California will require EV charging for all new residential units in 2026
California will require EV charging for all new residential units in 2026
California is taking a big step towards solving the only real problem with EVs - charging for people who don't own a garage.
Summary
Starting in 2026, California will require all new residential units with parking spaces to be EV charger-ready, significantly increasing access to electric vehicle charging.
Multi-family developments must equip at least one EV-ready spot per unit, while hotels, commercial lots, and parking renovations will also face new EV charging mandates.
Advocacy groups praise the policy, emphasizing its balanced approach to affordability and infrastructure needs.
The initiative aligns with California’s 2035 ban on new gas-powered car sales, aiming to address key barriers to EV adoption and support the state’s transition to electrification.
Great to see this. In 10 years ice cars will not be sold so this needs to happen now.
Now if only we could build way more new residential units in CA.
I was going to say. I'm sure this will be great... for all 25 new homes built in CA that year!
Unfortunately every apartment I have lived in with charging adds a massive markup to the electricity coming out of the chargers. At one place we were paying $150/month for a space with an EV charger and the electricity coming from the charger was still billed at around 10x the base rate. It was far cheaper to fill our plugin hybrid with gas than to use the charger in our parking space.
I’m sure the same will apply here. It doesn’t help anyone if the complex is allowed to gouge the tenants on the electricity usage.
In theory chargers being more readily available will help with this. If they mark up the electricity 10x and all the tenants just charge at work instead, there's a motive to make the price more competitive. In practice we might just end up with more AI price fixing and consumers with no recourse.
Yeah, it’s really annoying. My ex’s association just voted against chargers. The plan was to set aside a distant parking lot and have a service come in to run them, profit off them.
The thing is these are townhouses with front service entrance, mostly with parking spots just across the sidewalk. It would be cheaper and easier to run a wire from the service entrance under the sidewalk, to a pedestal by the spot, and let it be part of their regular electric bill. This would also let you phase it in over time, rather than spend a ton of money at once
Frankly incredible that the NEC isn't requiring this in all new editions yet. Absurdly short sighted. Like, it's just 1 circuit to a garage if a garage is present. All the yokel states can refuse to adopt that section if they want, whatever.
It's good to know the rich people will be able to charge their expensive cars.
The goal is to start making charging ubiquitous, so it will eventually be available to everyone. Let wealthy early adopters pay to build out the infrastructure and the market, so it will be everywhere ready to use
False, The used Chevrolet Bolt, Bolt EUV and Nissan Leaf EV's are affordable and there are plenty of them on the market with low mileage.
that's not even mentioning the Chinease cards from manufactures like BYD (outside the US)
Don’t they need to make it mandatory to increase capacity first? Most average residential streets probably dont have enough power to charge an EV on every address simultaneously.
Most average residential streets probably dont have enough power to charge an EV on every address simultaneously.
[citation needed]
I'm not saying you are wrong, but this sounds very much like a statement made definitively because it sounds like it might be true but has no particular basis in fact. I'd like to know if you have those facts.
It's likely true, but doesn't have to be, and the fact that this is being phased in with only new units means the power company can plan for it.
The transformers for the neighborhood can provide a certain amount of kVA at once. If all houses on a single transformer drew their max load, they would overload it. The power company plans on that not happening, because people vary their load from minute to minute. A hair dryer goes on in one building when an electric stove is turned off in another.
A few of those houses could upgrade their service. We upgraded ours from 100A to 200A when we installed solar and got EVs. However, if all our neighbors tried to do that, the power company would tell the last few on the list that they couldn't provide capacity (possibly more than a few). This is why smart circuit breaker boxes are important. They can be programmed to turn on certain circuits for high draw items, like electric dryers or an EV charger, in a round-robin fashion so nothing is drawing too much at once. People can get one of those and keep their 100A service.
When it's building new, though, the power company is consulted on how much power the unit needs and they plan accordingly. It's a non-issue for this purpose.
This is completely untrue. While there might be some streets unable to do this, it is definitely not most.
A) This requires 20A charging, which is lower power draw than a normal electric dryer. Are you super concerned about houses having dryers? What about air conditioners? They pull literally 3 times the power. How can we possibly install air conditioners in every house?!?!
B) The vast majority of these will be used late at night, when most electric draw is at a minimum (like air conditioners and dryers).
Somewhat true but this won't happen overnight and the power companies will upgrade capacity to meet the needs over time
Carry on California and tell the MAGAts to shove it up their asses.
@MicroWave Granted, I live in New Jersey, so this doesn't affect me. But what about for those of us who don't drive? I, for example, am totally blind. Why should those of us without cars have to pay for renovations that we don't need? What about people who don't own or want these cars, and who don't have any friends who do? It says for new residential buildings, but then, it talks about multi-family ones, so I'm assuming that existing homes would require them as well.