coche eléctrico

De-carbonisation seems unstoppable and one of the areas where it will have the greatest impact is mobility, with the boom of electric vehicles. The growing number of people opting for this type of car and the measures being taken by governments are having a major impact on architecture and construction. In this regard, last June, the Technical Building Code (CTE) underwent a modification in order to require a minimum infrastructure in buildings for charging electric vehicles.

Among the measures, it is contemplated that in those cases in which the residential use is private and has more than 20 parking spaces, it is compulsory to install the appropriate cable conduction systems as a pre-installation of the charging points for 100% of the parking spaces. Since 16 December, this new CTE has been mandatory, with the exception of those projects that had applied for a building permit before that date.

The single-family housing case

In the case of a single-family home, the process is much simpler, but there are certain considerations that should not be overlooked. The first of these is to assess whether we want to install an exclusive meter for the new recharging point or, on the contrary, share the same meter with the house. In general, the contracted power is usually more than sufficient, given that recharging tends to be done at night to take advantage of the more economical rates, when the rest of the electrical appliances are switched off.

However, the most advisable thing in order to avoid any incident in the installation of the home is for the electric vehicle charging point to have its own dedicated station with its own socket. After all, when recharging, high power is required, at a high frequency and for several hours at a time. If the design of this socket is inadequate, it can slow down the charging process too much or, in the worst case, lead to overheating of the infrastructure or even to power outages.

With the help of a professional, the installation will have the most appropriate protections in place, including against transient surges that could even damage your vehicle.

Special plugs

Although it is true that we could connect our vehicle to a 16A domestic socket, making the installation more economical, the truth is that we would end up regretting it. In this way, charging would be carried out at low power, i.e. 2.3 kW, and would take forever.

It is best to opt for special charging points, which can increase the power from 7.4 kW to 11 kW and 22 kW, depending both on the budget and the structure of the building itself. The average cost of an installation of this type can range between 1,000 and 2,000 euros.

Subsidies up to 80%

The cost of these installations does not have to be so burdensome and, precisely to avoid this there is aid from different areas of the Administration. Thus, some local councils grant partial rebates on Property Tax (IBI) when electric vehicle charging points are installed.

However, the most attractive subsidies come from the Moves III Plan, launched by the government for 2023, with a budget of 800 million euros (plus an additional 400 million euros following the avalanche of applications). Thanks to this, the cost of installing these charging points can be subsidised by up to 80%, as it includes the costs of the charging point itself, as well as the protections, the legalization of the installation, civil works, engineering costs and project management.