DC Council bill would mandate more charging infrastructure for electric cars

District residents and commuters may have access to more places to charge electric vehicles in a few years, if the DC Council adopts a new bill mandating additional charging infrastructure.

The bill from Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh, introduced March 19, would require new or heavily renovated commercial and multi-family buildings with off-street parking to provide wiring and other electrical equipment that could support a future electric-car charging station. The Electric Vehicle Readiness Amendment Act would apply to 20 percent of the parking spaces for such buildings as of 2021.

In an interview, Cheh told The DC Line that she believes the bill could spark increased demand for electric cars, furthering city efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

“What you have here is, ‘If you build it, they will come,’” Cheh said. “As people have greater and greater confidence they’ll be able to charge their vehicle, I think we are facilitating the acquisition of more electric vehicles.”

Furthermore, Cheh added, the District’s move toward renewable energy sources will make it particularly environmentally friendly to charge electric cars in the future. A growing number of automakers now offer partially or fully electric vehicles, which are growing nationally in popularity as the vehicles’ mileage ranges improve and they become more affordable.

Many parking garages around the city already provide electric car chargers, though not to the extent or with the consistency that Cheh’s bill would require. Asked why the DC Council needs to mandate electric vehicle infrastructure rather than letting the free market demand it, Cheh said the issue is that developers don’t always plan for infrastructure that might be demanded in the future.

“There’s a disconnect often between people who build stuff for buildings, and tenants or later owners,” said Cheh. “That’s not necessarily uppermost in their mind, and we’ve always had that with respect to lots of things.”

The DC Building Industry Association didn’t respond to requests for comment on the proposal.

Cheh staffers modeled the new bill on similar laws in other cities, including San Francisco and Atlanta. Closer to home, Howard County in Maryland recently implemented policies establishing minimum charging capabilities at commercial buildings, apartments and single-family homes. None of the laws require builders to install a charging station, only the wiring that would later support one.

The DC proposal won hearty endorsement from officers of the Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington, DC — a local advocacy group and owners’ club for electric cars. Ron Kaltenbaugh, the association’s president, said this approach would allow an EV owner to cost-effectively install a charging station at any time.

“Putting in the necessary wiring and conduits is so much less expensive at build time than later on that it really enables the possibility for future needs,” Kaltenbaugh said in an interview. “Otherwise you’ve got to tear up concrete, do all sorts of other things, to do this after the fact.”

The vast majority of electric car drivers recharge at home, he said, with the No. 2 choice being at work. The new legislation would help both types of drivers — particularly in a city where relatively few residents have single-family homes with their own driveways or garages.

As of 2016, just 632 electric vehicles were registered in the District out of 308,000 total vehicles, according to figures the Department of Motor Vehicles provided to The Current Newspapers at the time. (The agency declined to provide updated figures to The DC Line.)

Kaltenbaugh and association vice president Scott Wilson said that low operating costs, ever-increasing vehicle ranges and zippy acceleration are steadily winning converts to electric vehicles — but residents of multifamily buildings often have the most difficulty finding a place to charge one.

“The more you open up that opportunity to charge at home — wherever home is — the more people get a chance to get out ahead,” said Wilson.

Cheh aides said they expect a hearing on the Electric Vehicle Readiness Amendment Act by early summer in the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, which she chairs. The legislation was also referred to the Committee of the Whole, which is led by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, one of the bill’s seven co-sponsors.

A previous Cheh initiative targeted public installations. In early 2018, the DC Council passed a law requiring the Transportation Department to install at least 15 new charging stations, including at least one in each ward, by January 2019.

However, that deadline has passed, and the agency doesn’t know when it will be ready to implement the initiative. Transportation Department spokesperson Terry Owens told The DC Line that the agency will work with private vendors on the project, which will ultimately select the locations. But first, the agency must draft permit requirements that will govern the program.  

“We are working on developing a permit process for the installation of the chargers. No firm timeline as yet,” Owens wrote in an email.

Asked about the delay, Cheh said she’s “always frustrated” when an agency is slow to implement District law. “I haven’t yet — after some time in this office — accommodated myself to these kinds of delays, but I’m no longer as surprised by them,” she said.

The DC Department of Transportation has an existing curbside charging station outside the Reeves Center, 2000 14th St. NW, which it installed in 2011. Another on-street installation, part of a project built by a nonprofit on DC land with support from the city’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, is in the 1000 block of 2nd Place SE alongside Canal Park.

Fees for public charging stations can vary widely, and rates often incorporate a charge for parking as well as the expense of electricity and charging equipment. Current and proposed DC laws regarding electric car chargers don’t regulate rates for use of the equipment.