Requirements for Electric Vehicle Charging in New Non-Residential Buildings – Climate Emergency

This report advances the Climate Emergency Action Plan by increasing access to electric vehicle charging in buildings, consistent with Big Move 3, which seeks to ensure that by 2030, 50% of the kilometres driven on Vancouver’s roads are by zero emissions vehicles. This report recommends changes to the new construction requirements for non-residential buildings that will better reflect how users access these buildings, enabling more people who commute by car to switch to an EV; and, for businesses to offer EV charging to their customers and other visitors.

These comprehensive requirements have minimal increases in new construction costs and would significantly reduce future costs of retrofitting for EV chargers. This report recommends:

• Creating EV charging requirements for all forms of new non-residential buildings, including updates to the existing EV charging requirements for new Commercial Buildings that were introduced in 2013.
• Allowing developers to substitute DC Fast Charging in place of Level 2 charging to support potential business, operational, or other benefits.
• Re-defining car-share stalls (also known as Shared Vehicle stalls) in new construction to require that charging infrastructure, including a charging station, be included in Shared Vehicle stalls within newly constructed buildings.
• Establishing minimum amounts of EV charging requirements in accessible stalls in new non-residential buildings.

These new requirements will complement existing regulations for new residential construction, ongoing efforts to expand the public charging network, retrofits in multi-family rental buildings, among other policies under development to support Vancouver residents and visitors. Based on consultation with Development, Buildings and Licensing, the short term impacts on permitting staff are expected to be manageable and will be further minimized through staff and industry training. Over the longer term, ensuring that new buildings are designed to meet future needs will minimize the need for charging retrofits and the accompanying pressures on permitting staff.

• This work is one of the priority actions from the Climate Emergency Action Plan and plays a significant roles in reducing GHGs in Vancouver and the region.
• The transportation sector generates approximately 40% of the emissions that the City has regulatory influence over, of which internal combustion vehicles generate the majority of emissions.