State of Apartment and Condo Charging Q2 2025

EV adoption is surging, but if you live in an apartment or condo, charging your car still sucks.

While single-family homeowners enjoy seamless home charging, millions of renters are stuck juggling extension cords, overpriced public chargers, and convoluted building politics. Q2 2025 has made one thing painfully clear: multifamily housing is still the Wild West of EV infrastructure.

The Have-Nots: Convenience Costs a Premium

Most apartment dwellers are flying blind in a charging jungle. Charging costs can swing wildly—from $0.18/kWh to $0.50+, plus hidden idle fees. Some ChargePoint stations slash your power in half when another car plugs in. Others penalize you with hourly fees after 30 minutes, regardless of the time or context.

If you’re lucky enough to find a charger, you might still need to replug it multiple times to get it working. Or share it with a neighbor using a janky switch on a dryer outlet. Some buildings don’t even allow that. One Vancouver resident can’t believe they can charge for free while others down the street pay $2/hour—just because of a billing setup error the landlord hasn’t caught yet.

There’s no consistency. No predictability. Just a whole lot of duct-tape solutions masking a systemic failure to plan for EVs.

Apartment Infrastructure: Broken, Bloated, or Nonexistent

Stories abound of chargers installed a year ago that still aren’t energized. Of buildings with 180 units and five chargers. Of management companies shrugging off complaints because they don’t own the stations. Of condos where you need board approval, a hefty “activation fee,” and your own equipment—just to get started.

Worse, some chargers throttle your power down to 3.3kW while your neighbor’s Tesla pulls twice that—on the same outlet.

Meanwhile, property managers enforce idle fees but don’t install enough chargers. Or they reserve spots for EVs but don’t fix broken cables for weeks. If you need a charge at 9 PM, you might be expected to go down at 2 AM to unplug or face a penalty.

Retrofitting? Prepare for Battle

Want to install a charger? Get in line. Your building might lack the electrical capacity. Your HOA might delay approval for months. Even when you’re willing to pay out of pocket, outdated panels and old-school management slow everything to a crawl.

And while a few buildings score grants or share install costs smartly (like the Philly condo where residents pay $875 once, and $5/month), they’re the exception. Most multifamily units still treat EV charging like a luxury, not a basic utility.

It’s Not Just Annoying. It’s a Barrier

These aren’t just inconveniences—they’re dealbreakers. People in apartments are turning away from EVs altogether, opting for hybrids or gas just to avoid the headache. Even with free DC fast charging at dealerships or local business parks, the mental load and logistical dance are pushing potential EV buyers back into combustion.

And this friction is feeding anti-EV narratives. Critics ask, “Why buy an EV if you can’t even charge it at home?” The answer, for too many renters, is: “You probably shouldn’t.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

The EV revolution can’t be just for suburban homeowners. If we want widespread adoption, we need charging that’s reliable, accessible, and priced fairly—especially in cities.

That means:

• Mandating retrofit-friendly policies.
• Slashing red tape for charger installs.
• Giving renters a voice in charging decisions.
• And above all, acknowledging that this is a pain point—one that’s not going away unless we get serious.

The market isn’t fixing this fast enough. Policy, incentives, and pressure need to step in.

Until then, apartment charging in 2025 is less “smart grid” and more “survival mode.”

In the meantime…

If you’ve got access to a plain old outlet near where you park, and you can convince the property owner to trust that you’ll check in, check out, and actually pay them, our app-based service solves your problem.

No hardware. No middlemen. No BS.

Explore EVnSteven - and turn that dumb outlet into a smart charging solution.