendly by Ather. Has many 2W EVs and few 4W EVs as well. So the Association was well aware of how this works. I informed them about installing a charger. They asked me to coordinate with the apartment electrician and ensure everything is safely done with covered wiring in public areas.
My car comes with an AC 7.2 KW charger but I didn’t install it because my house connection is 5 KW and since it’s rented I didn’t want to request for a load increase. So I installed a 15A socket which usually comes with nexon EV base model. I procured the device (Charging Box) and hired an electrician to install.
ADDA: The line is drawn from which Meter. The association or individual apartment owner to who the parking slot is assigned.
SS: Power line is from my Individual Apartment Meter which is in the owner’s name.
ADDA: Do you get a bescom bill or a bill from 3rd party biller?
SS:I get the BESCOM bill.
ADDA:What is the locking mechanism that ensures others cannot use your Individual Charging Socket.
SS: There are 2 sets of locking mechanisms. One is on the charger unit. Other is at the car level when it’s plugged in and charging, it’s automatically locked.
ASSOCIATION’S ROLE
How can Associations help empower more of their Residents to make the switch to Electric Vehicle?
- Build a robust Guideline for installing Charger Boxes by individuals. Make it available in the Documents in your ADDA app.
- Train the Association Electrician so they can inspect that the installation is as per Guideline.
- Set up the Category “EV Charger Installation” on your Helpdesk Tracker so Residents can easily raise a Request to keep you inform/book appointment with the Electrician to inspect.
ADDA’S ROLE
How can ADDA help with the EV charging solution?
Earlier we believed that Association must take the additional responsibility of installing chargers, billing the Users etc., In which case ADDA’s Utility Metering solution would be helpful for the Association to automate this Billing and Collection.
However this solution made it look much simpler and frees up the Association from the additional administrative cost of EV Charging billing.
Of course, Residents can find local Electricians trusted by the Community, right on ADDA Discover!
Happy EV Ownership to you!
With Love, Team ADDA!
For detailed information about EV Charging options for Apartment Communities check out this Webinar conducted earlier by ADDA: https://adda.io/blog/2021/09/ev-charging-stations-in-your-apartments/ OR Schedule a demo below for further enquiries.