Feature
Electric and Hybrid Vehicles – Food for Thought By Kevin McCann, FIHM K.J. McCann and Associates
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reenhouse gas emissions are a growing problem on a worldwide basis with most countries making commitments to significantly reduce their emissions over the coming decades. Canada is no exception with goals being established at five-year intervals. Ultimately, the goal is to reach a 30% reduction by 2030 and zero Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. In Canada, the second largest contributor to GHG emissions is the transportation industry which contributes 23% of the GHG emissions. One of the key methods of achieving the targeted GHG reduction reductions is the introduction of electric and hybrid vehicles. While electric vehicles (EVs) currently represent less than 1% of the vehicles on the road, the percentage is growing steadily, and car manufacturers recognize that EVs are the way of the future. It is projected that EVs will represent 10% of the vehicles on the road by 2025 and 30% by 2030. From a landlord’s perspective, the introduction and anticipated proliferation of EVs present some challenges. Most electric car owners need to be able to charge their EVs at home and landlords will be expected to provide electric vehicle charging facilities in their buildings to meet the growing demand. The
IHM News • Summer 2021
design, installation and maintenance of EV chargers all represent increased capital/operating costs to the landlord. Chargers come in three different levels with level one being the slowest and least expensive and level three being the quickest and most expensive to purchase/install. Depending on the existing electrical capacity of the building, the buildings circuitry, electrical panel and transformer may all also need to be upgraded. Among other things, the landlord will need to identify how many chargers of what type to install and how to charge the associated capital and operating costs back to the tenant. In the current regulatory environment, charging back the tenants can present some problems. If only a portion of the parking spaces had chargers, the landlord may need to re-assign parking spaces based on which tenants have EVs or not. As tenants move in and out, this can become complicated. If the landlord establishes a “charging area” where a limited number of parking stalls have chargers, how do you “police” these spots to ensure that gas/diesel fueled vehicles don’t park in those spots, and fully charged EVs don’t linger and prevent other EVs from being charged?
ers of multi-unit residential buildings will need to research, plan and invest in the necessary infrastructure in order to accommodate the changes that are coming. Long term capital plans should be updated to include plans for electric vehicles. Certain opportunities may arise in the interim. For example, if a landlord is planning to replace the asphalt in the above ground parking area, it can present an opportunity to install the conduit that could be used for the future installation of car chargers. There are a lot of issues that need to be considered and there are several organizations that have researched the use of EV chargers in multi-unit residential buildings. One of them is Pollution Probe, a well-known Canadian organization focusing on the environmental issues. Another is Natural Resources Canada. The links to both organizations are provided below: https://www.pollutionprobe.org/wp-content/uploads/Executive-Summary-ZEVCharging-in-MURBs-and-for-Garage-Or phans-1.pdf https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficienc y/transp or tation-alternativefuels/resource-library/zero-emission-vehi cle-charging-murb-and-garageorphans/21825 u
EVs are the way of the future and own-
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