What Building and Condo Owners Can Learn from This Installation
Walk into any busy downtown parkade and there’s a chance you’ll find this scene: charging cables on the ground, frustrated EV drivers, and service technicians trying to fix yet another broken charger. This was exactly the situation at a busy downtown parking facility until a complete infrastructure overhaul changed everything.
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The Problem: Three Generations of Failure
“The chargers simply didn’t work anymore” – Mark Marmer
We recently walked through the completed installation, explaining how this site became a textbook example of what can go wrong with public charging infrastructure.
The facility’s charging saga started with first-generation chargers. When 3G networks shut down and the world moved to 5G, those original chargers became expensive paperweights.
Next came EV box chargers. These created new headaches, like awkwardly positioned handles in the middle, cables constantly lying on the floor, and service calls that became a regular occurrence. The breaking point? Drivers getting their charging cables stuck in their ports, requiring emergency technicians to dismantle handles just to free vehicles.
“Imagine how this place felt when they had a phone call that somebody couldn’t move their car out of this space,” Marmer recalls. “This wasn’t a minor thing.”
The Fix: Small Details, Big Impact
Protect Your Equipment (But Be Smart About It)
The new installation features twelve chargers with a seemingly simple but crucial design principle: nothing sticks out. Chargers sit flush against the wall, handles are positioned to the side in dedicated holsters, and protective barriers shield the equipment without blocking parking spaces.
“Originally, they only had the bumper here,” Marmer points out. “The charger came out past the bumper, so that didn’t help.” The solution? Strategic placement that actually works. “If we put a block on the floor, some of the cars wouldn’t fit into the spaces.”
The Cable Problem Nobody Talks About
“If you’re at home, you know exactly where you parked your car, but here, we don’t know who’s going to come charging on the back, the front, or the left.” – Mark Marmer
Here’s what most people don’t realize about charging cables: they’re heavy, they’re awkward, and if you don’t manage them properly, they end up on the ground where cars run over them. Enter the weighted retractor, a deceptively simple device that solved multiple problems at once.
These custom-designed retractors maintain just enough tension to keep cables off the ground without pulling on connected vehicles. They’re small, blend into the wall, and use stainless steel fasteners that won’t rust outdoors.
The retractor system provides maximum reach, drivers can pull the cable to virtually any charging port location, while automatically retracting when not in use. No more cables on the ground, no more tripping hazards, no more damaged equipment.
Real-World Lessons: What Actually Matters
What Success Actually Looks Like
The installation philosophy prioritized prevention over repair. The facility now receives significantly fewer service calls, with most issues prevented through thoughtful design choices.
“A successful installation would be we would never hear a need for service,” states Marmer. “Connectivity would be fine, the units would be physically protected, the retractors would work, and we wouldn’t have charger cables laying on the ground that people are running over.”
Why This Matters: The Reliability Problem
Here’s the truth about EV adoption: people won’t buy electric vehicles if they can’t trust the charging infrastructure. It’s that simple.
“Why is it that I went by the highway and my charger didn’t work? I just like it to work every time I come,” Marmer says, voicing what every EV driver thinks but rarely says out loud. “We want it to work. It makes it better for us, and it makes people feel much more comfortable to be able to buy vehicles.”
When charging becomes as reliable as a gas pump, the biggest barrier to EV adoption disappears.
Key Lessons for Anyone Managing EV Chargers
Get Help Early (Not After It Breaks)
“If you come to us at the beginning and give us an idea of what you want done, we have this in mind,” advises Marmer. “I know where the problems are going to be, and we can help to solve that at the beginning.”
Translation: Stop treating charging infrastructure as an afterthought. The difference between a smooth installation and a nightmare often comes down to early planning.
Success Metrics That Actually Matter
Forget the technical specs. For property managers and facility owners, success boils down to one thing: no complaints. When drivers charge without issues and facilities run without constant service calls, that’s a win.
Experience Beats Everything
Every detail in this installation, from cable tension to handle placement, came from real-world experience. You can’t Google your way through these problems. You need to have seen them fail before.
What’s Next?
This busy installation is now humming along with minimal issues. Early results show dramatic improvements in uptime and user satisfaction.
“Hopefully a year from now I’ll come back and see this exact same situation,” says Marmer, surveying the clean, organized charging stations. “I know that we’re on the right track.”
For the rest of us? This parkade offers a blueprint for what public charging should look like: equipment that works every time, cables that never touch the ground, and drivers who never have to call for help. That’s the standard every charging site should be shooting for.
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This case study documents a complete EV charging infrastructure overhaul at a high-traffic downtown Toronto parkade, demonstrating what actually works (and what doesn’t) in public charging installations.