Out of charge: Electric car drivers risk fines for underground parking
Russians risk fines after the new code of Emergency Situations regulations on fire safety comes into force, which strengthens parking controls for electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids. Previously, fire protection requirements applied only to parking lots where charging stations are installed, starting from June 1, 2026, such vehicles will be prohibited from being left in places not equipped with security systems, even if there is no charging. At the same time, there are still few specially prepared places in underground parking lots, which may lead to an increase in the number of violations. For citizens, the maximum fine will be 50 thousand rubles, for officials — 100 thousand rubles, and for legal entities — 2 million rubles.
What will the new fire regulations change for electric vehicle owners?
The new set of rules of the Ministry of Emergency Situations SP 551.1311500.2026, which comes into force on June 1, 2026, tightens the rules for underground parking of electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids: fire protection measures are now mandatory even in the absence of charging stations. Parking such a car in a regular place can now result in a fine. Previously, special requirements were imposed only on places equipped with charging stations.
In addition, such cars should stand in groups, each with no more than 10 cars, and they should be separated from the rest of the vehicles by fire—resistant partitions, special fire curtains/gates, extinguishing systems (sprinklers, etc.). Charging areas are also subject to new requirements, with particularly strict rules for underground parking. In such spaces, as a rule, only slow charging is allowed — up to a certain power.
The main idea of the tightening is that electric vehicles, due to the characteristics of their batteries, require increased fire safety measures, so now their parking itself is considered a "high-risk zone", even without charging stations.
The press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations explained to Izvestia that the requirements of the document "apply to newly designed facilities, as well as to existing facilities that provide for major repairs, reconstruction, technical re-equipment and functional changes."
Two clear categories are being introduced inside the closed parking lot: places for cars with internal combustion engines and for electric vehicles, the chairman of the Association of Manufacturers and Operators of Electric Charging Stations (APOE) told Izvestia Armen Safaryan.
According to him, if a building with an underground parking lot was designed and built according to a new set of rules, then putting an electric car in an ordinary parking space that was not intended for it may be regarded as a violation. The fire inspector may draw up a report during the inspection. A warning is also possible for the first time, but if there are systematic violations, the owner of an electric vehicle faces a fine, he added.
Who will pay the fines in case of violations
As explained to Izvestia in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, responsibility for violations of fire safety requirements is provided for in Article 20.4 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. For the first time, a person may receive a warning, and depending on the nature of the violations committed, they may also be fined.
— For citizens, the maximum amount of an administrative fine is 50 thousand rubles, for officials — 100 thousand, for individual entrepreneurs — 110 thousand, for legal entities — 2 million. Also, in the case of the most serious violations of fire safety requirements, individual entrepreneurs and legal entities may be administratively punished by the court in the form of administrative suspension of activities, the department said.
It is important to understand the distribution of responsibility: the management company is responsible for the compliance of the facility with technical standards and the allocation of special parking spaces for electric vehicles, the owner is responsible for compliance with the rules established at the facility, an industry source told Izvestia.
If the management company has to prohibit the entry of an electric car or its parking in an unintended place, then the violation of this by the driver will be the basis for a fine, he added.
The press service of the Association of Professional Real Estate Managers "P1" explained that, first of all, the new requirements may affect developers, since any additional infrastructure and security requirements increase the cost of construction and subsequent operation of the facility. There are also risks of fines for the Criminal Code, but much will depend on several factors: whether there is complete technical documentation and how clearly responsibility is delineated between the developer, the management company and the residents, the company's press service noted.
They added that the management companies should properly take such an infrastructure into account, ensure its safe operation, understand what its maintenance will cost, explain the rules for using charging, electricity consumption, as well as safety issues to owners of electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids.
Armen Safaryan drew attention to the fact that management companies will be required to monitor which car entered the underground parking lot, but there is no clear identification mechanism and no list of models. The Chinese car industry updates its product lines every year and it is extremely difficult to keep track of all the new products, but the responsibility for compliance with these standards lies precisely with the Management Company.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the largest developers.
What are the ignition risks of electric vehicles?
The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Kurenkov, said in June 2025 that the growth in the number of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure entails additional risks of occurrence and fires. In total, 120 fires involving all types of electric vehicles were recorded in Russia in 2024, but trams, electric motorcycles and electric scooters are also recorded in these cases.
Valentin Nelyubov, head of the Fire Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, clarified that extinguishing electric vehicles is complicated by the presence of high-voltage systems, difficult access to battery packs, the risks of their re-ignition and toxic gas emissions during battery gorenje. According to him, 40% of such cars caught fire during their storage and 30% during their charging. They most often occur if the owner repaired the battery in an unregistered technical center or "punched it", but did not notice it in a timely manner, Armen Safaryan added.
On May 26, 2026, a Leapmotor C11 electric car parked at a charging station caught fire in the Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan, and in Russia, one of the last incidents recorded in the media occurred in April 2025 with a Nissan Leaf while charging in Vladivostok.
The largest incident involving the charging of an electric vehicle was the fire of a Mercedes EQE electric crossover in the underground garage of a multi-storey residential complex in Incheon (South Korea) in August 2024. As a result of the incident, more than a hundred cars in the parking lot were damaged or destroyed.
However, according to Alexander Kharlenko, Deputy head of the Department of Special Electrical Engineering of Automated Systems and Communications at the Academy of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, when tightening the requirements for "electric" zones, the developers of the new rules did not take into account the capabilities of modern early detection systems that can detect the first signs of battery overheating long before the appearance of an open flame, and spot fire extinguishing systems. The experience of foreign countries also shows that internal combustion engines burn up to seven times more often than electric vehicles, while other countries do not introduce increased fire safety measures for electric trains, Armen Safaryan added.
How will the changes affect owners of chargeable cars?
Vladimir Khlebnikov, the founder of Parus Electro (Rosatom State Corporation), warned that due to new requirements, it is becoming unprofitable for developers and management companies to install charging stations for electric vehicles in residential parking lots. This jeopardizes the entire production, which was built to meet such demand. At the same time, in Moscow, every third owner of an electric car and every fourth owner of a hybrid prefers to charge the car in the parking lot of his apartment building. Other manufacturers of electric charging stations agree with his point of view: E-Prom and PSS Corporation.
"The new requirements affect not only residential complexes, but also shopping malls, where more than 200 stations of our network are currently located in the internal parking," Alexander Mironenko, Deputy General Director of the operator of the network of charging stations for electric vehicles, PUNKT E, drew attention.
Accordingly, there are risks that the owners of shopping malls will try to shift the cost of equipping parking lots to the operators of charging stations or even refuse to allocate parking spaces for electric vehicles.
According to Elizaveta Khmeleva, director of public relations for electric vehicle and hybrid brands Evolute and Voyah, the new rules actually prohibit the daily use of electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids if the owner does not have access to expensive or rarely seen infrastructure.
A separate issue concerns residents who purchased an apartment but were unable to buy a special parking space for an electric car. As Armen Safaryan noted, in a number of regions, including Moscow, the standard provides for only about 5% of parking spaces intended for electric vehicles, which may create additional difficulties for their owners.
In his opinion, the risks of slowing down the development of the electric transport industry, which has been actively supported in recent years through multibillion-dollar investments and government support measures, are increasing. Now, buying an electric car can be associated with additional costs if the issue of a specialized parking space is not resolved in advance, both in a new residential complex and in an existing building that is undergoing major repairs, reconstruction or installation of a home charging station. As a result, the new requirements may become an additional factor influencing citizens' decision to purchase an electric car, Armen Safaryan concluded.
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