2023-11-05 20:38:26
Tenants should pay for their charging station themselves
The Federal Council wants to support the expansion of charging stations for electric cars with 180 million francs. The Council of States is slowing down. Now national councils are trying to save the project – including civil ones.
A Tesla is being charged in an underground car park.
Photo: Dominique Meienberg
The mandate is clear: transport must reduce its CO₂ emissions by 57 percent by 2040 and by 100 percent by 2050. This is what the Climate Protection Act, which voters approved in June, requires.
Have been done so far only 7 percent – not least because vehicles powered by fossil fuels still dominate. There are now 142,000 electric cars registered in Switzerland, with more than 30,000 new registrations in the current year alone. But that’s only around 3 percent of all passenger cars in the country.
The Federal Council therefore wants to accelerate the switch to electromobility. From 2025 to 2030 he wants to fund charging stations for electric cars with up to 180 million francs; In addition to businesses and public parking spaces, apartment buildings in particular should benefit.
But this plan has recently suffered a setback. The Council of States is of the opinion that it is up to private individuals to set up charging infrastructure. That’s why his middle class majority canceled the planned subsidies from the new CO₂ law in the autumn session.
“The Council of States’ decision is wrong.”
Now it’s the National Council’s turn. Its preliminary environmental commission meets this week. And it is already clear: there is resistance, including on the civil side. “The Council of States’ decision is wrong,” says FDP National Councilor Matthias Jauslin. He has submitted an application that wants to write the Federal Council’s version back into the CO₂ law. In order for electromobility to become a matter of course, says Jauslin, easy access to charging infrastructure at home and at work is crucial.
There are now more than 16,000 publicly accessible charging points in Switzerland, twice as many as in 2020. But according to experts, charging stations are in short supply in apartment buildings with around 3 million apartments. However, there are no exact numbers.
In any case, surveys conducted by the Swiss Touring Club (TCS) in recent years show that, in addition to the purchase price, the charging option is a crucial criterion when purchasing an electric car. But the majority of the population – renters and condominium owners – do not own their own house and therefore cannot decide for themselves whether to install a charging station at home.
Centrist politicians are therefore toying with a compromise: subsidies, yes, but less than planned by the Federal Council. Stefan Müller-Altermatt says that you actually have to ask yourself whether the money might not be used more efficiently. However, apartment buildings, businesses and public parking spaces are actually “black spots” that only need to be improved, according to the Center National Council.
Reduce deadweight effect
The subsidies are controversial, not least because of so-called deadweight effects. To stick with the example: What this means is that a homeowner would receive federal money even though he would install the charging station anyway. The phenomenon is well known. When it comes to promoting photovoltaic systems, the Federal Audit Office recently pointed out that there are high deadweight effects: in an estimated half of the cases, the system would have been built without subsidies.
Gabriela Suter also wants to build a bridge. The SP National Councilor will request that the subsidy be reintroduced into the law – but with some clarification. The money should flow exclusively into electrical installation measures that are necessary for charging stations; This might be, for example, reinforcing the power connections. The tenants cannot do this themselves, says Suter. “Electric car owners, on the other hand, would still have to pay for the charging station themselves.” This funding also brings advantages for energy policy, because investments in intelligent and bidirectional charging might save costs in network expansion.
Pass the investment on to the rents
It is unclear where the federal government will get the money from. The National Road and Agglomeration Transport Fund (NAF) is under discussion. The TCS, among others, is campaigning for this. Central President Peter Goetschi refers in a letter to the Commission for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy editorial staff available, on the NAF reserves amounting to around 3.8 billion francs. The TCS believes that the 180 million francs might be financed from this – or even more. He estimates the required demand for the apartment buildings at 540 million francs.
The subsidies would also have consequences for tenants. Homeowners can pass on the installation of basic infrastructure and chargers to their rents as a value-adding investment. The Tenants’ Association (MV) Switzerland expects a rent increase of an average of 20 to 50 francs per month.
However, if subsidies are received, these must be deducted when calculating the value-increasing investment. “The rent increase will then be less high,” says MV Vice President and Green Party National Councilor Michael Töngi. However, Töngi would find it more important than funding that tenants would have the right to install a charging station in the future – regardless of whether the landlord also wants this. But this demand has not yet found a majority in parliament.
“There is no need for funding programs.”
The SVP is decidedly once morest the subsidies. “There is no need for federal funding programs,” says National Councilor Michael Graber. The development towards electrification is taking place without any subsidies.
The SVP argues with security of supply: Switzerland will need significantly more electricity in the future than it does today, also because of the electrification of transport. In addition, it has to compensate for the loss of nuclear power plants. Overall, there is a delta of around 40 terawatt hours per year – two thirds of current electricity production. Against this background, it is out of the question for the SVP for the federal government to also promote electrification.
Only: SVP representatives in the Council of States helped push a proposal through the council in May that wanted to make the installation of charging infrastructure tax deductible.
Last week, the National Council’s preliminary economic commission also approved the motion, reportedly with the help of SVP members. Graber doesn’t see a contradiction in this: it’s something fundamentally different whether the state distributes money or takes less money from people.
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