E-car: charging forbidden?!

The energy crisis has caused a considerable shock as gas and electricity are becoming scarcer and more expensive. Costs are rising extremely for energy products - and with them the worries of many citizens about their bills. Increasingly, tenants and owners alike are looking at their consumption and seeking possible savings, often causing stress among neighbours. In northern Italy, the situation has now escalated. Especially in condominiums, apartment buildings, where electricity connections in the garages, for example, run through the common house meter, as does the light for the staircase or the lift, and the corresponding costs to be borne are shared among the households, conflicts arise. 

What may shared electricity connections be used for? This is precisely the question that now arises in many apartment buildings. Until now, the administrations have been quite accommodating. With the advent of electric and hybrid vehicles, many had gotten into the habit of charging their e-cars at the shared plugs in the garages. But now this will no longer be possible - at least in Bolzano, where an administrative letter will regulate or even ban the use of "general electricity" in some condominiums.  

E-car drivers will no longer be allowed to charge the batteries of their electric cars in such a way that the kilowatt consumption at the end of the month is calculated on the total costs of the general household residents. This is - according to Marco Lombardozzi, president of the local association of condominium managers - an "unfair distribution of costs on the shoulders of the neighbours, as well as petty theft from the homeowners' association". The administrators can no longer overlook this. Greater savings efforts are required from everyone in view of the wave of inflation. And not only for their own wallets, but also with regard to the general resources of apartment buildings.  

So anyone who wants to charge their e-car in the garages in future, Lombardozzi goes on to explain, will probably have to connect the electricity connection to their own meter sooner or later. Alternative charging stations, outside the homes and perhaps part of a public charging network, would of course be the optimal solution. Then the cities and their energy companies can regulate the power supply and, in the best case, secure it equally for all e-car drivers.  

In Italy, as well as in Germany and many other countries, this is still wishful thinking. Despite a number of expansion projects, the charging infrastructure needed for successful transport electrification is still far from adequate. For many, charging from home and at high prices remains the only choice for the time being.