Lawmakers are considering a measure to expand electric vehicle charging in state buildings.
House Bill 1829 would require that at least 25% of parking stalls be EV charger-ready in any new state building construction.
The City and County of Honolulu adopted a similar ordinance in 2019 for new commercial and municipal buildings.
The bill passed through its first House committee hearing this week.
Micah Munekata, the Director of Government Affairs at the Ulupono Initiative, testified in support of the measure.
He noted that the lack of charging infrastructure is one of the main barriers to broader adoption of EVs.
He also said that the cost of installing the EV-ready system would be negligible compared to the overall cost of the parking stall construction.
He added that it would likely be much more expensive to retrofit the parking stalls to be EV-ready after the fact.
"In California, it's demonstrated that retrofits easily cost two to eight times more than doing it up on the front end," Munekata said.
The Blue Planet Foundation also supported the bill and said in its written testimony that the lack of charging options is a significant barrier to broadening the adoption of EVs.
Further testimony in support came from the Hawai‘i State Energy Office, Hawaiian Electric, The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, and 350Hawaii.
No testimony was submitted in opposition.
