What Parking Facilities Should Know About Installing EV Charging Stations

The world’s transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is in full swing, and those vehicles need places to charge. The great thing about EVs is that they can refuel where they park. If you own or run a parking garage or parking lot, you have the ideal location to provide refueling opportunities.

Globally, EV sales in 2023 were 3.5 million higher than in 2022, representing a 35% year-on-year increase. Clearly, now is the time for parking companies and any other entity that owns or runs a parking garage or parking lot to install EV charging equipment to:

1. Attract more customers

2. Increase revenue

3. Improve driver loyalty

4. Demonstrate leadership

In this blog, we will explore how parking management companies can achieve all these goals with EV charging and consider other factors for installing EV charging infrastructure.

EV charging can help you recoup lost parking revenue

Parking has evolved since the COVID-19 pandemic. Before COVID, many parking garages were fully booked, making it difficult to dedicate spots for EV charging. However, COVID-19 restrictions starting in March 2020 caused a shift in personal and work travel.

As NAIOP wrote, “Except for curbside pickup of retail purchases and carry-out meals, most travelers stayed home and avoided commercial and private parking lots and on-street spaces. In April 2020, passenger travel on roads declined by 60%, while public transit usage fell by 81%, and air travel slumped by 96%, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It was not until the spring of 2021 that passenger car travel returned to 2019 levels on average, but with wide variations across the country.”

Since the pandemic drastically altered the working landscape, with more people working from home, metro parking garages have more available spots. This has provided opportunities for parking management companies to use some of these empty spots for dedicated EV charging, recouping some of the lost revenue. It's important to note that EV charging stations are best thought of as an amenity. While parking managers can monetize charging station parking spots, EV drivers avoid locations they feel are “too expensive.” Instead, EV charging stations can attract customers who otherwise would have parked at a competitor’s lot, and kWh or duration-based parking fees can generate additional revenue alongside your facility’s hourly parking rate.

Generally, Level 2 chargers can charge a vehicle in four to eight hours, while a DCFC can charge a vehicle in under an hour.

New parking facilities must install EV charging to adhere to building codes.

Parking management companies want to provide the latest amenities for their customers to increase loyalty while adhering to building code requirements.

How many EV chargers should a parking management company install? This largely depends on the garage's location and local EV charging building codes for new structures.

When retrofitting older parking garages, we recommend parking management companies gauge the demand for EV charging to determine how many charging stations they need.

You can choose to have it all done for you.

Typically, when a parking management company approaches Blink, the first step is deciding whether they want just equipment or both equipment and installation, known as a turnkey project. For turnkey projects, Blink works with an electrical contractor to perform the complete EV charging equipment setup.

If it’s a turnkey project, we’ll reach out to one of our contractors to get pricing for the installation. We coordinate, arrange a site visit, and get the installation cost, then provide a full turnkey quote or refer them to the contractor to work directly.

Power and/or communication upgrades may be necessary.

Parking garages may require power upgrades, like an additional electrical transformer on-site, or communication upgrades, like installing a cellular booster to increase signal strength. Garage owners may also choose EV charging equipment that is WiFi or Ethernet-enabled, adding to the installation cost.

Another consideration is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. While the Access Board has not yet determined the number of accessible charging stations that must be installed at each location, at least one charging station should be ADA accessible.

Additional requirements apply if a parking garage seeks Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

EV charging stations should be grouped and easy to find.

Parking management companies often disperse EV charging units over multiple floors or tuck them away in hard-to-find corners. However, grouping charging stations together in a convenient, well-lit location is better for both installers and EV drivers.

For example, if a parking garage requires a cellular booster, it will need only one if the charging units are grouped, rather than one for each location with a charging unit. Using wall-mounted charging units allows wiring and conduits to run along walls and ceilings, preventing the need to bore into the garage floor.

You may be able to take advantage of load management.

Load management allows the available power in an electrical element to be shared equally among charging stations.

There are three levels of load management a parking garage may benefit from:

1. Circuit level

2. Panel level

3. Site level

With circuit level load management, multiple charging ports share the power load on a single circuit.

In panel level load management, all available power in an electrical panel is shared. For larger installations, site level load management—where all available power at a site is used for load management—may be required.

Conclusion

Installing EV charging infrastructure in parking garages helps parking management companies attract more customers, increase revenue, improve driver loyalty, and demonstrate environmental and technological leadership. For help with your parking garage or parking lot EV charging installation, please contact Blink Charging today to speak with an expert.

Learn more about Blink's EV solutions for the parking industry.