Growing interest in home charging of electric vehicles: “Parking spaces with chargers for electric vehicles are requested in nearly all the projects”

Even though the number of electric vehicles on Finnish roads is still rather moderate, preparations for the increase of electric vehicles should already be under way. At YIT’s self-developed sites, such preparations have already been under way for several years.

In June 2020, more than 40,000 electric vehicles were on Finnish roads, of which more than 15% were all-electric vehicles. The number of all-electric vehicles has doubled in one year. Although the number of all-electric vehicles is still small when compared to the entire number of cars on the roads, the need for electric vehicle home charging will grow as the number of all-electric vehicles continues its annual growth at the same rate.

While the efficient public charging network plays an important role in the increase of electric vehicles, the lack of home charging points will constitute a bottleneck for the increase. According to Aki Pirttijärvi, Planning Manager, Technical building systems, YIT Housing, a requirement for the increase of electric vehicles is that the vehicle can be fully charged at home during the night.

“When home charging becomes possible, buying an electric vehicle will be an easy choice for the consumer,” says Pirttijärvi.

Since a large proportion of Finns live in apartment buildings, home charging for electric vehicles is easiest to implement in the apartment buildings’ parking spaces and garages.

Ahead of the legislation

Preparations for the use of electric vehicles have already been under way at YIT’s self-developed sites for several years. In projects that have been planned after 2018, provisions for charging points are made in a certain amount of parking spaces. According to Pirttijärvi, the demand for electric vehicle charging is concentrated in certain locations and residential areas. Although the number of electric vehicles is still small, they attract interest.

“Parking spaces with chargers for electric vehicles are requested in nearly all the projects,” says Pirttijärvi.

At the moment, there are no requirements concerning charging points laid down in the legislation, but the situation will change in 2021 when all the new parking spaces will have to have at least provisions for charging due to the changes in the legislation.

YIT is taking proactive steps before the amended legislation enters into force: at the self-developed sites in the Helsinki metropolitan area and Tampere, the planning for which started after August 2020, all parking spaces will have provisions for charging. It is likely that the demand for electric vehicle charging points will not be high for some time, but YIT wants to offer all parking space owners an opportunity to acquire a charging device immediately when it is the time to switch to an electric vehicle.

“We need to make sure that the shareholders are treated equally,” says Pirttijärvi.

In this way, the apartment will serve the resident longer due to the provision for a charging device.

Investment in the future driving

In residential building projects, YIT will build the electronic infrastructure for the electric vehicle charging provisions. The actual charging device is usually obtained from the service provider offering the electric vehicle charging.

Some electric vehicle charging points will be deployed immediately, while some might be deployed in 10 years from now. Therefore, there is no need for the housing company to get a large and expensive electric connection if the number of electric vehicles only grows at a later stage.

“We have made preparations for the electrical infrastructure to support the expansion of the electrical connection at a later stage. We try to offer compromise solutions to housing companies so that there will be no running costs right from the beginning,” says Pirttijärvi.

According to Pirttijärvi, the charging devices will cost the parking space owner approximately EUR 5,000. Approximately half of the price is composed of building the electrical infrastructure and the other half of the actual device.

The owner of the parking space benefits from the invested euros since the parking space price is likely to increase due to the charging opportunity. This will also increase the value and attractiveness of the entire property.
 

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For further information, please contact:
Aki Pirttijärvi, Planning Manager, Housing Finland and CEE segment, YIT Corporation, tel. +358 (0)40 539 3605, aki.pirttijarvi@yit.fi
Johanna Savolainen, Communications Manager, YIT Corporation, tel. +358 (0)44 305 4594, johanna.savolainen@yit.fi
 

YIT is the largest Finnish and a significant North European construction company and urban developer. We develop and build apartments and living services, business premises and entire areas. We are also specialised in demanding infrastructure construction. Together with our customers, our nearly 8,000 professionals are creating more functional, attractive and sustainable cities and living environments. We operate in 10 countries: Finland, Russia, Sweden, Norway, the Baltic countries, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. In 2019, our revenue was approximately EUR 3.4 billion. YIT Corporation's share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Oy. www.yitgroup.com