Electric vehicle owners who live in multi-unit dwellings such as apartments or condos often find charging onsite challenging because not all units have garages, or parking spaces with access to outlets. To explore this topic Forth invited two guest speakers from the charging station sector, Eric Smith, NW Sales Director at SemaConnect and Peter Vierthaler from PowerFlex, to discuss the ways their respective companies are addressing this challenge.

Currently SemaConnect is using three questions to guide how the company addresses charging at multi-unit dwellings: 1) should charging stations be assigned per parking space or shared; 2) In a 100-space parking lot, is it more expensive to install assigned chargers or shared chargers?; 3) will the industry see more cars with a 100-mile range or cars with a +200-mile range in the future and how will that affect the charging options needed at home? Eric acknowledged that there are other potential solutions, which may prove to be the best fit for some multi-unit dwellings and cited that it is easier to install chargers at apartment complexes with one property owner than in condos, with multiple owners.

Eric’s presentation can be viewed here:

PowerFlex’s Peter Vierthaler is confident the industry is moving in the right direction to support more charging infrastructure in multi-unit dwellings. Powerflex is focusing on adaptive load balancing and smart charging technology, which monitors the energy demands within a building and schedules charging during time of low demand. This ultimately can reduce the costs of installing multiple chargers and could be a cost-effective option for property owners.

Both speakers agree there is no one way to bring charging infrastructure to the increasing number of multi-unit dwellings in the Pacific Northwest, and the industry is moving in the right direction to do so.

 Peter’s presentation can be viewed here