Shopping Center Weera – Make your charging points visible

To help out EV drivers locate charging stations, make sure to make your stations stand out – like shopping center Weera in South-East Finland did.

In Lappeenranta, South-East of Finland, the shopping center Weera installed a couple of EV charging points in the end of 2016. All public charging stations are visible in the Virta mobile app, in-car maps and, with roaming, through third-party services as well. 

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find the charging point, if it doesn't jump out of the cityscape somehow. Even worse - sometimes an old-school, internal combustion engine (ICE) car has taken up the spot.

At Weera shopping center, it was important to make the charging points easy to find and access. Two parking spots were clearly marked for EVs, by being painted in bright colors and by adding signs that forbid ICEs (and non-charging EVs) to park there.

It is very important to mark public charging points, as they are of no use to EV drivers if they cannot be found.

"Only for EV charging"

When the EV driver has navigated all the way to the charging point and found the properly marked parking spot, there might still be one obstacle on the way: an ICE taking up the whole spot. Because of this common problem, it is recommended to forbid other than electric vehicles that are charging to park by the charging points.

By using a parking prohibited-sign with a text saying "Only for EV charging" or "EV charging permitted", it is made clear, both for ICE's and non-charging EV's, that the spot is off-limits unless you are charging.