Electric vehicles (EVs) are increasing in numbers across Europe — and they’re coming to your residential area soon too. While charging an EV via a regular home socket is definitely an option for overnight charging, charging stations can make the charging process easier for EV drivers. With a charging station located in the community, EV owners do not need to find a public charging station or make special arrangements to charge their car at home.
Why should building managers and residents care about EV charging? With the electrification of transportation being a near-term inevitability and municipalities increasingly mandating electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) infrastructure, what once seemed like a safe bet has become untenable. Here’s why community EV charging should become a focus in residential areas:
1. E-mobility is here to stay (but incentives may not be).
With over 113 million charges sessions delivered on the ChargePoint® network since our founding, we know e-mobility is here to stay. Automakers agree. Major car manufacturers like Ford and Volvo are planning investments of hundreds of billions of Euros into battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the coming decade.
And it’s not just EV charging companies and carmakers investing in e-mobility. Plenty of governments, cities and utilities offer EV and EV charging incentives to help offset the costs for drivers, businesses and multifamily properties. But as electric vehicles become just “vehicles,” the current incentives will likely disappear just like the internal combustion engine (ICE) cars EVs are replacing. In other words, the best time to invest in charging infrastructure is right now.
2. Your current and future neighbors will need EV charging.
Remember the days of driving to an often inconvenient, out-of-the-way location to fill up? With electric vehicles, fueling is more like plugging in any other device you own — you do it where it makes the most sense. More than 80% of the time, that’s where you live and work. Who will drive EVs? If a recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) prediction is right, pretty much everyone.
According to the BNEF, almost 40% of European passenger vehicle sales are expected to be electric by 2035. The US also went past the EV mass adoption tipping point in 2022, when 5% of car sales were EVs. And the adoption of EVs worldwide is not expected to slow down any time soon. BNEF also predicts that by 2025, 8% of all vehicles on the road will be electric.
EV charging will make every property, everywhere, more desirable — and more valuable, too.
3. EV charging is more affordable than you think.
Since 2007, ChargePoint has been laser-focused on one thing — moving all goods and people on electricity. That’s why we’re making it as easy and affordable as ever for property owners to offer EV charging in their residential communities.
Our Residential Community Charging solution is built for multifamily home properties with shared parking for residents only, and it can also be used for individual 1:1 charging if needed. Residential Community Charging also includes the ChargePoint cloud dashboard, which gives property owners complete control over access and pricing among residents and visitors, along with energy management to reduce infrastructure costs.
Furthermore, our subscription model, ChargePoint as a Service®, lets property owners preserve valuable CapEx funds and pay for EVSE infrastructure out of their normal operating expenses instead. In other words, they pay for only what they need today and can grow their business right along with EV adoption.
Unlike those fitness rooms and tennis courts of old, once residents have access to EV charging, they’ll use it. With European residents increasingly looking to live in a “green or sustainable community,” that once nice-to-have amenity is now a must-have necessity.
