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Sometimes, progress comes in baby steps, tiny improvements that move a whole series of events forward. The European Union has just approved regulations requiring that an electric car charger be included in every new and renovated home and all apartment buildings starting in 2019. Why is that important? Because charging infrastructure is vital to convincing mainstream buyers to switch to an electric car.
The regulations don't specify what type of charger has to be installed. Presumably, it won't be just a Level 1 piece of equipment, which is little more than an extension cord plugged into the nearest wall socket. On the other hand, it won't be a 150 kW charger like the one Porsche says its upcoming Mission E can use.
There are all kinds of stipulations in building codes like setbacks. Should a mandatory electric car charger be among them?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by WalksOnDirt on Thursday October 20 2016, @02:40AM
The big news here is the mandate covers apartments. Even if it is just a random plug, and with EU voltage that's sufficient, getting parking spots with plugs for all new apartments is huge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @08:12AM
I don't see anything about requiring parking spots. In some cities, that would take a lot of demolishing.
Plus, requiring parking spots (that people are going to end up having to pay for, of course) is a pretty big statement of "fuck you and your bicycles, we need to catch up with the US on number of cars".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @01:41PM
When you build new houses inside a city, demolishing the old building that was there before is usually the first step. There are not that many places where you can build something new without first removing something old, and if you've got such a space, then you'll have no problem building a garage.