Prague is building parking houses, but it hardly counts on electric cars in them
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Park your car on the outskirts of Prague and continue by public transport, the Prague City Hall attracts drivers when opening new parking garages. However, they hardly count on the owners of electric cars in them – there are still few parking spaces in which they could recharge their cars while parking.
At the end of last year, the capital opened a new parking house in Černý Most for 886 vehicles. However, only eight of these parking spaces are reserved for charging electric cars.
“Further increases are no longer possible without replacing the existing substation with the required power input and connecting a new, stronger high-voltage power cable to the PRE grid,” explains Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr, why the brand new house hardly anticipates new technology.
The size of the transformer station limits not only the number of chargers, but also the speed of the eight available. They do not charge the battery faster than 22 kW. Chargers are therefore not suitable for quick energy replenishment, as is the case with more powerful types. Conventional charging stations in the Czech Republic have an output of 50 kW and higher. So far, the most powerful Prague charger, which opened last Friday, offers 300 kW.
It will not be better in the planned parking house in Nové Butovice, which began construction on December 7 last year. The parking house is intended to relieve parking in the vicinity of the Nové Butovice metro stops.
The original project provided for only two places reserved for charging electric cars. “That was not enough, so we increased the total number of electric chargers to the technically maximum possible number of 12, which is again due to the size of the transformer station,” adds Scheinherr.
Although this parking house will be half reserved for Praguers, the inhabitants of the metropolis of electric cars will have an unpleasant surprise. There is no charger in the part of the car park reserved for residents. Anyone who wants to charge a car here will have to stop in the paid sector for “cross-country”.
The deputy’s statement shows that the lack of chargers in new parking garages is not considered such a serious problem – according to him, car parks should be used primarily for parking vehicles.
“Given that most P + R clients are from the immediate vicinity of Prague, it is not necessary that every electric car has to be charged there. We understand electric vehicle charging as an add-on service that will not be used by all electric car owners, ”says Scheinherr.
Chargers will be added in the future
At the same time, however, he adds that the municipality is aware that the number of electric cars will grow in the coming years. Therefore, an order of magnitude larger charging stations are planned for the newly introduced parking houses. At P + R in Smíchov, it is planned that up to half of the stands will be “prepared” for the introduction of the charger.
In the future, Prague also envisages the use of smart grids, where the vehicle does not have to be recharged for the entire period of parking in the parking lot and at the same time the vehicle itself can serve as a source of energy for recharging another vehicle. This could further increase the number of parking spaces.
The operator of the new parking houses is the city company TSK, which ensures the operation of the charging stations. In the case of the car park in Černý Most, it is PRE’s own electricity supplier.
If the user of an electric car has a contract with Pražská energetika, a “full tank” will cost him about 250 crowns for an average electric car. Profit from charging Prague invests in covering the costs and operation of parking garages. The city does not expect a massive income to the city coffers at the moment.
Twenty of the 24 countries
So far, the electric car in the Czech Republic is rather slow. In 2021, 2,646 were sold in the Czech Republic, which is only 1.28% of the total number of newly registered vehicles. By the way, the Czech Republic is at the tail end of Europe compared to the rest of Europe. According to the data Association of Car Importers we are twentieth out of a total of 24 countries measured.
However, experts agree that the electric car will increase along with improving availability, better supply and pressure to tighten emissions rules. According to last year’s research agency Bloomberg price compensation (excluding state subsidies) for electric and internal combustion vehicles can be expected in 2026. And the European Union plans to ban the sale of new fossil fuel cars from 2035.