Startups aim to bring EV charging to apartment and condo dwellers

In 2015, Carter Li decided he wanted an electric car. He was living in a condo in downtown Toronto, and figured he could negotiate with the condo building to get an EV charger installed in his parking stall if he agreed to cover not just his own costs, but some of the building's costs.

"I mean, I'm helping them upgrade their own infrastructure," he reasoned. "Why would they say 'no'?"

But the property manager did say "no" — after more than half a year of research and discussions with Li. "They're like, 'This is too complicated. You're touching common infrastructure. We don't want anything to do with this,'" he recalled.

While a third of Canadians live in multi-residential homes like apartment and condo buildings, a 2024 online survey of more than 2,000 Canadian EV owners by the non-profit Pollution Probe found only 12 per cent of those EV owners lived in multi-residential buildings, and those that did were far less likely to have at-home charging than those in single family homes.

Many people won't buy an EV if they have no place to charge, say Canadian Climate Institute researchers Arthur Zhang and Anna Kunduth.

"Access to charging remains a key factor on whether, and which drivers decide to go electric," they wrote in a 2024 blog post.

Li realized his frustration as a would-be EV owner in a multi-family building was a common one. So he resolved to work on a solution, co-founding a startup called Swtch Energy that aims to make charging easy for buildings where many vehicles may be charging at once.

It's among a handful of startups across Canada that are trying to provide EV charging access for people who live in condos and apartments. Here's a look at three of their solutions.

Vancouver-based startup Parkizio Technologies has what's probably the simplest and lowest-tech solution, a device called Plugzio Universal Outlet.

"You can kind of think of it as a power vending machine," said Ali Mohazab, the company's co-founder and CEO.

In many cases, a tenant or condo owner may already have a nearby outlet, for example one designed for block heaters. In some cases, Mohazab says, the landlord or property manager won't allow it to be used for EV charging.

The Plugzio Universal Outlet is a smart meter that allows the landlord or property manager to charge EV owners for the electricity they use, while controlling things like who can charge, when, how much and for what price — addressing concerns that might otherwise make them wary of allowing tenants to charge their EV.

The company says it's only a fifth the cost of a traditional Level 2 charger. While it only allows for Level 1 or "trickle" charging – adding about six km of range per hour of charging – Mohazab notes that most EVs are driven for only short distances and parked all night.

"Level 1 charging is typically enough, I would say, for 95 per cent of people," he said, with the exception of people who drive all day, such as taxi or Uber drivers.