Futureproofing multifamily buildings for EV charging

The Government of Canada recently established a standard that all new passenger vehicles sold be zero emission by 2035. This will exponentially increase demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging over the coming decades.

Charging at home is the most affordable and convenient option for most EV owners. Yet while a third of Canada’s population live in multifamily buildings, only a fraction have EV charging access. This is due to a range of barriers including high investment hurdle rates, an absence of incentive programs, complex internal approval processes and a lack of awareness regarding the upcoming surge in EV charging demand.

The time to act is now. This report outlines how Canadian decision-makers can support futureproofing of multifamily buildings and ensure all residents can access EV charging at home. It presents 16 recommendations related to policy, incentives, financing and capacity building to accelerate comprehensive retrofitting instead of incremental approaches.

Key takeaways

• New policies and programs that enable comprehensive, whole building retrofits in multifamily buildings for “EV-Ready” parking are necessary to achieve local and national climate targets and equity goals around transportation.
• To keep pace with the EV-ready retrofits that are needed, interventions should enable whole building, comprehensive retrofits over a fragmented approach.
• Developing an approach to futureproofing EV charging in multifamily buildings is an equity issue, and this work should be designed to meet the needs of equity-deserving households.
• Comprehensive futureproofing approaches can create strategic linkages with other urban climate priorities of broad building electrification and transportation modal shift.

Recommendations (next steps)

Based on the research and findings detailed in this report, we present our recommendations to support the widespread deployment of comprehensive futureproofing across Canada.

Read the report

Read the briefing

Quotes

“Comprehensive futureproofing of multifamily buildings with EV charging infrastructure is key to enable the full transition to EVs over the next 2-3 decades. With careful planning, these approaches can also enable broader building decarbonization by reserving limited electrical capacity for heat pumps and other electrification retrofits. While comprehensive EV futureproofing is the lowest cost approach on a life cycle basis, a variety of market failures prevent the condo and rental apartment sectors from implementing these approaches without supportive government policies and programs. Dunsky is proud to have served FCM and the LC3 Network, describing comprehensive futureproofing approaches and innovative policies and programs to drive their widespread adoption across Canada.”
—Brendan McEwen, Managing Consultant, Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors