Apartment EV Charging: All You Need To Know

With the rapid rise of electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Australia, apartment residents and building managers are facing unique challenges around installing EV charging infrastructure in strata buildings. While the National Construction Codes have been updated to mandate EV charging infrastructure for new buildings, this doesn’t help the 2.5 million Aussies who live in existing apartment buildings.

Solar Choice offers expert, end-to-end support for apartment EV charging across Australia. Whether your building is in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, or beyond, we guide you through every step—from setting out the options, to selecting the right contractor and supporting through strata decision-making. Our mission is to make EV charging simple and affordable help you future-proof your property for Australia’s rapidly growing electric vehicle market.

Key Takeaways: How to Install EV Chargers in Australian Apartments

• Charger Types & Installation: Choose between Level 1 (basic, slow, plug-in chargers) or Level 2 (faster, requires installation) chargers for apartments. DC fast chargers are not practical due to high infrastructure demands.
• Assess Feasibility First: Conduct a Feasibility Study to assess your building’s electrical capacity, the cost of EV charging in apartments, and potential upgrades. This critical step ensures the infrastructure can support EV chargers for all owners, preventing potential power overloads and mitigates costly risks & challenges down the line.
• Cost Overview: Initial backbone infrastructure typically range from $1,000 – $4,000 per apartment, with individual charger installation costs between $2,000 – $4,000. Costs will vary depending on your building’s specific infrastructure needs—explore more details below to see how these estimates might apply to your project.
• Maximise Property Value & Convenience: Installing EV chargers boosts property value, attracts renters or buyers, and supports Australia’s growing electric vehicle market. It also future-proofs your building, making it more appealing as EV adoption continues to rise.
• Expert Support: Solar Choice provides expert, hands-on support, guiding you through every step of the EV charging process—from feasibility assessments to approvals and beyond installation. Our goal is to make this complex process seamless and stress-free for all involved.

The Basics of EV Charging for Apartments

Before diving into the complexities of EV charging in strata apartment buildings, it’s crucial to understand the basics. EV charging is the process of supplying electric energy to recharge an electric vehicle’s battery. To enjoy the convenience of never needing to visit a petrol station again, having a method to charge your vehicle at home is essential.

Electric vehicle charger types: Choosing the best EV charger for your apartment Building

• Level 1 Chargers: These chargers can be plugged into a standard electrical outlet and are typically used for charging at home. Although they’re convenient and require no additional setup, they charge rather slowly.
• Level 2 Chargers: A step up from Level 1, these chargers need a dedicated circuit and deliver a higher charging speed. They’re often found in commercial settings but can be installed at home with the right setup.
• DC Fast Chargers: Not feasible for apartment complex EV charging due to their hefty infrastructure requirements.

How to get started?

The first step for any Apartment to get started on a EV Charging project is to complete a EV Charging Feasibility Assessment. This will involve the Body Corporate engaging a consultant to assess the buildings infrastructure, measure power availability at the building and put together a report and strategic roadmap for the owners on the possible options and costs for installing EV Charging infrastructure.

What’s included in EV Charging Feasibility Assessment?

Before allowing strata apartment EV charger installations, we recommend the building complete a feasibility assessment and establish a roadmap to enable all owners to have access to EV charging infrastructure.

Solar Choice has completed EV charging feasibility assessments for strata buildings all across Australia and is highly experienced in advising apartment owners on the best and most cost-effective solutions.

Our approach includes the following:

• Site Survey: Organising a qualified and experienced electrician to complete a detailed site survey of all the existing electrical infrastructure, including the incoming mains, main switchboard, meters and breakers, parking bays and potential cable pathways
• Power Monitoring: Installing a temporary power consumption logger onto the incoming mains so we can determine the power consumption within the building and how much available capacity exists to dedicate to EV Charging
• Engineering Review: Solar Choice’s engineering team will review all collected information from site and set out the recommended options for enabling EV charging infrastructure for all apartment owners, including staging out the project where possible to avoid a big upfront cost
• Consultation: A Solar Choice consultant will explain the recommendation and finds to the owners
• Recommendation: Solar Choice can recommend an reputable electrical contractor in every state with experience installing EV charging infrastructure within apartment buildings.

End-to-End Project Support:

As part of signing up to complete a feasibility study for your building Solar Choice will remain available to guide you all the way through the project through to installation. Our goal is to help owners actually implement solutions and we have experience solving the various fire, insurance, strata laws and voting problems that may arise.

If you are looking at other consultants to complete a feasibility study, we highly recommend ensuring that a qualified electrician attends site and installs a power consumption monitoring device as part of the assessment. We have seen many ‘off the shelf’ feasibility studies that really don’t look at all the options or provide clear guidance to Owners on the best pathways forward.

Why We Don’t Advise To Give An Individual Owner Permission To Install Their Own Charger

You may think, why can’t the new owners of the electric vehicle just pay for their own chargers to be installed on their own meter?

Firstly and foremost, almost every strata apartment building we have examined does not have sufficient power supply for every parking space to have an operating EV Charger without tripping the power supply to the whole building. You might be able to get away with the first couple of EV Chargers, but at some point you are going to need a more holistic solution.

Electrifying parking bays usually requires a lot of cabling running through the carpark. It will be cheaper and more aesthetically pleasing to have a single contractor complete this work through the most efficient cable paths through an ‘EV Charging Backbone‘.

It is recommended that strata buildings have a strategy and roadmap in place for EV Charging before they give permission to an owner to install a charging device.

Crucially this avoids costly processes of unwinding installations or replacing chargers at a later date and ensures that all owners have equal opportunity to access EV Charging infrastructure.

If there is already power running to the parking spaces and each space has a power outlet, it is quite common that this power is run from the common property meter. This means that the whole building will be sharing the cost of charging the vehicle.

EV Charging Solutions for Apartments Including Case Studies

The feasibility and costs of each solution will vary greatly depending on the existing power supply and electrical infrastructure, the design of the parking areas and the requirements of the owners in terms of the EV charging equipment.

Visitor parking bays

One way to get started with EV charging at your strata apartment without committing to a bigger solution is to install EV charging equipment in the visitor parking bays.

Some rules can be embedded into the charging devices which help limit the maximum use time to ensure the charging equipment can be shared.

Clearly, this isn’t a long-term solution, but can buy some time for the building in lieu of a larger solution.

Trickle charging only

There are different levels of EV charging which require different amounts of power. Trickle charging (level 1) is the slowest option which usually uses a regular 10 Amp power socket. A 15Amp socket can also be considered which can improve the charge speed.

In some cases, we have seen that there is sufficient capacity available on the power supply for most residents to install a trickle charger without risking an overload on the power supply. There are solutions for the Owners Corporation to recover the power consumption costs if the power sockets are connected to the common meter.

Case Study – Level 1 EV Charging Solution for 24 Unit Apartment Building in Sydney.

Level 2 EV Charging with Load management systems

For buildings with low power capacity, or looking to add fast-charging EV infrastructure a ‘load management system’ will ensure that the total power demand doesn’t exceed the power available in the building.

The load management system monitors power availability in real time, and has the ability to control the power draw of the EV chargers and throttle back power usage where necessary. In the case of residential apartment buildings, often power throttling will only occur in peak demand times (e.g. 5pm to 9pm) and there is plenty of power available overnight.

Case Study – Level 2 EV Charging Backbone for 55 Unit Apartment Building in Brisbane.

The are several different load management solutions on the market varying in capability and cost. The below table outlines some of the choices:

	How They Work	Evaluation
Branded Solutions	Some EV Charger companies have developed a solution to manage a ‘fleet’ of their chargers in real-time. This usually involves attaching a meter and a central management device to the incoming mains to the building and communicating with each EV Charger via wifi or data cable. Examples: Schneider, Ocular	Pros: – Simpler system, easier to maintain – Single type of charger going into garage better aesthetically Cons: – Every owner must install the same EV Charger which reduces choice
OCPP / Universal	Some load management systems utilise Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) to communicate with any EV Charger that has OCPP built in. This creates additional complexity as the load management system needs to keep up with all the software updates of each charger, however enables users to choose from a broader range of EV Charger brands. Examples: Jetcharge, Combined Energy	Pros: – Greater choice of EV chargers – Potentially options to switch LMS providers in the future Cons: – Load management provider needs to stay across updates in firmware/software to all connected charger brands

Benefits of installing an EV charger in your apartment

Despite the initial costs and challenges, there are several benefits to strata apartment electric car charging:

Flexibility for Owners

Having an EV charger capability in your apartment carpark means owners have the choice to buy an Electric Vehicle and not suffer any inconvenience. Many owners will not make a purchase until this infrastructure is available which is a big problem for Australia’s electrification journey.

Increased Property Value

As Electric Vehicle adoption continues to grow, the availability of charging infrastructure in parking bays is increasingly going to be a consideration for potential buyers. Renters with EVs are also willing to pay more for apartments with EV Charging access.

Improve Charge Speeds and Solar Integration

If you have solar installed at your apartment building, then the EV Charging solution can benefit from the lowest cost power. The benefits can be passed onto the owners or flow back to the Body Corporate. EV Chargers will also decrease the recharge time for owners which can save time and money on public fast-charging stations.

The Role of Smart EV Charging in Apartments

With advancements in EV technology, smart charging solutions are becoming essential for apartment buildings. These systems offer dynamic load management, real-time energy tracking, and scheduled charging to optimize power distribution and lower electricity costs.

Benefits of Smart EV Charging:

• Dynamic Load Balancing: Ensures chargers do not exceed building power limits.
• Energy Cost Optimisation: Enables off-peak charging, reducing electricity costs for residents.
• Remote Monitoring & Access Control: Allows owners and strata managers to control charging remotely.
• Billing Transparency: Automatic tracking and fair electricity usage billing for each resident.

How much does it cost to install an EV charger in an apartment?

Installing EV charger in an apartment building is usually completed over 2 stages

1. Installing the backbone infrastructure to enable EV Charging – anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000+ per apartment (usually paid by Body Corporate)
2. Installing individual EV charger withing relevant parking bay – typically around $2,000 to $4,000 (usually paid by the relevant owner when they are ready)

Some considerations that impact costing:

• Can the charger be wall-mounted or is a free-standing solution required?
• Will a bollard need to be installed to prevent vehicles from accidentally reversing into the charger?
• What distance a cable will need to travel to connect to the main switchboard or closest sub-distribution board?
• Will trenching or core holes be required for the cable run?

It is important to note that there are a number of different approaches to enabling EV Charging infrastructure for apartment owners ranging from a regular 10 Amp power socket to a high speed EV charger. Picking the right option requires a good understanding of the cost to implement each option and the pros and cons of each option as the building experiences a greater number of Electric Vehicles in the carpark.

The best way to understand the options available is by undergoing a feasibility study which is paid for by the body corporate.

What are the voting and strata requirements for EV charging decisions?

Strata legislation usually requires that changes to common property (including installing electric vehicle chargers in parking areas) follow specific voting requirements. A vote will need to take place at an all owners meeting either the Annual General Meeting (AGM) or a Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).

In many states, achieving a special resolution is required normally meaning that no more than 25% of the votes (based on the unit entitlement set out in the strata plan) oppose the motion.

In NSW, ACT, WA, Tasmania and in some cases in QLD different rules apply where a simple 50% majority is required to pass a motion on EV Charging infrastructure.

Can I just install my own EV charger at my apartment?

The short answer is no.

Most strata buildings have limited power supply from the grid. It would only take a small number of residents installing their own charger in order to exceed this limit. If this happens, the mains power supply to the building would trip and you would lose power to the entire building.

Installing EV chargers without a prior plan could lead to unfair access for later adopters of EVs or additional costs for replacing existing EV chargers with future-compatible models or for rewiring.

Kerbside Charging for Apartment EV Owners

Not every apartment comes with a parking space, which is why kerbside charging is emerging as an alternative for EV owners who park on the street.

How Kerbside Charging Works

• Public Chargers on Streets: Some councils and energy providers are installing chargers on power poles and streetlights, turning public parking spots into EV charging stations.
• Government Support: The NSW Government has committed $10 million to expanding kerbside EV charging in high-density urban areas.
• Ausgrid Trials: Energy provider Ausgrid is testing innovative kerbside charging solutions, using existing power infrastructure to make charging accessible where private parking isn’t available.

For apartment residents without a garage or designated parking spot, these developments offer a practical way to own and charge an EV conveniently.

Learn About EV Charging in Apartment With Solar Choice’s Free Education Series

We’ve translated our knowledge from completing hundreds of feasibility studies for strata apartment buildings across Australia into a 10 part video educational series. This is designed to give an apartment owner the knowledge they need to lead a project in their building and to upskill strata managers and electricians to understand how to better assist owners corporations.

• Episode 1: Getting Started
• Episode 2: EV Charging ‘Backbone’ Infrastructure
• Episode 3: Individual vs Common Area Meters

If you prefer to learn in video format then its all set up for you in a Youtube Video Playlist.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Conclusion

Retrofitting EV chargers in apartment buildings in Australia is a complex but increasingly necessary undertaking. The main take away from this article is that there are a variety of different types of options to consider and the best way to set this out for the owners to consider is through commissioning an EV charging feasibility assessment. This provides the necessary information and education to navigate the challenges and costs associated with body corporate electric vehicle charging.

Further Reading

For more in-depth information, you can consult Solar Choice’s Complete EV Home Charger Guide or check our EV Charger Comparison.