Detect and Avoid Parking Violation in EV Charging Bays

Finding an EV charger in a car park is more common every day, but they are still pretty new. As with every innovation, it requires some time and tools for people to adapt. The first challenge people may face is finding an EV charger and know it is available. Although, the most important problem is the inadequate use of EV parking bays. Sometimes these bays are occupied by EVs that are not charging or by combustion engine vehicles who don’t even need a charger. This last situation is called ICEing which comes from the abbreviation of Internal Combustion Engine. Finding the EV charger occupied may cause an important problem for an EV driver, it would be equivalent to find the pump blocked in a petrol station for an ICE driver.

One way to solve these problems is to integrate EV chargers with a car park management solution. Circontrol, besides its ten years of experience manufacturing EV charging stations, has 16 years of experience designing solutions for Efficient Parking. These two products integrated may help car park operators and drivers to optimize their experience using EV chargers installed in car parks.

Locating a Free Charger

The first thing an EV driver needs to know is whether there is a functional and available EV charger in the car park and, once inside the car park, he should find it quickly. To achieve this, it is important to visually indicate the availability and number of bays and guide the EV driver to the EV charging bay with displays. In the parking bay you can also install a sensor that visually indicates the presence and availability of the charger by changing its colour when it’s occupied. All of these features allow for traffic optimization in the car park, thus increasing users’ satisfaction. By installing an EccuPark controller you can also get a report of the EV chargers' usage and an automatic notification if there is an error.

Detect Parking Violation

Arriving at the car park with just a little battery hoping to find an EV charger and finding it occupied for an EV that’s not charging or even an ICE car could be a major problem for the EV driver. It is also problematic for car park operators, because it may lower customers’ satisfaction and it can also reduce their revenues if the user has to pay to charge.

Integrating EV chargers and car park management solutions can also help with the handling of parking violations. Installing an Eccupark controller gives visibility on whether there’s a car parked in an EV charging bay that’s not using the EV charger. When this happens, it sends an alarm notification allowing the operator to manage the infraction. Besides this, with a Find Your Car solution that provides car-finding solutions based on cameras within each parking bay, the car park operator may create a whitelist of cars that are authorized to charge in EV bays and create an alarm if any other car is detected. This is only an option for subscribers and not for end-users.

About Circontrol 

Circontrol is a company founded in 1997 with headquarters in Viladecavalls (Barcelona). Its parking division designs and manufactures a global solution for efficient parking (guidance system, LED Lighting, energetic efficiency). Its emobility division manufactures a wide range of EV charging solutions that cover all market needs: domestic charge, slow charge (AC) and quick charge (DC).

Circontrol has a strong presence in the international market, where 80% of its sales are allocated. Nowadays you can find Circontrol solutions in 52 countries with 30.000 charging points and 400.000 parking spaces managed with CirPark systems. Service is also very important for Circontrol, this is the reason why bet on a qualified aftersales service and constant training for Circontrol partners are in the company’s DNA.