Electric cars
Environmental protection and the introduction of modern and energy-saving, efficient technologies are important to Metrodom. In Hungary, more and more people are using plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars, and their number is forecast to increase dynamically in the future. One of the barriers to the proliferation of electric cars with zero emissions being particularly beneficial in the city, has been charging difficulties: there are few public charging stations and other alternatives have not really been available to urban drivers. In response to this challenge, an electric car charger is standard on all parking slots in all Metrodom projects starting in 2021 or beyond. Metrodom was the first Hungarian residential proprty developer to take this innovative, forward-looking step to make electric car charging available to all our customers with parking spaces.
The electric chargers have a capacity of 32A, which can be used to charge the batteries of electric cars with a maximum output of 7.2kWh. With this performance, an average battery with a capacity of 50-70kW can be fully charged in 10-12 hours. The 7.2kWh does not use the batteries compared to the fast charging available on public charging stations, so the reduction in battery capacity will occur later and more slowly.
The chargers have a standard Type2 connection and are compatible with all electric cars currently available in Hungary. In order to start charging, a unique proxy is required, which our customers will receive when the parking slot is handed over. Without proxies, none of the chargers can be used, so it is practically impossible to take power irregularly and obtain "free charging". The electricity used is also settled on a proxy basis, the condominium accounts for and charges the electricity consumed by the charger to the owners in the same way as the heating and hot water fee or the common cost. The settlement price used is the same as the condominium electricity charge, which is currently lower than the free market price and is about a third to a quarter of the electricity charge of public chargers. As a result, our customers who choose an electric car can not only charge their car comfortably, but also keep the cost of car use low.
All electric car chargers in the parking garages are connected to a single system, which, in addition to the consumption accounting detailed above, also performs so-called performance management. The power supply of the charging network, the wiring system, was dimensioned in view of all the devices being used with a fully electric - that is, not a hybrid - vehicle. During the performance calculation, we took into account the average daily distance traveled by drivers in Budapest, the typical electricity consumption of electric cars, and based on this, the expected frequency of charger use and the length of the charging cycles. We also anticipated that owners would typically charge their cars at night. Our goal was for our customers to really achieve a charging speed of 6.8-7.2kWh during use. Despite the adequate dimensioning of the system, we are also prepared to deal with possible overuse, and is what performance management does. On an traditional electrical circuit, if there are too many consumers at once, the circuit breaker will trip when the maximum is reached, meaning that the fuse will blow and all consumers will be left without power. In the parking garage, on the other hand, if too many cars are connected to the grid at once, performance management will ensure that the amount of electricity available is distributed proportionally among the cars currently being charged. Thus, charging all cars, with lower power though, will continue without interruption, and as already charged cars are disconnected from the mains one by one, the power management system increases power again and makes it available to others. So always, every car owner will be assured and can expect to be able to charge their car properly, not being left without power.
The electric charger being standard on all car parking slots demonstrates that sustainability, the convenience of our customers and the future-proof qualities of the condominiums and the apartments we build are truly important considerations for Metrodom.