Your EV charging options in Apartments

Imagine a future where every resident in your apartment block can easily charge their electric vehicle without fighting over sockets or worrying about tripping the building’s power.

With EV adoption surging in Australia and more people choosing apartment living, this scenario is closer than you think — but it requires careful planning and smart infrastructure choices today.

Individual vs. Shared Charging: Choosing the Right Approach

Before deciding between individual or shared EV charging setups, the first step is understanding your building’s infrastructure — how much electrical capacity is available, how power is distributed, and what upgrades may be needed.

Option 1: Individual Charging (Connected to Resident’s Own Meter)

When only a very few residents are requesting EV charger installation, this option can be relatively straightforward. It allows residents to install dedicated EV chargers at their own parking spaces, typically connected to their individual electricity meters. This offers autonomy and simplifies personal billing. However, as more residents adopt EVs, this approach can quickly run into technical and administrative roadblocks:

Connecting an EV charger to a resident’s own electricity meter often means running cabling from their apartment unit (or meter board) to their parking bay. In many buildings, this involves complex, expensive, and invasive cable runs through shared spaces, which may require strata approval and disrupt common property.

Option 2: Individual Charging (Powered from Common Area Supply)

If linking to the resident’s private meter isn't feasible, another option is to draw power from the common area meter to individual parking bays. This requires a billing and usage tracking system to ensure each EV owner pays for their own usage — avoiding unfair cost distribution. IIn this setup, often called a backbone, the EV infrastructure is provisioned to provide power access to each individual car park. This allows all owners the flexibility to install their own chargers whenever they switch to an EV in the future. This future-proofs the building’s electrical infrastructure and facilitates easier EV adoption over time. However, this approach might not be also technically suitable for all buildings due to existing electrical limitations or complex wiring configurations.

Some existing apartment buildings — especially older ones — were not designed to support multiple EV chargers running simultaneously. Adding several chargers can overload the building’s electrical infrastructure; therefore, a load management solution is required, which restricts power usage to prevent overload. As a result, residents may end up charging at significantly lower amperage — even when using a 7kW charger — effectively paying for a robust EV charging setup without being able to fully utilise its capacity.

Option 3: Shared Charging Stations

A shared charging model involves installing communal EV chargers accessible to all residents, powered via the common area supply. Advanced software tracks and bills each user based on their consumption. We usually install 22kW commercial-grade chargers equipped with two outlets, servicing two adjacent parking bays. While this setup is cost-effective and practical, it can efficiently serve a building where not everyone has switched to EVs yet and the owners don’t want to invest too much upfront.This approach might also not be practical for all buildings:

Some apartment buildings have limited available space in their parking areas, and often not enough visitor car parks to dedicate for shared EV charging stations. This can restrict the number of chargers that can be installed and reduce accessibility for residents.

Option 4: Centralised Level 1 Charging Solution

For buildings with tight budgets, limited electrical capacity, and insufficient common area parking to install shared Level 2 chargers, a centralised Level 1 charging system offers a practical alternative. Level 1 chargers use 15A power outlets, placing much less demand on the building’s electrical infrastructure. This solution involves installing multiple Level 1 charging points connected to a central load management and billing system. The load management ensures power is distributed efficiently to prevent overloads, while the billing system tracks individual usage for fair cost allocation.

Level 1 chargers deliver much lower power (around 2-3 kW), which means it can take longer to fully charge an EV compared to Level 2 chargers. This may not meet the needs of residents with higher daily driving demands. Because charging is slower, residents may need to leave their vehicles plugged in the entire night.

Ready to Plan for the Future?

Electric vehicles are no longer a trend — they’re the future of transport. Whether you're a strata manager, a committee member, or a resident of an apartment building considering an EV, now is the time to start planning your building’s charging infrastructure.

The right solution depends on your building’s layout, power capacity, budget, and resident needs — and that’s where we come in.

At Future Charging Solutions, we specialise in end-to-end EV charging systems for apartments. From site assessment and capacity analysis to selecting and supplying the most suitable charger for your site, through to installation, commissioning, billing, and ongoing support — we make it easy and cost-effective to future-proof your property.

Let’s make your building EV-ready.

Get in touch today to book a free site assessment. We’ll help you understand your options and design a charging solution that’s smart, scalable, and tailored to your building — so every resident can charge with confidence, now and into the future.