California Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) introduced Assembly Bill 2427, the Equitable EV Charging Act to increase access to electric vehicle (EV) charging for residents of multi-family housing by making it easier to deploy curbside charging.

Home charging is considered to be the most convenient, cost-effective solution to advance EV adoption. However, the California Energy Commission (CEC) found that no more than 33% of multi-family housing residents have access to home charging and that lower income residents, and residents who identify as Black, African American, Hispanic, or Latino have the lowest access to home charging.

Supported by companies FLO EV Charging (FLO) and It’s Electric Inc (itselectric), AB 2427 requires the CEC to assess the potential benefits of curbside charging for those who have the least access and requires the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development to develop permitting tools and best practices so that local governments can more seamlessly help realize these benefits.

It also requires local governments to consider these tools when developing permitting requirements and criteria to assist developers in siting and deploying curbside charging.

If we strategically leverage the public right-of-way, we open up numerous new possibilities to increase communities’ access to EV charging right at the curb. But doing so requires planning and collaboration between both the state and local governments. This bill supports that work and will help expand charging access for the Californians that need it the most.

—Louis Tremblay, President and CEO of FLO

FLO Charging Solutions is a North American EV charging network operator and a smart charging solutions provider. itselectric provides small-footprint, design-centered, Level-2 charging posts and is the only curbside charging network that offers revenue sharing to property owners.

Once a property is deemed eligible, at no cost to the property owner, itselectric installs and maintains a low-profile charger and shares proceeds with the property owners. With this business model, itselectric helps cities meet their carbon reduction targets and reduces governments’ capital expenditures by completely avoiding the utility infrastructure upgrades normally needed to support public charging.