A Charged Situation

“Electric cars are the future.”

- Albert II, Prince of Monaco

One of the increasingly common conversations taking place at condominium associations is what to do about the increase in electric vehicles. Or, more accurately, what should a board of directors do about the request for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations? It's not a question that will disappear anytime soon.

Regardless of whether someone likes trucks, Toyotas or Teslas, the fact is electric vehicles are here to stay and more and more are being sold. Car and Driver recently noted EV registrations increased 60% from 2021 through 2022, and it estimates EVs will comprise 25-30% of all new vehicles sales by 2030 (7 years!) and 40-45% by 2035.

Even if they are wrong, and the figures are closer to 20%, that is still a huge increase in the number of EVs in a very short period of time. So, if EVs are not yet at your condominium associations, they will be soon. More and more owners in your association will purchase them, and more and more owners who have them will want to move into your Association.

If you don't have EV charging stations at your condominium association you are soon going to have owners contacting your board of directors and requesting them. So, it might be best to get ahead of the coming requests.

First, it's important to note that currently there is no legal requirement to have EV charging stations in a condominium associations. Eleven states have Right to Charge laws that require associations to allow someone to have EV charging stations. New Hampshire is not one of them. More and more states are passing such laws; eventually New Hampshire likely will.

Second, there should be some things for your association to consider in developing an EV policy. I would never recommend a public EV station (or two or three) on the common area. If your association installs one, it will run into problems. How long can any owner use the station? If you set a time limit for charging, some will say it's not enough time to fully charge their battery, and others will say it's too much time as others need to use them. Who is going to track the time and make sure one person disconnects and moves their EV so others can use it? If an owner is confronted by an angry next-in-line EV Owner, arguments, and perhaps worse, will erupt. And how many people routinely will go outside, trudge through the snow or a hot summer night, unplug their vehicle and allow the next person to use the charging station, especially if they don't know if someone else is waiting to use it.

If your association still thinks it would be appropriate to have multiple charging stations, get quotes as each station can be expensive to install, upwards of $40,000.00. So how many does yourassociation spend to put them in? One? Two? Three? More?

If you do, where does the money come from? If you take it out of Reserves, some will rightly complain about draining the Reserves for the benefit a vast minority of owners. Then you have to figure out how much you will charge owners for using them.

Not charging owners will surely lead to complaints from owners that don't have EVs, and that much of the association's reserves for the convenience of just a few owners.

The better policy would be one where owners who have a garage have to apply for permission to install a dedicated line by a licensed electrician in their garage.

If your association does not have garages, you can allow owners to use an outdoor outlet to charge their vehicles.