Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging in Strata Buildings – Simple Guide for 2023

Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging in Strata Buildings

If you own an electric vehicle (EV), you already know about the upsides. A cleaner way of getting from A to B and the bragging rights of becoming one of the early adopters of what looks to be the future of personal transportation.

With Australia’s surging fuel prices, EV vehicles have well and truly reached mainstream attention. With this newfound attention comes fresh bottlenecks from the supply of new vehicles to charging infrastructure.

When you live in a strata managed building, there is an added layer of complications that EV owners should be aware of before proceeding with their order. In this guide, we’ll go through everything that you need to know about charging your electric vehicle in a strata building. From figuring out whether your building is EV-ready, to navigating the installation in a strata managed building.

Installing an EV charging station in a strata building – what’s involved?

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Installing an EV charging station in Australia in 2023 is complicated. Before proceeding there are some things that prospective EV owners in strata should consider, including:

• Obtain approvals and permissions from strata committee or body corporate
• Identify the most suitable and appropriate location for the charger – you will need to hire a qualified, experienced electrician to help with this and ensure that you have accurate information.
• Ensuring that the building’s electrical capacity can support the station
• Chargers must be installed by qualified electricians – this will (almost always) be at the cost of the EV owner.
• Establish guidelines for use and maintenance of the charging station
• Set up a billing system so that residents are correctly charged for usage

Like any new technology, it is going to take some time before we can confidently navigate the process to ensure EV adoption can continue to run its course.

What are the other options?

If you are unable to get approval from your strata committee or body corporate, then you are really left with two options:

1. Hold off on buying an EV until there is more interest from other residents. This may include lobbying and banding together with other residents to help the body corporate to better understand demand. Ten voices are louder than one, so if demand increases, then the solutions will invariably follow.
2. Use public charging stations. As of 2023, Tesla has the widest network of chargers in Australia by some margin. The Tesla Supercharger network means that owners can charge from 0-80% in as little as 45-minutes (depending on model and battery capacity). There are also chargers in most shopping centres and apps like PlugShare make it easy for owners to navigate to local EV charging stations.

Realistically, EV adoption is well into it’s teething phase. It’s going to take some time before all of the kinks are ironed out – particularly for owners that live in strata operated buildings.

Can EV chargers disrupt the power supply of a building?

EV chargers place an enormous strain on power supply and electric infrastructure – particularly in older buildings. While one or two chargers may be ok, there are invariably going to be issues when all residents want to charge at the same time of day (usually the evening).

At a small scale, EV chargers should not significantly disrupt the power supply of an apartment building, however, it’s important to check with your body corporate before proceeding.

Can individual owners install EV chargers or is permission required before hand?

Like most things, it completely depends on your building, any relevant by-laws, and the committee. In some cases, buildings may already be equipped to handle EV charger installation, while in others (read: most) EV charging stations are a new and complicated consideration that will take some time to work through.

There is a delicate balancing act to ensure there is no disruption to residents and EV owners have an at-home charging solution. Before you do anything, your first point of contact should be your body corporate manager or strata committee.

Is there a limit to the number of EV chargers that can be installed?

Again, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the capacity for EV chargers in a single shared building. There are, however, two important considerations:

1. The electrical capacity of the building
2. The amount of power required to support the chargers

Strata managed buildings will also need to consider things like available space for chargers and how this may impact other residents.

How does the body corporate ensure the EV charging station is safe?

There are a number of important steps that a body corporate can take to ensure that EV chargers are installed safely and meet the requisite safety standards.

• EV chargers should always be installed by licensed, reputable electricians that have specific experience with EV charger installation in shared buildings.
• Regular maintenance helps to ensure that the charging station is kept in good working order and that any potential safety issues are flagged before they become an issue.
• Safety features such as extinguishers and smoke detectors must be available and in good working order.
• A safety guideline can be issued to all residents that outlines what they need to know and how they can safely operate EV stations.

What does the future of EV charging in strata buildings look like?

In a word – different.

EV vehicles are still in their infancy in Australia. The latest data shows that adoption is growing rapidly with EV sales now accounting for 4.7% of the new car market (December 2022) – a 65% increase in just 12-months. The latest data from the 2021 Census also shows that 16% of Australian’s reside in apartment buildings, and a further 13% in townhouses.

With so many Australian’s residing in shares living spaces, EV vehicle charging stations present a new challenge to strata corporations and body corporates who will invariably continue to work to find solutions for residents.

Our prediction? Shared charging bays with pay for use for residents will become the norm. As more residents start to use EV chargers, the electricity fees may even be rolled into the cost of strata management.