Report calls for all new apartment buildings to have EV charging capability

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 26, 2025 10:39 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Downtown Vancouver nonmigratory Abhay Gambhir has owned a Tesla for implicit a year, and contempt loving his car, helium has to thrust to Richmond regularly to complaint it.

That's due to the fact that Gambhir, similar galore of the city's residents, lives successful an apartment. While helium wants to bargain an EV charger for his parking spot, helium hasn't heard backmost from his landlord for 2 months.

"It's not conscionable 30 minutes. It's driving to the supercharger, supercharging, past staying determination for 30 minutes," helium said. "It's wide similar 45, 50 minutes."

A caller study from Clean Energy Canada is calling connected each levels of authorities to guarantee caller flat buildings travel equipped with electrical conveyance chargers, and besides supply backing to retrofit older buildings.

The report, published Wednesday, argues that a deficiency of at-home charging for flat dwellers is an impediment to EV adoption much mostly — particularly successful a portion similar Metro Vancouver, wherever census information shows 60 per cent of residents unrecorded successful apartments.

"There's a fig of antithetic municipalities crossed B.C. that are starting to instrumentality enactment and look astatine EV readiness successful condos and apartments," said Rachel Doran, vice-president of argumentation and strategy astatine Clean Energy Canada. "But what we're calling for is truly a spot much of a broad approach."

Clean Energy Canada is simply a deliberation vessel that's based retired of Simon Fraser University successful Metro Vancouver.

Its study says that Quebec leads the state successful requiring caller multi-unit buildings to beryllium 100 per cent EV-ready, which means each parking spot has the capableness for a Level 2 EV charger.

Doran said B.C. has some rules that accidental flat dwellers person the ineligible close to instal EV charging stations, erstwhile they person support to bash so, astatine their ain cost.

"A bully argumentation solution volition besides include, you know, supports to effort to assistance retrofit these buildings," she said. 

"Those bigger policies, and hopefully not a piecemeal attack crossed municipalities, but thing a spot much azygous would beryllium helpful."

Doran said that having caller buildings beryllium equipped with EV-charging capabilities is much outgo effective, arsenic it costs 4 times more to retrofit an existing flat building.

The expert said that successful Metro Vancouver, national information showed that immoderate of the municipalities — similar Lions Bay and Belcarra — that had the highest complaint of EV adoption past twelvemonth had nary flat buildings at all, according to the 2021 census.

"We're truly seeing a correlation present successful immoderate circumstances, and wide grounds that the radical who are buying the EVs today are apt ones wherever they tin spell location and plug in," she said.

"We truly request to beryllium making definite that we're not creating, benignant of, a outgo down the road."