According to a report published in a British newspaper, old parking structures that date back to the ’60s, ’70s or ’80s could be susceptible to collapse if too many EV’s are to park in the upper levels.
This is due to the weight of the EV’s and the batteries each has to lug around in order for it to produce a decent range.
The report suggests that most parking buildings would have gone through rough weather which may have left them damaged from the inside.
Some are well taken care of and some have been neglected in their maintenance schedule. With EV productions rising, what would happen if dozens of these behemoths park at old structures every single day?
With the sales of EV’s picking up everywhere, can you imagine if a hundred heavy EVs were parked on a single floor daily? Eventually, the structure is bound to give way when its limits have been pushed.
An average car from back in the ’60s weighed in around 1360kg. A Tesla, for example, weighs around 2249 kg. That’s 889 kgs more and to make things worse, a GMC Hummer EV weighs in at 4103 kgs. Holy mammoth!
These are concerning numbers as there aren’t many newly-built parking structures except for the ones at new shopping malls.
Therefore, these monsters on wheels may turn to park at old parking buildings.
These decaying infrastructures are a global issue and must be addressed quickly or these infrastructure owners may find themselves in a mess. Over in the UK, the British Parking Association (BPA) is preparing to release new guidance on the issue.
“I don’t want to be too alarmist, but there definitely is the potential for some of the early car parks in poor condition to collapse,” said Structural engineer Chris Whapples. Structural inspections can help find issues before a parking garage collapses, so maintenance is very important.
In order to prevent these issues, parking structures could impose weight restrictions on bigger vehicles or lower the number of parking spaces.
The BPA is also updating its design recommendations. It will now advise that concrete car park floors should have a design loading limit of 306kg of load per square meter, up from 255kg previously.
Every parking structure should be maintained frequently, and those driving these mammoths, think twice before parking on upper levels of older buildings.
We frequent One Utama, so all you EV drivers, please park in the basement.
