Elektrum opens Estonia’s largest electric car charging station at T1 Centre

Elektrum Drive has opened the largest charging station in Estonia at the T1 Centre in Tallinn, allowing 34 cars to be charged simultaneously. Chargers are located on all levels of the T1 car park – both in the underground car park and on all levels of the parking garage.

On the opening day of the Elektrum Drive T1 charging station on 6 February, charging electric cars is free for everyone, and there is a 30% discount on charging until the end of March.

In cooperation with Lintgen OÜ, the company installed 30 chargers in the T1 Centre parking garage, four of which allow two cars to be charged at the same time. The charging station consists of 26 chargers with a power of 22 kW, two 100 kW fast chargers and Elektrum's first two 300 kW ultra fast chargers in Estonia. The T1 charging station also supports charging with a CHAdeMo plug.

“The T1 Centre has nearly 1000 parking spaces, which gave us enough space to build the largest charging station in Estonia,” says Agnes Makk, Chairwoman of the Management Board of Elektrum Eesti. “It is actually the second largest charging station in the Baltics.”

She says that the investment will support not only Elektrum’s, but the whole country's goal for greener transport. “The new generation fast chargers installed at the T1 charging station and across Estonia will make charging particularly fast and convenient, and will boost the growth of the electric car user base. This is a significant step towards a greener future,” Makk adds, thanking everyone who has helped make the project a reality.

According to Tarmo Hõbe, CEO of the T1 Centre, the centre's car park is the perfect place to charge electric cars, as it helps visitors save time. “You don't need to go to a separate station to charge your car – you can do it while going about your weekly activities,” he says. “A customer who spends 20 minutes shopping is likely to opt for a powerful 300 kW charger, while for someone who comes to receive a service or visit a sports club or our new T1 Venue event centre, a more economical standard-speed charger will suffice. In both cases, you can recharge 50–80% of the battery or an average week's driving range during a single visit.”

The European Union is moving towards a ban on the sale of new cars with an internal combustion engine by 2035. The EU aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. “In order to achieve this goal, electromobility must be available everywhere,” says Andrus Liivand, member of the board of Elektrum Eesti.

According to him, there are currently more than 8100 electric cars in use in Estonia and the number of electric cars is expected to grow exponentially by the end of the decade. The European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) projects that Estonia will have more than 70,000 electric cars by 2030, which will require the establishment of a large-scale charging network for electric vehicles.

“The charging network has expanded rapidly, but the quality of service and user convenience varies widely across the market,” Liivand says. “That's why Elektrum Drive aims to be the most reliable service provider on the market, with chargers conveniently located close to customer destinations.”

On the opening day of the Elektrum Drive T1 charging station on 6 February, charging electric cars is free for everyone, and there is a 30% discount on charging until the end of March. Free and discounted charging is available for everyone who charges using the Elektrum Drive mobile app. In addition to the mobile app, all other payment options familiar to Elektrum customers are available at the T1 charging station – RFID card payment for contractual business customers and 5% discounted charging for loyal customers who pay for their charging once a month with a summary invoice.

Elektrum Eesti is an energy sales company that provides its customers with electricity as well as natural gas, solar energy and electric car charging solutions under the Elektrum Drive brand. Elektrum Drive currently has a total of 806 charging points across the Baltics. Elektrum Eesti is part of the Latvian energy company Latvenergo Group, the largest producer and supplier of green energy in the Baltics. The group's companies serve a total of 885,000 customers in the Baltics and 69% of the group's energy production comes from renewable sources. The plan is to achieve fully climate-neutral energy production by 2035.

The T1 Centre was opened in 2018, and has been owned and operated by the investment company Lintgen OÜ from the beginning of 2022. The T1 Centre, located next to Rail Baltic’s Linda terminal, has approximately 56,000 square metres of rental space and a total of 1000 spaces in its underground car park and parking garage. The building's anchor tenants are Selver, Super Skypark and Cinamon. At T1, 51 electric cars can be charged at the same time.