Promote the installation of electric vehicle charging in multifamily housing

Summary

One important measure to facilitate the installation of overnight charging facilities, which in turn would speed up the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs), is to provide interested parties with relevant information. In that way, the community can provide itself with these facilities and lay the ground for a cleaner vehicle fleet. The City of Stockholm has therefore (in cooperation with other municipalities in the Stockholm region) put together information material, checklists, guidelines, and a film where know-how, experiences and practical examples of how charging facilities can be installed are presented. Evening seminars have been arranged with exhibitions where suppliers of charging units have been present. One of the seminar was filmed and is now also on display. More seminars are planned. The seminars have had a large number of participants and were much appreciated. Other cities in Sweden have been inspired by the work and plan to replicate the seminars and exhibitions locally. All the material is on display at the Swedish website www.fixaladdplats.se.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The aim of the measure is to inspire and help interested citizens as well as owner of parking facilities with facts and practical advice on how to install EV charging facilities in multifamily houses. The intention is to prompt the installation of charging points in privately owned garages and in parking areas in residential areas of Stockholm.

Charging facilities are essential for all customers buying an electric vehicle. Overnight charging facilities directly connected to homes have proven to be the number one choice for most EV drivers. Hence, to increase the use of electrical vehicles among citizens, it is important to increase the amount of such facilities. Most citizens in Stockholm live in multifamily houses and often rent a parking space connected to that.

This measure has already proven to be a successful way to empower landlords and housing associations by providing inspiration and easily accessible know-how on how to organise, procure, and install charging facilities for overnight EV charging in garages and parking areas.

A wealth of materials have helped raise interest in EVs. These include checklists, short informative and provocative films; support in applying for national grants; stories from houses who have installed chargers. Information meetings were also around Stockholm county that were combined with exhibitions of charging equipment. Interested housing associations and landlords can also use these materials to get their members and tenants interested in EVs.

The measure has already strengthened the infrastructure needed to make EVs a realistic car choice for people living in multifamily houses. An evaluation conducted after the first six seminars, which were organised in Spring 2017, revealed that the 200 respondents claimed to have initiated the installation of over 1000 charging units.

More seminars were held in Autumn 2017, after which the information material was updated. A further series of seminars are planned for Autumn 2018.

More information:

Eva Sunnerstedt
City of Stockholm

Email: Eva [dot] sunnerstedt [at] stockholm [dot] se
Website: www.fixaladdplats.se

Image credit: Bert Ola Gustafsson, Mosebacke media