Electric Vehicles

We love to help people get out of their cars, but if you just gotta drive, electrify!

Ground transportation is responsible for one-fifth of island-wide greenhouse gas emissions. With cars and light-duty trucks responsible for over 90% of ground transportation emissions, it is important to transition to cleaner, quieter, and cheaper-to-maintain vehicles while also improving other transportation choices. Learn more about EVs below, and for even more, check out Drive Electric Hawaiʻi.

Why Drive an Electric Vehicle?

  • Using electricity to power your car instead of gas is more efficient and emits less carbon, even if the grid was 100% fossil fueled. Our grid is over 30% renewable energy today and zipping towards our goal of 100% by 2045.

  • EVs convert over 77% of the electrical energy to power at the wheels, while conventional gas vehicles convert 12-30% of fossil energy stored in liquid fuel, with the rest wasted as heat!

  • Today, EVs are a little more expensive than gas guzzlers but EV prices are dropping fast, and there’s plenty incentives! Even more savings come from lower maintenance, and if you own a roof you can use PV to charge your EV!

  • Electric motors offer a quieter and smoother drive, stronger acceleration, and more horsepower than most fossil fuel vehicles. And if that’s not enough, driving an EV (even by yourself) means you can ride in the zipper lane!

Incentives

The federal administration has decided to end helpful incentives from Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 earlier than planned. Take advantage of this federal support before it is gone! For more information, see this IRS Fact Sheet

Public Chargers

Click on a location to view more information and zoom in/out by pressing the +/- button in the bottom right. Click on the legend or here to open the map in a new tab.

Have a question? or a comment? Contact us at energyprogram@honolulu.gov

Public charger data is from the Alternative Fuel Data Center and vehicle registration data from the Hawaiʻi State Energy Office

Action 4.4 of the Climate Action Plan involves the expansion of charging infrastructure by increasing public charging capacity on City facilities.

In 2020, the City had 9 ports across 4 locations. Today, there are 23 ports across 10 locations, with more on the way.

Public Charging Resources

NEW! Chargers @ Kapālama Hale

Repairs coming soon to Fasi Municipal Chargers

EV Charger Laws

City seal.

Ordinance 23-25: Adoption of the Energy Code

  • Ensure a percentage of new parking stalls built for new residential and commercial construction are EV-“ready” (as previously adopted in Ordinance 20-10). 

  • EV-ready means developments should be constructed to include electrical panel capacity and dedicated conduit for future Level 2 EV-charger(s).

State seal.

Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes 291-71: Designation of Parking Spaces for Electric Vehicle Charging Systems

  • The statutes require at least one parking space equipped with an EV charger in public spaces with at least 100 parking spaces.

Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes 195-7.5 : Placement of EV charging systems; multi-family residential building or town house

  • The statutes require homeowner association and other private entity to accommodate condominium owners who would like to install EV chargers.

Check out some of our partners to learn more about the electrification of transportation in Hawai’i.

Partners
Man charges City vehicle outside.

Did you know that the City is electrifying its fleet? Check out the Climate Action Plan to learn more about actions the City is taking to tackle greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector and improve overall quality of life on O‘ahu.