Importance of EV Community Readiness

As electric vehicles grow, it is integral for communities to instill readiness planning to be prepared for industry shifts and changes within their jurisdiction. EV readiness topics can include anything from building codes, permitting, resiliency, charging station standardization, environmental justice/equity, and forecasting & goals.  

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DFWCC works with local governments to try to help guide and prepare entities for the growing electrification trends. From a regional perspective, consistent and streamlined local government efforts is integral in driving North Texas as a leader in EV readiness.   

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For more information and resources on EV community readiness, visit the DOE Alternative Fuel Data Center’s page here: https://afdc.energy.gov/pev-readiness.html
 

EV-READY BUILDING CODES & STANDARDS 

Across the United States, cities are planning for EVs by integrating charging infrastructure ready requirements within their building codes and parking requirements. In May 2024, the International Code Council (ICC) updated the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) to include commercial and residential EV charging infrastructure requirements to support the implementation of electric vehicle charging. See Appendices CG Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure and RE Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code. 

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DFW Clean Cities and NCTCOG encourage local governments to integrate the 2024 IECC commercial and residential EV charging infrastructure requirements within their building codes and parking requirements to help their communities be EV ready.

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EV parking spaces can be differentiated by three categories:

• EV Capable Space: A designated automobile parking space that is provided with electrical infrastructure such as, but not limited to, raceways, cables, electrical capacity, a panelboard or other electrical distribution equipment space necessary for the future installation of an EVSE.

• EV Ready Space: An automobile parking space that is provided with a brand circuit and an outlet, junction box or receptacle that will support an installed EVSE.

• EVSE Space: An automobile parking space that is provided with a dedicated EVSE connection.

 

Resources:

• International Code Council Electric Vehicles and Building Codes: A Strategy for Greenhouse Gas Reductions Report: https://www.iccsafe.org/wp-content/uploads/21-20604_COMM_EV_Strategy_RPT_v5.pdf

• Pacific Northwest National Lab, Building Energy Codes Page:  https://www.pnnl.gov/building-energy-codes

 

SETTING LONG-RANGE GOALS

Use tools and forecasts to anticipate how many charging stations will be needed to support growing EVs and help guide and better plan for investments and power needs.

Local Example:  The City of Dallas Comprehensive Environmental Climate Action Plan (CECAP) has an EV

Charging goal of 1500 publicly accessible EV charging plugs by 2030. To see more of the CECAP plan, visit here: https://www.dallasclimateaction.com/
 

INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS

To help guide placement, quantity, and types of EV charging infrastructure investments needed into the future, there are various tools and resources available that can be used to.

 

Existing EV and Infrastructure data:

DOE Alternative Fuel Station Locator Tool: https://afdc.energy.gov/stations/#/find/nearest

Use to find how many and what type of EV stations are within your jurisdiction to help identify existing gaps in charging. Currently EVs are less than 1% of all vehicles in North Texas and projections forecast EVs could be over 30% of all vehicles by 2040- this significant industry shift could require more than 75 times the amount of existing infrastructure to accommodate the vehicle electrification shift.

DFW Clean Cities EV registration Tools: https://www.dfwcleancities.org/evnt

Use to find out how many EVs are registered within your jurisdiction. This can help you use different infrastructure needs tools to see how many stations are needed in that specific area to serve the amount of EVs currently residing. However- please note that low EV registration does not mean lesser stations are needed- many times lack of available infrastructure may be the causation of lesser EVs- So concentrate on more of filling geographic gaps than current EV registration.

 

EV Infrastructure Tools:

National Renewable Energy Lab’s National Plug in Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Analysis:  https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2017/09/f36/NationalPlugInElectricVehicleInfrastructureAnalysis_Sept2017.pdf

This report addresses the fundamental question of how much plug-in electric vehicle charging infrastructure is needed to support electric vehicles in the United states. Report states the need of 36 level 2 non residential charging plugs and 1.5 DC Fast Charging (DCFC) non residential charging plugs per 1000 EVs- which can be used in calculating the amount of needed EV charging plugs to support current or projected electric vehicles.
 

EVI Pro Lite: https://afdc.energy.gov/evi-pro-lite

EVI-Pro Lite is a Department of Energy tool for projecting consumer demand for electric vehicle charging infrastructure separated out by states or urbanized areas. Quick and very user friendly tool to get a general idea of infrastructure needs and can adjust values including percent drivers with access to home charging and percent plug in versus full battery electric need.
 

E-Drive tool: https://www.mjbradley.com/content/E-DRIVE

The E-DRIVE tool is an online tool to rank the best locations for new DCFC infrastructure using data sources on existing DCFCs from the Alternative Fuels Data Centers, traffic data, ACS demographic data. It is free and available to use here: https://www.mjbradley.com/content/E-DRIVE. As a disclaimer, NCTCOG/DFWCC does not directly endorse this tool, but is sharing it as a resource that can be used customize metrics for scoping areas of highest suitability for DCFC. Entities with GIS support are encouraged to apply additional filters, like transit access, that aren't included in the tool.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE / EQUITY

Work to ensure equitable charging infrastructure investments to help reduce accessibility gaps for environmental justice populations, including low income and minority residents.  Entities can help build out a complete EV charging network accessible both locally and inter-regionally.

To find out more about North Texas Environmental Justice, see the NCTCOG Environmental Justice page here: https://www.nctcog.org/trans/quality/ej