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EV adoption in the United States is encountering renewed doubts as the American market hits a growth wall. After more than a year of consistent month-over-month increases in EV sales, recent data has revealed a contraction for the first time in a while. Consumer resistance to brands’ electric lineups has already been observed in the case of Genesis and Volvo, both of which are reevaluating their EV strategies.

Uncertainty in the EV market has also come from federal regulators. In addition to the Biden administration’s rollback on vehicle pollution standards, the EV subsidies provided by the federal government have also been curtailed, removing a key federal incentive to purchase. But Telemetry industry analysts say the bigger challenge could be coming from Americans’ own garages.

Where in the Garage?

Consumer surveys have long identified charging as the number one anxiety point for prospective EV customers. A new Telemetry market research study by Vice President Sam Abuelsamid on EV charging homes has found that much of the issue stems from a potential lack of charger use within the garage.

As the US continues to build out a nationwide network of EV fast chargers, attention to the power source that will fulfill 80 percent of all charging demand remains at home. Recent data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) suggests that 42 percent of Americans with single-family homes already have an available outlet within reach of their parking spot, able to provide level 2 (240-volt) charging capability.

This number could climb dramatically if homeowners cleared space in their garages and adopted the behavior to park near these outlets. As Abuelsamid explains, “90 percent of all houses have the ability to add a 240 V outlet near where they would park their car. Parking behavior, namely whether homeowners actually use a private garage for parking or use it for storage, will likely be a big factor in EV adoption over the coming years.”

If homeowners used their garages for parking instead of storage, the number of residences that could support EV charging would grow from 31 million to over 50 million. If estimates include those residences that could install new wiring, the number of potential charging homes jumps to over 72 million. This number even tops Telemetry’s most bullish estimate of EV market penetration by 2035, which projected an EV stock ranging between 33 million and 57 million vehicles.

Reality on the ground will not necessarily match the theoretical on-paper capacity. The same NREL study found that nearly 34 million homes in the US would need an electrical upgrade costing thousands of dollars to support a level 2 charger, which typically requires 30 amps of power and above. Upgrades, which range from new wiring to new electrical panels, are in addition to the cost of the EV itself.

The Necessity of the Multifamily Housing Solution

Electric vehicle affordability over the long term is a critical component of their value proposition to buyers. As the initial cost of a charger is added to purchase prices, total cost of ownership can approach (and even surpass) the traditional gas-powered alternative.

An even more difficult situation exists for the 23 percent of the US population living in multifamily dwellings like apartments, condos, and townhomes. In most cases, a single EV owner has little to no control over charger installation decisions. Approval for chargers in these living arrangements must come from the landlord, management company, co-op board, or other decision-makers, which is no given.

A significant financial challenge exists for this housing type as well. A pair of shared level 2 chargers at a co-op could require a costly electrical panel upgrade, which can run in the millions of dollars for multifamily buildings, before any wiring is installed. Wiring runs to distant parking spaces will only add to the cost. Unlike single-family homes, multifamily residents are often ineligible for municipal or utility rebates to defray charger installation costs.

While approximately one million EVs are currently being charged at multifamily housing, only 11 percent of these owners currently park close enough to an outlet to charge their car. Legislation is being passed in some states requiring 20–25 percent of new development parking spaces be EV-ready, but that will still only meet a fraction of projected demand. Telemetry estimates that these efforts will result in only 6.7 million to 11.4 million charging-capable spaces in multifamily dwellings by 2035.

Meeting the Public Charging Need

Home charging limitations are not the only issue on the horizon for EV adoption in the US. Public charging will have to make up the difference for owners who cannot charge at home. Telemetry estimates that 11.7 million to 14.3 million EV drivers who own homes will still need to use public chargers by 2035, and another 7.8 million to 8.1 million EV drivers who live in multifamily homes will use public charging.

Meeting this projected demand will require a significant nationwide investment in new charging stations, from 523,000 to 586,000 DC fast chargers nationwide. But Telemetry estimates another 1.5 million to 1.6 million level 2 chargers will also be needed, which many of these EV owners will also use when they are at home. Electricity generation and distribution companies are already under pressure from new data center buildouts, including AI-focused facilities like OpenAI and Anthropic, so the infrastructure needed to power large numbers of EVs will also be a constraint on further charger site deployments.

Uncertainty in the EV market has ebbed and flowed over the past decade. While well over 50 million homes may have the technical capability to support EV charging, cluttered garages, high costs for electrical upgrades, and the limited availability of charging in multifamily homes threaten to curb demand. Public charging will need to expand at a robust rate in the coming decade, but even if it does, it’s far from certain that supply will keep up with demand.