A local electric vehicle (EV) advocate thinks B.C.’s proposed legislation amendments will help Richmond overcome one of its biggest obstacles in making EVs more accessible.
“The biggest obstacle (to buying EVs) has not been all the things that people usually talk about, but rather the fact that they live in a strata, and the strata won’t agree to install charging,” said John Roston, Plug-In Richmond spokesperson.
Current EV owners who have been unable to install charging stations in their strata buildings have had to go around the city searching for available charging stations, he explained, and some have had to do so in the middle of the night.
The proposed amendments to the Strata Property Act were announced on Thursday, which include requiring strata corporations to approve requests to install EV chargers at the owner’s expense where reasonable.
“It should make a big difference for the people who’ve been having trouble getting (chargers) installed,” said Roston.
Although some strata corporations have argued that installing at-home charging stations would put pressure on the power grid and increase costs, Roston disagrees.
“EVs are all sold with charging timers,” he said.
“So that’s why we can have thousands of people charging after midnight when demand on the grid is very low without having to increase the capacity of the power grid.”
Strata corporations may also set rules for when people can charge their EVs to ensure there is power available, and Roston recommends charging a flat fee to the monthly strata fee rather than charging owners based on how much electricity they use.
“In many cases, the stratas have gotten into these situations where they have very costly ways of measuring how much electricity is being consumed… But then they find out that actually, the amount of money involved is very, very small,” he explained.
According to Plug-In Richmond’s estimates, driving an EV in Richmond rarely costs more than $30 a month. The organization recommends that strata corporations charge $35 per month for those with EV charging installed in their parking space.
Allowing at-home charging will also help alleviate the demand for public charging stations around the city, said Roston, as many Richmondites he spoke to at these charging stations had said they lived in stratas where charging wasn’t permitted.
The Strata Property Act amendments are the latest in B.C.’s efforts to encourage EV purchases, which include the provincial rebate program and sales tax exemption on used EVs.
As of December 2022, more than 109,000 EVs are on the road in B.C. compared to just 5,000 in 2016.
