New Guidance for Electric Vehicles in Covered Car Parks

A new set of interim guidance has been released by the government regarding the charging of electric vehicles (EV) and installation of charging points in covered car parks. The guidance was published by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles and is available on the Gov.UK website.

The guidance focusses on addressing the additional fire safety challenges that are presented by underground, enclosed or open-sided car parks and is primarily aimed at car park operators, designers, risk assessors and owners.

The guide is quite detailed and gives consideration to a number of measures including:

• Suppression systems
• Increased structural fire resistances
• Distance between parked cars
• Firefighting water supplies
• Water run-off control and containment
• Locations and features of EV charge points
• Enhanced smoke management systems
• Thermal imaging cameras and other early detection methods, to enable early intervention

This information is split into sections covering:

• Background information on EV fire hazards
• Common fire safety features of covered car parks
• Steps to determine relevant mitigation measures
• Hazard mitigation measures, and a further
• Discussion of mitigation measures

Finally it is important to note that this guidance is not a replacement for legislation and has ‘interim status’ as research regarding electronic vehicles fires is ongoing and as a result measures may change based on what evidence comes to light.

If you have any questions, please contact our helpful team using [email protected].