Power equipment costs with junk garage and EV adoption methods
Most homes can support electric charging outlets, but not all have room to park your car.
- According to telemetry, not owning your own home presents considerable complications with installing an EV charging.
- Installing a home charger costs an average of $2,000.
As adoption of electric vehicles rises, more Americans will need to clean their garages.
This is because residential charging systems are important for courting higher EV sales, as a surprising number of car buyers cannot access a 240 volt outlet close enough to the car’s parking location, according to the Michigan-based strategic communications agency’s first 2025 EV charging market report.
While most American homes can support such outlets, Telemetry, the agency, has discovered that a third of American homeowners with garages cannot park there.
“You can have a charger outside your garage. Or, if you don’t have a garage at all, you can get a charger installed outside. It’s not that expensive.” Abuelsamid is an analyst with over 11 years of experience in making similar reports.
“Or you can adjust your actions at home and get yours moving,” he added.
The study also found that it was compiled by telemetry using a combination of proprietary predictions, US and Canadian government data resources, external industry analysis, and journalistic citations.
- Direct current fast chargers account for less than 3.85% of chargers in private networks in the US and Canada, costing up to $70,000 for installation.
- Telemetry’s light work forecast project, with EVS in the range of 20% to 44% of all new vehicle sales in North America by 2035 and 33 million to 57 million EVs, forecasts the project.
- If an electric vehicle reaches its market range, it will need to install a home charger by 2035.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that 42% of homeowners can park near existing electrical access and be modified to work with a Level 2 charger, Telemetry said on August 20, stating that if homeowners choose to clear their garage, it will skyrocket to 68%.
Level 2 chargers are found at most public charging stations and are considered ideal for home charging systems as well. They are one of three main types of electric vehicle charging. The Level 1 charger is similar to a plug on a lamp, and takes about 20 hours to charge 120 miles. On the other hand, Level 3 Fast Chargers can mostly charge your electric vehicle within 30 minutes.
Financial and structural hurdles
Other findings from this study show that electric vehicle ownership still supports Americans who own homes. Home charging accounts for 80% of all electric vehicle charging. This makes sense as more than 80% of all EV owners own the home.
“The majority of people don’t buy new cars and nearly 90% of all EVs on the road have been built over the past seven years,” Abuel el AMID said. “People who are buying new cars tend to be a little more wealthy.”
Three of the four in southeastern Michigan housing units (homes and apartments where people live) had access to garages or carports in 2023, according to the Census Bureau’s U.S. Housing Survey. However, one in four rental households in Michigan spent more than half of their income in 2023 to cover housing expenses, including rent and utility services.
If you don’t own your own home, “it presents a considerable amount of complexity in installing an EV charging,” Abuelsamid said.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 54% of homes occupied by city-owners in 2023, the most recent data available, with 137,567 of a total of 255,857 vehicles. Michigan has a high owner-occupied housing rate, reaching 73.7% in 2023.
Home charging remains a challenge, according to telemetry. Of the 20% of new EV buyers living in multifamily homes, only 11% report parking near charging access to their residence.
Even those who own their own homes may be outrageous in the cost of upgrading electrical access for use of their vehicles, Abuelsamid noted. Older homes can run with a limited 100 amp circuit breaker, and the use of priority voltages to charge a proper home can be a considerable drain.
For people with very short commutes, Abuel Elsimid connected to a standard 120 volt outlet and said “you might need it,” perhaps an hour or two.
For those who need more range, an upgrade to the home’s electrical system may be required, and even more expensive if the circuit breaker is close enough to where you plan to charge your car.
“If you’re close to a garage or a parking lot, that’s relatively easy,” Abuel Elmid said. “But if the breaker panel is on the other side of your home, it could add hundreds of dollars to the installation cost just for the wires. If you need to upgrade the panel, you’re talking potentially thousands of dollars to do that.”
EV sales are rising sharply
Despite these barriers, telemetry estimated that the U.S. EV market share will more than double in 10 years. This means that more than 40% of all new vehicle sales in 10 years may be electricity, accounting for 20% of total sales compared to under 10% today. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are approximately 305 million registered vehicles in the United States.
EV sales have skyrocketed this summer due to the upcoming expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit after President Donald Trump cuts clean vehicle tax credits under what he calls “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Cox Automotive cited sales growth last month as car buyers raced to get to some of the highest EV sales on record using discounts. Cox initially estimated that July’s EV sales were the second-best month in history, with over 130,000 vehicles representing a 20% increase from the previous year.
EV adoption is moving slower than carmakers expect, and hasn’t grown meaningfully across the industry outside of current spikes, according to Lenny Larocca, US auto leader in audit, tax and advisory firms.
Even some of the new launches said, “EVS is not in the price range, mass markets are really excited, and range anxiety remains the main hurdle for adoption,” LaRocka told the Free Press. “For longer trips, EVs are not the preferred choice at the moment. Without a reliable network of charging, it really limits the market.”
Throughout the public and private networks in the US and Canada, Telemetry expects today’s dollars to cost between $132.6 billion and $1431.1 billion if the right EV charging equipment is installed to reach expected demand in 2035.
Private homeowners can expect to pay around $45.4 billion to $50.4 billion in total, assuming an average of $2,000 per installed charger.
Computational Journalist Kristi Tanner contributed to this report.
Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Contact her at jcharniga@freepress.com.
