Korean Car manufacturer Hyundai is putting pressure on apartment building managements in the Middle East to include EV charging stations in future plans for residential buildings.
They are also urging them to have clear strategies for retrofitting existing homes with overnight recharging points, Hyundai’s head of operations for Africa and the Middle East Mike Song said.
Hyundai plans on introducing its low- or zero-emissions cars in the region, drawing on the fact that internationally it has a wider range of drivetrains including fully electric, plug-in, hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell cars.
“There is real consumer excitement around electric driving,” Song said. “In our existing urban design, however, the only people who can realistically make that switch are those who live in a house or villa with an attached garage, because they are the only ones who can plug into a power supply to recharge overnight.”
Song also notes that charging EVs is nearly impossible if you park on the street, or in a basement parking without charging points.
He says the onus is down to property developers and managers, as well as homeowners’ associations, to make sure that residential carparks can provide a charging socket for each car that needs one, along with a system for billing the cost.
This will most likely need planning authorities, including governments and municipalities, to incorporate recharging points into their planning regulations – both as a standard requirement on new buildings, and with clear guidelines on upgrading existing properties, he commented.
“We must ensure that, if you have allocated parking for an apartment, you can expect to recharge an electric car as part of that parking,” Song added.
Within the Africa and Middle East region, the company is already offering versions of the Ioniq eco-car in several markets.
Hyundai is introducing the Sonata Hybrid, particularly for taxi use.
