1 January 2025 marks the deadline for installing electric vehicle charging points in non-residential buildings

2024 / 07 / 31

The amendment of the Act on Electromobility and Alternative Fuels dated 02.12.2021 (“the Amendment”) has significant implications for owners and administrators of non-residential buildings. The Amendment imposes an obligation to install electric vehicle charging points by 1 January 2025.

Does this obligation affect you and your property? Below we explain who will be affected by the Amendment and we outline exceptions to the new requirements.

What properties are affected by the Amendment?

The change applies to buildings other than residential buildings, which provide more than 20 parking spaces located inside or adjacent to the building.

By being adjacent to the building, the legislator means both direct and indirect adjacency.

For example, a car park is attached to a building in terms of ownership or on the basis of any other legal title, even if it is not directly adjacent to the building, which therefore includes car parks with multiple parking spaces located away from a public building (e.g. a museum).

What exact obligations are imposed?

The owner or administrator of the building, is required to install, by 1 January 2025:

At least one electric vehicle charging point
Electrical ducts and conduits to allow installation of electric vehicle charging points, 1 for every 5 parking spaces that are located inside or adjacent to the building.
- This means that charging points for electric cars should make up around 20% of the total number of spaces.
- Accordingly, if a building has 30 parking spaces, the requirement is to install facilities that can support 6 electric vehicle charging points.

What precisely is a charging point?

According to the Act, a charging point is a facility that allows the charging of a single electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle and a zero-emission bus, and a place where the battery used to propel that vehicle is replaced or recharged.

In other words, a place where the vehicle can be plugged in for recharging.

Exception: small and medium-sized entrepreneurs

If the property referred to above is owned by a small or medium-sized entrepreneur, the obligations introduced by the amendment do not apply – such entrepreneurs are not obliged to install an electric vehicle charging point or the relevant appliances. Such entities are defined in the Law on Entrepreneurs:

Small entrepreneur – an entrepreneur who, in at least one of the last two financial years, satisfied jointly the following requirements:

employed on average fewer than 50 employees per year and
generated an annual net turnover from the sale of goods, products and services and from financial operations not exceeding the PLN equivalent of EUR 10 million, or the total assets in its balance sheet as at the end of one of those years did not exceed the PLN equivalent of EUR 10 million
is not a micro-entrepreneur;

Medium-sized entrepreneur – an entrepreneur who, in at least one of the last two financial years, satisfied jointly the following requirements:

employed on average fewer than 250 employees per year and
generated an annual net turnover from the sale of goods, products and services and from financial operations not exceeding the PLN equivalent of EUR 50 million, or the total assets in its balance sheet as at the end of one of those years did not exceed the PLN equivalent of EUR 43 million
is not a micro-entrepreneur or a small entrepreneur;

Is your building an immovable historic building?

In the case of a building undergoing reconstruction or refurbishment that is an immovable historic building listed in the register of historic landmarks or in the municipal register of historic landmarks, the installation of a charging point and ducts for electrical wiring and cables additionally requires the consent of the local conservation officer competent for the location of the historic building, given by way of a decision.

Sources:

KONTAKT