Which states require EV-ready parking in new apartment construction?

No. As of September 2026, this review independently verified statewide EV-ready or EV-capable parking mandates for new multifamily construction in exactly three states: California, Washington and Colorado. That is a checked count, not a complete national count — most states were not researched in this pass, and a state's absence from this page means unresearched, not confirmed to have no requirement. Some cities also layer their own requirement on top of, or in the absence of, a state rule; New York City is one, covered separately below. Always confirm the current requirement with the project's own building department before designing to a number from this page.

California, Washington and Colorado, checked against a government or code-hosting source in September 2026. Each state defines the requirement differently — by percentage of spaces, by category of space, and on a different effective date — so the table below states each one's own terms rather than a single blended rule.

California's 2025 CALGreen code, effective January 1, 2026, requires a complete EV-ready circuit — not just conduit — at essentially every assigned parking space in new multifamily construction. Under §4.106.4.2.2, where a building provides assigned parking spaces equal to or greater than the number of dwelling units, every assigned space must have a low-power Level 2 EV charging receptacle; where assigned spaces are fewer than dwelling units, all assigned spaces must have one. On top of that, at least 25% of unassigned or common-use parking spaces must have an installed Level 2 EV charger, not just wiring, available to residents and guests. This is a stricter standard than a conduit-only 'EV-capable' requirement — California's code goes straight to a working receptacle at nearly every assigned stall.

Washington's state building code splits the requirement across three tiers instead of one number. Under WAC 51-50-0429, Table 429.2, a new Group R (multifamily) building must provide EV Charging Stations — chargers actually installed and energized — at 10% of total parking spaces, EV-Ready spaces (a complete circuit with no charger yet installed) at 25%, and EV-Capable spaces (reserved panel capacity and conduit, no circuit run) at a further 10%. That means 45% of total parking spaces carry some tier of EV infrastructure obligation, split across three different levels of build-out. The rule took effect March 15, 2024.

Colorado requires new multifamily construction to provide EV-ready parking capacity statewide, but this review can confirm the legal requirement and its effective date with more confidence than it can confirm the exact percentage. HB22-1362 (2022) directed the state to develop a model 'electric ready and solar ready' code; HB23-1233 (2023) set the adoption and enforcement timing, with rules effective March 1, 2024 and a bona-fide-safety-concern standard for any local deviation. The specific figure widely reported for multifamily EV-ready spaces is 20% of parking spaces, sourced in this pass to municipal-government pages that reproduce the state's own explanatory notes rather than to the code document itself, which returned a blocked request on every attempt. Confirm the exact current percentage with the Colorado Division of Housing or a local building department before using it in a design.

No, as of September 2026 New York State has no statewide EV-ready parking mandate for new multifamily construction. A bill that would have created one, S7406C, would have required 75% EV-capable parking with at least 20% charger-equipped for buildings with 2–10 spaces, and 100% EV-capable with at least 40% charger-equipped for buildings with 11 or more spaces, effective April 1, 2023. Checked directly against its own status page at the New York Senate's website: S7406C passed the Senate in June 2022 but never came to a vote in the Assembly committee where it was referred, and it was not enacted. New York has no equivalent statewide statute in force in its place. This is a confirmed absence, not an unresearched one.

Possibly — some cities set their own requirement independent of the state, and New York City is a documented example, though this review could not independently confirm its exact terms. New York City's Local Law 55 of 2024 requires open parking lots and parking garages with 10 or more spaces that need a Department of Consumer and Worker Protection license to provide EV charging capability, with a higher share required for new or substantially altered facilities than for existing ones. Multiple legal and industry sources describe the new-construction share as 20% of spaces with an installed charger and 60% EV-ready, but the law's own text at nyc.gov returned a blocked automated request on every attempt in this pass, so those percentages are not independently confirmed here. A project team in New York City should get the current requirement directly from the NYC Department of Buildings rather than from this page.

Under both Washington's and California's codes, the three terms mark different amounts of finished electrical work, from least to most: EV-capable means reserved panel capacity and empty conduit run to the space, with no circuit and no receptacle yet; EV-ready means a complete dedicated branch circuit terminating in a receptacle at the space, ready to accept a charger with no further electrical work; and an EV charging station (sometimes called EV-installed) means an actual Level 2 charger is physically mounted and energized. California's 2025 code moves almost directly to the EV-ready tier for assigned spaces rather than stopping at EV-capable, while Washington's code uses all three tiers side by side, at different percentages of the same parking count. The terms are not standardized across every state that uses them — read the definitions section of the specific code that applies to a project rather than assuming one state's usage matches another's.