Thousands of houses can be surprised and patrolled if they don’t make a small investment in their parking space as soon as possible

In summer started happening, and the calls are still coming. Uninformed people ask what needs to be done.

“Every day we get contacts from companies, churches and other communities. The unifying factor is that it is not clear to them – even though the issue has been drummed up – that what this means and who it applies to,” says the chairman of the board of Nordic Plug, which sells electric car charging equipment Juha Kummunmäki.

He talks about the obligation to install a charging point. The authorities have beaten the drum on the matter, but the beat of the drum missed many property owners.

“The most common question is ‘does this apply to them’, and the most common state of will is how to implement the required minimum.”

“Load Act” requires that for non-residential properties with more than 20 parking spaces a charging point must be installed. The deadline is the turn of the year.

There are mitigating factors in the law: “micro-enterprises” do not have to do anything. Such companies have less than ten employees and a turnover of less than two million euros. Properties that are not heated or cooled are also excluded from the law. The matter does not concern the defense forces either.

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency there is a template on the websitewhich can be used to map whether your own property is covered by the obligation. The template is only indicative, and the number of “own” parking spaces may be unclear to many.

“You should find out where the boundaries of the property are from the municipality’s building control. Is the parking area actually on your own or a neighbor’s lot, or is it a street area,” says the agency’s leading expert Timo Ojala.

In rural areas, change brings a big challenge. According to the spirit of the law, a charger should be obtained, even if it is a rarely used parish hall parking lot in a remote village.

Roughly estimated, tens of thousands of properties are covered by the law.

“A really big amount”, says Ojala.

No what should be installed there? The minimum for the charging device is one charger with a Type 2 connection of more than 3.7 kilowatts.

The connection refers to the most common charging cable for electric cars, and the kilowatts refer to the charging power. The power must exceed the number mentioned above. In any case, it is about slow charging, in which case it can take more than half a day to charge a fully electric car.

“If the owner of the property is not an electric car driver, then the requirements are completely Hebrew,” says Kummunmäki.

The number of fully electric cars in Finland only exceeded one hundred thousand cars border in July. There are a limited number of people who speak the language of kilowatts, when you include those who drive hybrids and others interested in technology.

This can be seen with Nordic Plug in that many inquire about the fastest way to get “the thing out of the way”. In itself, it is a small investment.

“Many people have the impression that making an electric car charging station is a ten-ton long and expensive project. It surprises many positively that the law’s requirement can often be met for less than a thousand euros.”

In addition, you can make money with the charger. The device can be private or public, and a price tag for charging electricity can be attached to the latter. The buyer can therefore define the use of the charger as he sees fit.

Office will start monitoring right after the turn of the year, and defaulters face sanctions. Monitoring is also done concretely by walking into the parking lots, confirms Timo Ojala.

Missing chargers will probably be discussed with the property owner first. If talking doesn’t help, things will be accelerated with fines.

“Ultimately, the charger can be commissioned by the property owner,” says Ojala.

This control and sanction accordion therefore applies to existing old buildings.

The charger obligations for new or extensively repaired buildings are stricter, but they have already been in effect since 2021. In other words: on new construction sites, the obligations can be seen in the instructions, but for someone who has kept halls in an industrial area for decades, the legislation may have been completely overlooked.

Others the technical bar does not ask about the number of chargers, so for example you can set up one charger in a field of a thousand cars.

However, it applies to Finland reform of the building energy efficiency directivewhich will bring pressure to increase chargers in the near future. According to Nordic Plug, some property owners have decided to buy a bunch of chargers all at once.

However, those who are really interested in electricity have to weigh the power of the chargers. A 3.7 kilowatt charger does not go far.

With the beep of a quart, a fully electric car would get about one kilowatt-hour of energy from it. Roughly estimating, it drives just under five kilometers.

Vesa Peltola, special expert of the Municipal Association, has also been interviewed for the matter. The driving calculation at the end of the story is based on an energy amount of 0.92kWh with an average consumption of 20kWh/100km.