It requires more than a socket in the wall

Electric vehicles are here to stay and unlike the trusty steel steeds of yesteryear that can be topped up with liquid fuel in less than five minutes, EVs take a bit longer. Thus their owners want to replenish the charge while they are doing something else.

This is fuelling demand for e-charging stations that can be used when cars are parked; parked in public parking facilities, in office car parks and at homes.

Since the first EVs hit the road, Q-Park has been innovating to meet this demand as efficiently and effectively as possible. But it is important to know that creating e-charging infrastructure is not as simple as it sounds. It requires much more than a simple electric socket in the wall.

Public and private parties need to be aware of:

• Capacity of the electricity grid
• Share of renewable energy in the electricity grid
• Issues and innovations on charging infrastructure
• Capital expenditures in infrastructure and buildings
• Upcoming building directives and regulations

Grid capacity

Electricity supply to buildings throughout Europe is typically three phase high-voltage current. This delivers 230 V x 16 A x 3 = 11,040 Watt (11 kW). This is generally sufficient to power most appliances in a general-purpose building (such as a car park), office complex or home.

Businesses requiring more than the standard power can apply for additional capacity, i.e. a second or third power line. In densely populated urban areas such requests cannot always be met as the electricity infrastructure simply does not have the capacity. Now that power for EV charging is required almost everywhere, grid capacity is becoming a serious challenge.

For example: an average 'out-of-home' EV charging station draws 7.6 kW, which means that parking facilities need to apply for additional 11kW capacity just to serve 2 charging points. But what about serving a fleet of 20 or 50 EV cars?

• City residents, local EV fleets and commuters want guaranteed e-charging solutions so they can start their journey fully charged.
• Visitors with an EV want a parking space with top-up charging to minimise their range anxiety fears.

It requires commercially viable building blocks

There are many questions that still need to be answered:

• Which kind of parking customer has which type of EV-charging demand at which location?
• How can we provide sufficient energy capacity to serve EV-charging demand?
• How will we manage current and future directives and legislation? For example:
  • New car parks: 10% of parking spaces have EV-charging as of 2021.
  • Existing car parks: 10% of parking spaces have EV-charging as of 2025.
• Which future-proof EV-network service providers should we partner with?
• How to ensure that EV-charging points are future-proof?
• Which EV-charging solution works best under which circumstances, there are several options:
  • Standard charging
  • Smart charging
  • Load balancing (static or dynamic)
• How to increase the share of renewable energy?
• Which opportunities and threats will expedite the required investments?

Innovative solutions

Each parking facility is unique and requires an individual solution. We draw on our experience and expertise and use the EV-charging building blocks we have developed in recent years to achieve the most feasible and commercially viable solution per parking facility.

We invite landlords and partners facing EV charging dilemmas to get in touch. Together we can create quality parking solutions that make a major contribution to reducing CO2 emissions and add value to social and environmental well-being.

Dynamic load balancing serves more cars concurrently