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This will be a new article about electric vehicles in the United States. EVs are in serious trouble on a global scale, as discussed earlier this week in the Car Market Wrap. In the United States, EVs have also suffered from a lack of government support in recent months, with subsidies withdrawn and vehicle pollution regulations rolled back by the Biden administration. However, new data from Telemetry suggest that EV adoption in the United States could be stymied by a more mundane issue: the amount of clutter in U.S. garages.

For many owners, the thought of having to deal with charging is one of the biggest obstacles to buying an electric car. A recent report by Telemetry Vice President Sam Abuelsamid highlights a charging problem that often goes unmentioned: U.S. garage utilization.

Fast chargers along highways and in parking lots have received a lot of attention, but for many Americans, home charging is where they are most likely to charge. It is estimated that about 80% of all EV charging occurs via AC power, and a significant portion of this takes place in a single-family house. Home charging accounted for 52% of total electric vehicle charging in the United States in 2022, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The NREL looked at parking space and existing outlet data from a national survey to figure out how many people already have access to a 240-volt outlet capable of supporting the widespread level 2 charger. According to NREL statistics, 42 percent of homeowners in the United States are already charging near an outlet.

The same homeowners could increase the percentage of people charging to 68 percent if they modified their parking patterns and opened up their garages to EVs, according to Telemetry. “The number of households that could charge EVs in the United States will be determined by the willingness of homeowners to park and charge their cars there,” says Abuelsamid, who is also a director at NREL.

“The vast majority of all houses will have the ability to put a 240 V outlet close to where a car can be parked. As a result, parking behavior, especially whether people park their cars in a private garage or use it for storage, is likely to become an important determinant of EV adoption.”

The figure for single-family housing capable of charging is currently at 31 million homes, but could exceed 50 million if owners park their cars in their garages rather than storing items. Owners of single-family homes capable of charging their cars would rise to more than 72 million if residents could run new wiring. This figure is much higher than Telemetry’s most recent EV sales forecast of 33 million to 57 million vehicles for 2035.

If that is the case, vehicle ownership is going to be critical in order to actually get the EVs that are able to charge in the first place. Abuelsamid estimates that the number of cars sold in the United States is roughly equal to the number of registered cars in the country.

Parking lots have their own issues, of course. The majority of single-family residences, according to NREL statistics, will need a new circuit at the very least to support level 2 charging. A third of American single-family homes will also have to update their electric panel to be able to charge. For around 2.3% of U.S. houses, upgrading the electrical panel and installing new wiring would be necessary.

Cost Is the Key

Installing an EV charger may cost the average household thousands of dollars in electrical upgrades if they don’t already have a dedicated 240V circuit that can handle at least 30 amps, according to Abuelsamid. The high costs of bringing homes up to code is one reason why the promise of owning an EV can be an attractive, long-term ownership option. After factoring in charger installation, the total cost of ownership can quickly become equivalent or greater to a gas-powered car.

Building out home charging infrastructure can be even more of an issue for people who live in multifamily housing such as apartments, condos, or townhomes. Individual EV drivers in multifamily residences may or may not have the right to put in chargers, depending on their lease. Multifamily tenants must first gain permission from their landlord, a housing cooperative, or their condominium association to charge.

People who live in multifamily residences have a difficult time receiving financial help from local governments or utilities to get a charger put in, and landlords and co-ops face a bigger bill as well. Even though some states, such as California and New York, are mandating 20–25 percent EV-ready parking in new multifamily developments, residents of multifamily homes would still only have an estimated 6.7 million to 11.4 million charging-capable parking spots by 2035 according to Telemetry.

EV owners who live in multifamily housing make up about one-third of all EV drivers, with around one million in 1.2 million vehicles living in multifamily housing in the United States. The vast majority of them are not close enough to a circuit to recharge. Approximately 23 percent of Americans own an EV.

The Public Charging Network

Home charging, whether in single-family or multifamily housing, has its restrictions. Public charging, particularly along highways and major roads, will become a crucial aspect of the charging infrastructure as the market expands. Telemetry estimates that between 11.7 million and 14.3 million EV owners who own single-family homes will continue to use public charging in 2035. An additional 7.8 million to 8.1 million EV owners living in multifamily homes will also use public charging.

The NREL study also identified that an extra 523,000 to 586,000 DC fast chargers would be needed, as well as 1.5 million to 1.6 million level 2 chargers throughout the United States, to meet the projected demand. Power suppliers, however, are already under a lot of strain. The high demand for new AI data centers to construct is having a significant impact on the generation and distribution capacity of grid-scale charging stations, which is becoming a significant bottleneck for expanding the nation’s charging infrastructure.

Conclusion

As Telemetry’s findings demonstrate, the road to EV market penetration in the United States is fraught with roadblocks at all levels. Millions of homes in the United States could support an EV charger if owners would simply clear out their garages, install a new outlet, and park their vehicle in it. However, that is not the case, and the expense of upgrading the electricity in older homes or apartments is high.

On the one hand, charging infrastructure will be a critical need for EVs as the rollout of public charging infrastructure is predicted to struggle to keep up with demand in the coming years. The government’s legislative support, then, may be more important than ever. The only question is how long consumers will be willing to wait for charging to be fixed, given that they are now having issues with shortages of new vehicles and supply chains.