It seems everyone who’s anyone has jumped on the electric vehicle (EV) bandwagon in the last year, up to and including President Barack Obama, who called for widespread adoption of the technology in his 2011 State of the Union address. It stands to reason that more electric vehicles will require more public charging stations, which would appear to have a potentially huge effect on those whose buildings include parking facilities. But is that true? Sort of.
According to the Fall 2011 Electric Vehicle Market Summary, Baum and Associates, U.S. sales of EVs totaled 9,700 as of August 2011.That same report predicts total U.S. sales of 175,000 EVs (including full electrics and hybrids) by 2015—far short of the president’s call for one million on the road by that year.
“It is a consistent, obviously small at the current level, trend,” says Alan Baum. “Through 2015, we are talking about relatively modest sales.” Baum points to the vehicles’ expense and the global economy as a main reason.
Still, experts say the EV trend is a growing one and not likely to go away. “Something like 70 percent of people drive less than 40 miles per day,” says Mike Simpson, vehicle systems engineer, Center for Transportation Technologies and Systems, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“It is a long-term trend but it’s a slow long-term trend,” says Edmunds.com Senior Editor and Green Car Advisor John O’Dell. That said, it’s one building professionals need to plan for, because there’s little doubt that charging station demand will grow along with EV sales.
The Basics
Currently, there are two main categories of EVs: all-electric cars and gasoline-electric hybrids. Electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf run on batteries and, at present, have a range of about 40 miles. They must be charged between those 40-mile stretches to maintain power. Gasoline-electric hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, can switch between running on a battery and running on gasoline. The battery recharges when the gasoline engine kicks in, negating the need to plug in.
“There are going to be a bunch of EVs out there, but they’re going to be low-volume cars,” says O’Dell, pointing out that several car manufacturers plan to introduce the vehicles in the next few years. “It probably doesn’t pencil out for a parking lot operator to install chargers on his or her own dime right now. Unless you’re in San Francisco or Manhattan, which are pretty quick markets for electric city cars, it just doesn’t make sense and very quickly gets expensive.”
Currently, there are three levels of chargers, as shown in the following chart:
| Level | Volts | Time to Charge Vehicle |
| 1 | 120 | 10 hours |
| 2 | 208 – 240 | 4 – 8 hours |
| 3 | 480 | Half an hour to 1 hour |
Level 1 and 2 chargers must meet federal standards and be UL-approved. There are currently no such requirements on Level 3 chargers. Most residential users stick with Level 1 chargers they can use overnight. Most commercial chargers are Level 2. “In the public sphere and when we’re talking about a downtown area, you’re clearly going to have Level 2 charging that can do a full charge in four to eight hours and less than that for a partial charge,” says Baum.
What’s that going to run a parking lot owner? Michael Farkas, CEO, Car Charging Group, says that while the chargers have come down in cost, they’re not cheap. “When we started installing, we were buying chargers for $6,000 apiece,” explains Farkas. “Today, Level 2 units are available for $4,000.” He, and many other providers, will not offer Level 3 devices until they are standardized, which is unlikely to happen until 2013. “If you lay the conduit during new construction, the cost is very minimal,” he says. “Retrofitting can be quite expensive, because you have to bore through concrete and make these crazy runs.” It’s also nicer from an aesthetic standpoint to install the infrastructure during new construction because conduit and wiring can be contained within walls rather than running on their exteriors.
Legislation
Only one state—Hawaii—currently has a law on the books mandating charger installation. There, all public, private and government parking facilities that are used by the general public and have more than 100 spaces must designate 1 percent of those spaces to EVs. Those spaces must be equipped with chargers, and the percentage will increase by 1 percent for each 5,000 EVs registered in the state until 10 percent of the cars on the road are electric.
“Most states have put out laws that encourage the implementation of electric chargers,” says Mike Drow, senior vice president, technology implementation, Standard Parking, and co-chair of the International Parking Institute (IPI)’s Technology Committee. He says they’re doing that through tax credits and permit simplification for facilities that include the devices.
California was the first state to pass regulations governing charging stations and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and currently all 50 states follow its requirements; for every 25 charging stations in a facility, one must be in an extra-wide, ADA compliant space. That space should not be marked strictly for use by vehicles with handicapped-parking placards or stickers, but must be accessible for use by them.
Action
“Governments are all aiming to lower the greenhouse gas emissions that are credited to their states,” says O’Dell. “They want to see as many chargers as possible so people will start to use these vehicles.”
“If you drive 20 miles a day and you have a 40 – 80 mile EV, you only need home charging, he says, although charging at the office is also popular with EV owners. “If you drive more than that and want to use the car to its maximum potential, then we need to have publicly available, out-in-the-world chargers. I think we’re going to see more planning commissions requiring them, just like they do with handicapped parking.”
Most experts agree that larger demand for electric car charging will come from residential, multifamily buildings and hotels, where people can charge as they sleep. Then, workplace charging will come into play that allows people to charge their EVs during their office time. After that, they say, we will see more demand for faster chargers at places such as movie theaters and shopping centers, where people can park and charge for two to four hours at a time.
What about changing technology? The experts say that unless there’s huge demand or a financial benefit to install a charger today, most public parking owners would be wiser to install the infrastructure now and wait on wide-scale charger adoption in a few years.
“The physical charging cord in cars right now is a standard that all automobile manufacturers have adopted,” says Simpson. “That’s not going to change.”
Drow says Standard Parking isn’t rushing to install chargers right now, but will work with clients who want them. “We’re not racing towards it,” he says. “If clients want to install them, we go through the pros and cons. If it’s a university with a large electric fleet, for example, we’ll go through the options. We’re not getting in the way of it, but we also expect the technology of the units to evolve.”
The other big area of confusion for many building owners is whether they should charge patrons for the privilege of boosting their EV batteries with their chargers. And the answer from most experts is that EV drivers will either park elsewhere—in a lot that offers free charging—or just wait to charge when they get home.
“Amongst the cars in my garage is a Nissan Leaf,” says O’Dell. “If I’m going to the movies and I have the choice to see the movie in a number of theaters, I’m going to pick the theater that I know has a free EV charger in the parking lot. If I’m going to go sit someplace for three or four hours, I might as well charge my car. Making them available will draw EV drivers in.”
“It’s going to take a while for this to shake down,” he adds. “Nobody has a really clear idea of what’s going to work and what’s not going to work.”
