What you need to know for your AutoRecharge Point

Modern electric vehicles (EVs) offer sufficient autonomy to be able to spend 2 to 3 days using it without any problems on urban trips and travelling up to 300-400 km on open roads with the full power stored in the batteries. Whether you’re an individual, self-employed or a worker whose company is going to provide you with a leased vehicle, the best option to consider is the installation of a charging point at your home. These are points that will undoubtedly be added to those that your company or your local council will probably have installed inside their parking areas.

Whether it’s a detached house or a space in a communal garage, the installation of a charging point doesn’t pose too many problems, and in addition, there are various subsidies available from public administrations that can reduce the costs to be met by up to 40 percent. If you’ve analysed it well and do go electric, your life will revolve around finding charging points where you can power up your batteries. In addition to the aforementioned charging points at your home or workplace, you can find 8,500 public access charging points installed all throughout Spain.

This is a scenario that should soon improve, as the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ANFAC) itself has indicated, that in order to comply with the decarbonisation plans to which we have committed ourselves with the EU, we’ll need to have 48,000 installed by the end of 2022, 120,000 by the end of 2025 and 360,000 by the end of 2030. This certainly indicates that the installation of charging points will accelerate in the coming years.

For the time being, the problem is that the existing ones are still few in number, slow and in many cases lack hook-ups where the connectors of the most recently launched models can be plugged in, because their technology is on the way to becoming obsolete. Most of those already installed are slow charging points to which we can only connect for a limited time, and most of those times are insufficient to fully charge the batteries. There are also some that allow semi-fast, fast or ultra-fast charging, which do allow batteries to fully charge. The problem is that in these cases we’ll be contributing to accelerating the end of battery life and we’ll have to pay a little more for the energy we consume, although always considerably less than what we could pay for the fuel needed to cover the same number of kilometres.

If you’re going to install a charging point at home, it’s best to seek advice. Manufacturers know the best charging points for their cars, but it’s the leasing operators who can offer you the best advice on how to install them in the right number and location for the best service to your fleet and who will also take care of the whole process for installation and management of subsidies, licences, etc..

It’s worth considering the option of leasing before installing your charging point, as LeasePlan offers a rate that includes everything so you won’t have to worry. Please see more information here at this link.

If you’re going to install one at your home, bear in mind that the average cost of a simple charging point can easily exceed 1000 Euros. In addition to the installation and connection to the electricity grid, you have to add a wall-mounted connection panel. The price will vary depending on the number of connections it allows, the safety elements it includes: user/car identification card, connection hose, connectors, recharge programming, consumption meters, programming, etc. And to this must be added the connection of the installation to the electricity network, the additional cables, conduit pipes, physical labour ( ditches, boxes, ...) and all the hardware of the meters, the labour (important, because the installation must be carried out and approved by professionals with certified skills and qualifications in order to be approved before starting to operate). And don’t forget to be properly informed about the maintenance of the installation, you should think of it as another electrical appliance and that it won’t last forever. Consult with your installer as it depends on the devices that are fitted.

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  Connect to the same power line as your home. You won’t have to make a new contract. If the garage is communal, you’ll have to connect to your meter. You don’t need the permission of the owners' association. Formal communication to the association president or property administrator is enough.

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  Hook up to the power supply line to the garage/parking garage. This is the simplest installation. You’ll need the permission of the owners' association (which by law has to be done) as you’re going to use their property and you’ll have to install a secondary meter so that the association may charge you for the consumption you incur. The work is done at your expense, of course.

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  Contracting a new electricity supply line. This is the most complicated option, as it requires a new contract, a new power supply line (which is sometimes not possible), and the installation of a new meter, which increases the monthly consumption. In the latter case, the monthly fixed costs are more expensive, given that as it’s a new contract, you´ll have to take on the cost of the contracted electricity supply for the charger in addition to the fixed cost that you already pay for your home.