An electric vehicle is charged at an apartment complex in June 2023.
06:00 JST, July 3, 2024
Real estate giants are increasingly installing electric car charging stations at apartment complexes. There is good hope that demand for these charging stations will increase as the use of electric cars increases.
The government expects this growth and aims to increase the number of charging points at residential complexes and other locations sevenfold by 2030.
Sumitomo Realty & Development Co. said Monday that it and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. will jointly install standard EV chargers at new apartment buildings completed in 2026 or later. The chargers will come from Tokyo-based e-Mobility Power Co., which operates them at commercial sites, highways and other locations.
Nomura Real Estate Development Co. announced last summer that it would install EV chargers in 30 percent of parking spaces in its flagship condominium brand, Proud. Tokyu Land Corp. has also standardized EV chargers in surface parking lots.
Charging stations are also likely to be installed at existing apartment complexes. Because the change requires a consensus of the apartment complex’s residents, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revised the standard rules for the management of apartment complexes in June, specifying that EV charging stations can be installed by a simple majority vote of the members of the apartment complex’s residents’ associations.
Attention now turns to the speed at which electric cars become commonplace.
Currently, electric vehicles account for only 2% of new car sales in Japan. If the number of electric vehicles on the road falls short of expectations, operators will be left with only the maintenance costs of chargers.
An official at a major real estate company said it is difficult to predict the extent to which electric car charging stations will need to be installed.
