Instead of breaking your head in front of the house committee, a new system is able to manage all charging stations and save you and everyone a serious headache
Photo: Pexels
The year 2021 is coming to an end and there is not too much doubt that this was the year of the real breakthrough of electric vehicles in Israel. From the launch of Tesla in Israel alongside other brands like IONIQ 5 and a host of other Chinese brands. But in a country where the length of stay on the road is getting longer, many Israelis living in apartment buildings are delaying their transition to the new technology because they cannot install a charging station for an electric vehicle in their home. This week, an Israeli company announced an interesting solution that could make house committees approve the installation of a stand more easily.
First of all – what’s the problem?
Charging an electric vehicle takes much longer than refueling a gasoline vehicle, from tens of minutes at best to long hours at worst, depending on what charging position you fell into, and if you found one near you at all. The charging stations are loaded with electric vehicles that are being charged and also with gasoline vehicles of Israelis who simply see available parking and occupy the precious place. In general, public charging stations are far from ideal or as widely retired as gas stations, so anyone who wants to alleviate range anxiety and battery anxiety will want to install a home charging station that will allow them to go out every morning to traffic jams with 100% battery.
If you have private parking and a private house, an extra few thousand shekels and maybe a few rock-cutters – and you are set. If you live in a building with parking, even in the taboo, the trouble starts. Even if the Arrangements Law is passed and every tenant in a shared building will be allowed to install infrastructure for a charging station without the need for the consent of the other tenants, this is no small problem. If the House committee approves you to establish a position, you will need to add a dedicated meter and settle with the committee, and even then it may require you to dismantle the position in the future. If you try to connect from the electrical panel in your apartment, it will be a high installation cost and you are still dependent on the permits of the house committee. In short, those who live in the building will encounter quite a few headaches that will likely prevent them from purchasing an electric vehicle – and that’s a shame.
It will cost the House committee nothing
The one who announced an interesting solution is Gnrgy (Ginergy), which launched a charging management system for shared buildings this week. First and foremost, what might convince your house committee to install such a system is the fact that they do not have to spend a penny, and do not have to deal with various reckonings. At the end of each month Ginergy claims that it will collect the charge for the charge from each tenant according to its consumption, and will credit the House Committee for the electricity consumed at the charging stations.
Parking lot where the system was installed. Source: Ginergy
According to the company, the system behind the charging stations knows how to manage the electricity loads and use the existing network in the building to charge the electric vehicles and it is installed separately from the electricity provided for the building’s needs such as an elevator or lighting. If for example there is a load or problem that ends as a result of the charging stations, there is a complete separation so that only these will not work, while the rest of the building can continue to function.
Ginergy claims that in the event that it is discovered that the electricity supply in the building is not suitable for the consumption of the vehicles, it will increase the electricity connection with the help of the electricity company, nor will it oblige the committee or tenants to increase it (which cost thousands of shekels to the private consumer).
Those who will have to pay are of course the users. Anyone who wants to install a stand in his private parking lot will have to pay Ginergy for the stand and its installation, as well as pay an subscription fee – in addition to paying for the electricity itself. At least according to the photos Ginergy sent us, it looks pretty neat, but we can only assume that each parking lot is a case in itself.
Get ready to spend thousands of shekels
We contacted Ginergy because we had quite a few more questions about the system, the costs, and what in between, and we discovered some interesting surprises: a number of car importers now offer a free charging station benefit, and if you have such a Ginergy voucher, you can Realize it here. However, it is worth noting that if the voucher gives you an unwise position, you will have to add a few hundred shekels to it.
If you do not have a voucher, the installation price for tenants is fixed at 4,790 (before VAT). However, there are a few more costs: The one-time connection price to the system is NIS 700 (before VAT) and there are additional monthly subscription fees of NIS 30 per month. For comparison, we examined how much it would have cost you to set up this position independently with Ginergy and without the rest of the building, you would have to pay NIS 5,999 if you live up to the 5th floor, and an additional NIS 250 for each additional floor. So these are relatively similar amounts but with fewer variables along the way.
To our question, it was reported from Ginergy that the stations support a power of up to 22kW, but the system as mentioned knows how to route the power so that all vehicles can be charged without breaking the power board, and therefore also knows to lower the power up to 6kW depending on load. Currently, there are almost no cars in Israel that support 22 kW, so it is likely that the next vehicle we buy will be able to charge at the maximum power that the stations can provide.
What else interests us is how many tenants have to agree to join this subscription for Ginergy to come and install the stands, and at least according to what we were told, there are no minimum tenants to join, and the company is even willing to install the system in buildings where there are no customers yet. The goal is clear: the real wave of electric vehicle purchases is not here yet, and at best the market share of electric vehicles in Israel is at the lowest percentages as of the end of 2021. The various companies want to take over as much real estate as possible as quickly as possible. Ensure them have a future customer flow where that percentage will hopefully turn into tens of percent. A building that connects to one company will not easily move to another company, and this guarantees them a kind of captive customers, and when it comes to sometimes hundreds of parking spaces in one building, it is worth a lot of money for them.
A good old age
Born with a joystick in hand. He has far too many gadgets and far too little free time to play with them all. An unexplained hammer holder for calibrating device batteries. When he’s not busy writing about technology, he likes to talk about it, and a lot
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