Why stakeholders should embrace the e-mobility shift

This means access to home charging is increasingly important and is something homebuyers and renters are now factoring in when choosing where to live.

But despite consumers being increasingly ready to make the switch to EVs, there appears to be a mismatch when it comes to property managers and freeholders taking steps to provide residents with access to EV charging.

Research carried out this summer for ChargeGuru UK shows that only 2% of the 250 property, asset and portfolio managers and freeholders surveyed plan to have EV chargers installed at their residential and commercial properties this year.

Denis Watling, managing director at ChargeGuru UK, talks to Property Week about what is holding freeholders and property managers back and how his firm’s no-cost solution could enable stakeholders to benefit from being part of the UK’s e-mobility transition.

Why are property stakeholders slow to act when it comes to the installation of EV chargers?

We know they have a huge amount on their plate, so alongside concerns about cost I think one factor is they don’t get around to it.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that installation will be difficult, time-consuming and complex for the property stakeholder. EV charging installation is complex, but it doesn’t have to be complex for them.

That’s why we’re here: we specialise in providing solutions for their portfolios. Since launching our fully funded solution in France in 2014, we’ve made more than 1.5 million parking spaces EV-ready across 25,000 residential and commercial buildings in six European countries, including the UK.

What funding or no-cost options are available?

EV charging infrastructure is not cheap and costs can vary significantly building by building. There is also the question of who bears that cost. Does it go on to the service charge? Is it an investment that the freeholder should be making separately?

One of the biggest misconceptions is that installation will be difficult, time-consuming and complex for the property stakeholder

Concerns about cost do create a barrier, but that doesn’t have to be the route. Our no-cost solution means we bear the initial cost, and only those residents who want chargers will ever pay anything. Our solution is fully funded, fully managed and completely hands-off for property owners and managers. We own the infrastructure; we’re responsible for electrical certification and ongoing maintenance. We’re contracting directly with the users of the service once installed – so any issues they have, they come to us.

How does ChargeGuru’s financial model work?

Our two main criteria for investing in a building are that it must have at least 30 parking spaces and it must have an underground or undercroft car park. We need there to be at least 30 spaces or potential residents to warrant our investment, but we only require one of those residents to request a chargepoint for us to install our infrastructure. Once we’ve installed the main infrastructure, we need to be able to run cables along ceilings and down pillars to add chargers when a resident requests one.

Residents pay a one-off fee of around £900 for the unit, equivalent to a competitively priced installation at a house with a driveway. The chargepoint belongs to them and can only be used by them. They pay a monthly subscription of £20, which is how we make a return on our investment. ChargeGuru pays for every bit of energy used by our chargers and we recharge that to residents based on their individual usage each month.

It’s also important to stress that we don’t make a margin on that electricity – that’s a key selling point for residents, because it means the cost of charging their vehicle at home is around a third of the cost of charging it at a service station. Their initial £900 investment and the £20 they pay each month is quickly recouped by the savings on their electricity.

Research conducted for ChargeGuru shows most decision-makers underestimate the time needed for installation. What impact could delaying action have?

There has been fantastic progress in the UK in the driveway EV charging market – you can get a charger installed within four to six weeks. That may have led to a misperception about how long it will take to install charging infrastructure across a portfolio of apartment blocks. In reality, it might take two months at any given site, but it could take up to 12 months.

There are a lot of factors that determine whether we can install and how quickly we can do that, including the available power and the safety status of the building – particularly the fire safety status. There may be improvements that need to be made before we can install.

We also need the approval of the district network operators, the companies licensed to distribute electricity across the UK. Some are proactive, but response rates vary for others.

For all these reasons, I would urge owners and managers to start the process now. Delaying action creates risk across portfolios because residents may do their own thing. That can mean using a domestic three-pin plug in their apartment and running the cable out of a window to their vehicle. Or it can mean buying a charging point, paying someone to install it and taking electricity from the communal supply – without the landlord knowing about it.

As EV adoption continues, these things will happen if landlords don’t offer a robust, safe, reliable and fair solution to residents.

Insurance and ongoing maintenance costs are often raised as concerns. How real are these issues in practice, and how can property managers mitigate or address them?

There are hurdles to overcome. We insure the infrastructure ourselves and we take a collaborative approach, by which I mean we are happy to talk directly to the insurers with or on behalf of the freeholders we’re working with.

Their concern is not usually around EV charging. They agree that a solution like ours is the safest way of doing this – it’s so much safer than doing nothing.

So insurers really like our solution, especially at a portfolio level because they love the fact that we’re a European-wide provider with a proven track record. They want to work with us to make sure the building is up to the highest standards it could be before we install charging infrastructure. The important thing for freeholders and property managers to know is that we are here to use our expertise on a site-by-site basis across their portfolio.

Looking ahead to the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars, what advice would you give to property owners who are still taking a wait-and-see approach?

Our research last year found that three quarters of those living in flats said having somewhere to charge their car or living close to a public charger was or would be a factor in choosing where to live. The ban on new petrol and diesel cars will add to this shift, with potential knock-on effects for asset values.

My call to action for UK property managers and owners is to just ask someone and start the process – whether it’s us or someone else. The onus really doesn’t have to be on the manager or freeholder to spend loads of time and effort on installing EV chargers for their tenants.