When it comes to parking, and leaving our vehicles unattended for extended periods of time, whether we’re at work, traveling, or living in a condo or apartment complex, covered parking is ideal. Cars are protected from the elements, we can expand upward rather than using valuable land for parking infrastructure, and we can park more cars. Seems like a win-win situation, doesn't it?
Well, it is until you start planning for electric vehicles. While parking structures have a reputation for creating connectivity issues for networked EV charging stations, there are solutions now, and even more on the horizon.
Quick Links
- The Need for Public EV Charging Stations
- Why Parking Garages are Great Locations for EV Charging Stations
- The Parking Garage Problem for EV Charging Stations
- EV Charging Network Solutions
- Choosing the Right EV Charging Network Provider
The Need for Public EV Charging Stations
While we keep hearing about challenges to electric vehicle adoption, the truth is that EV adoption rates are growing. In part, this is likely fed by improving infrastructure and through the work of EV charging companies, like NovaCHARGE, improvements in charging station reliability.
However, one piece of the EV charging puzzle that still needs improvement is the installation of public EV charging stations. In fact, it’s estimated that the U.S. will need a million more EV chargers to keep pace with the adoption rates and what we’ll need by 2030.
Thankfully, with adoption rates growing and EV charging stations lacking, more and more property owners and developers are looking for ways to add EV charging stations to their properties.
Still, there are plenty of opportunities for municipalities and businesses to add EV charging stations and help develop and improve the infrastructure.
Why Parking Garages are Great Locations for EV Charging Stations
When we talk about opportunities for EV charging stations and solutions, we talk about a few characteristics and features of a property that make it a great choice. Among those features are high traffic/car volume, extended dwell time, and space.
When we think about parking garages, they’re often located in places with similar attributes. High traffic, significant demand for parking, and often require long-term parking or significant dwell time. This includes places like MDUs, airports, retail locations, municipal parking garages, hospitals, hotels, and office spaces.
In short, parking garages are the ideal location for EV charging stations. Property owners may already be looking to attract EV drivers to their property or experiencing higher demand. Further, they may be looking for additional revenue streams. All of these make them a great candidate for EV charging stations.
The Parking Garage Problem for EV Charging Stations
If parking garages are a perfect fit for EV charging stations, why don’t we see more of them? Let’s take a few steps back first.
When it comes to EV charging stations, there are essentially two options for hardware management: networked charging stations or non-networked. Non-networked chargers are stand alone units. As a result, they’re unpredictable and often unreliable as there is no way to check the charging station status without physically inspecting it. In contrast, networked charging stations allow station owners and hosts to communicate with their charging stations, check their status, and perform predictive maintenance to ensure their availability and reliability.
Why does this matter? If you’ve ever been in a parking garage and attempted to use your smartphone or mobile device, you’ve likely noticed connectivity issues. That means that networked EV charging stations may struggle with the connectivity that helps keep them reliable. And, as we all know, reliability is the primary complaint when it comes to EV charging infrastructure.
EV Charging Network Solutions
So what’s a property manager, developer, or owner to do with a parking garage? Does that mean you’ll need to forgo adding EV charging stations to your facility or property? Not necessarily. It just means you need to be a bit more creative and proactive when creating your solution.
This is just one of the reasons you’ll want to work with an EV charging solution company that will do more than supply the hardware. A site visit is essential so the best solution can be identified and implemented. When it comes to determining the best solution, the first step is testing signal strength.
Once a team has been able to identify which signal is strongest, we can then determine which method of connectivity would work best: cellular, wifi, or direct connection via ethernet. Of course, each of these options comes with varying costs, but if performance, reliability, and accessibility are your goals, then understanding which method of connection will work best is vital.
That’s not where the options end either. In addition to considering the options for connectivity, we can also install a repeater or signal amplifier that will extend and amplify the signal improving communication.
As an example, NovaCHARGE once installed EV charging stations in an underground parking garage, where connectivity is notoriously difficult due to the depth and the thickness of the walls. In that case, we were able to install an external antenna mounted on the garage itself and run it down to an amplifier which provided connectivity for our EV charging stations.
The key piece is, always, site analysis, whether you’re working with a parking garage or a parking lot, and finding a team that can help you through every step of the process is your ticket to ride.
Choosing the Right EV Charging Network Provider
While parking garages currently present challenges, they’re not insurmountable. Further, like much of the EV charging industry, solving these concerns is a priority. It’s one of the reasons NovaCHARGE has joined with the ChargeX National Charging Experience Consortium. By joining this group of industry stakeholders, the NovaCHARGE team is looking to help address common challenges that impact public charging usability, like connectivity and reliability.
When we designed our product, we understood that improving accessibility and reliability needed to be a core focus. When we developed ChargeUP, we included unparalleled transparency for owners and hosts, 99.999% uptime, and connectivity you can rely on.
If your EV charging station project is a challenge, we’re ready for it and for you. Get in touch with the NovaCHARGE team today and let’s get you started on your part in the rEVolution.