Salt Lake City Approves Ordinance Update to Expand Electric Vehicle Charging at New Multi-Family Properties

One of the many ways Salt Lake City works to improve air quality is by making it easier to own an electric vehicle, which doesn’t emit any tailpipe pollution.
On that topic, we’re excited to report that theSalt Lake City Council enacted our proposed electric vehicle readiness standards on April 4!
This will enable more residents to charge their vehicles at home if they live in a new multi-family building.
The electric vehicle readiness standards were adopted as part of the Off-Street Parking ordinance (21A.44) and will require multi-family new-construction properties to include electric vehicle ready (EV-ready) infrastructure at 20% of installed parking spaces. It does not require that the EV stations themselves be installed; only the electric capacity and conduit to make it that much easier to put in a station as demand increases.
An EV-ready parking stall has sufficient electrical capacity for the future use of a minimum 200-volt EV charging station. With the understanding that the majority of charging events take place at home, this new requirement will address a growing need for residential charging and set the foundation of more accessible charging in the future.
Increasing the adoption of EVs will help our wintertime PM2.5 pollution, as well as reduce summertime ozone pollution. Electric vehicles produce zero direct emissions and help to maintain a cleaner airshed for our community.
Electric vehicles are also more efficient and have a lower overall carbon footprint than their gasoline counterparts. This will only increase as our electric grid becomes cleaner (see the City’s efforts with Rocky Mountain Power and 17 other communities on the Community Renewable Energy Program). EV emission reductions will be even more significant as the electricity used to charge them is sourced from more renewable energy.
Due to their affordability and environmental benefits, EVs have been growing in popularity year after year. In fact, 1,043 EVs were registered in Salt Lake City in 2020 alone. While we are excited to see more people are able to drive electric, we understand barriers like lack of accessible charging and range anxiety still exist for many.
In the past several years, Salt Lake City installed 20 public EV charging stations and adopted a requirement in 2017 that multi-family properties must provide 1 electric vehicle charging station per 25 required parking spaces.
The recent approval of the EV Readiness Ordinance marks yet another major milestone to help achieve increased accessibility and adoption of EVs in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City continues to work on expanding access to electric vehicle charging stations. Stay tuned for further outreach opportunities and updates later this year!
To learn more about the benefits of the Electric Vehicle Readiness Ordinance, check out Utah Clean Energy’s blog.