The City of Helsinki is promoting the electrification of car traffic through new principles for the rental of electric car charging points – the ‘Helsinki Model’. The new rental guidelines for electric car charging points will be discussed by the Urban Environment Committee on Tuesday 20 October.
Under the proposal, Helsinki will offer charging point operators the opportunity to rent parking space units for charging purposes. In the first phase, 61 new charging stations will become available, comprising 275 charging points, i.e. parking spaces designated for charging.
At present, the majority of electric car charging points are on private premises, e.g. in car parks of housing companies and workplaces. In addition, there are an estimated 3,000–4,000 publicly accessible charging points in Helsinki, the vast majority of which are located on the premises of commercial operators, such as shopping centre car parks and petrol stations. The rest of the public charging network is located in public areas of the City, mainly along the streets. The decision by the Urban Environment Committee applies to these freely accessible charging points along streets and in public areas.
So far, the development of the public charging network has progressed at a modest pace. There are currently 441 charging points in public street areas, and some of the spaces reserved for these charging points have not yet been implemented. With these new rental principles, Helsinki aims to accelerate the development of the charging network and the electrification of the vehicle base.
If the Urban Environment Committee approves the proposal, the City will publish details of the future charging points and the guidelines for operators on its website in early November. Operators will then have about a month to familiarise themselves with the terms and conditions, the guidelines and the available charging points. Applications for the charging points will open in December, and the aim is to have the charging points in place during 2027. The plan is to develop the model further and, going forward, to open the application process annually.
The aim of the Helsinki city strategy and the City’s climate programme is to achieve an 85 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. Increasing the number of charging points will help to reduce transport emissions, promoting the achievement of the City’s climate targets.