The 2025 CALGreen code was published July 1, 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026. Its EV provisions move California residential parking from a capacity-reservation standard to a circuit-completion standard, which changes what a plan reviewer is actually checking.
The percentages have been widely reported. The distinctions that generate correction cycles at plan check are elsewhere.
The three tiers are not interchangeable
CALGreen uses a graduated vocabulary, and conflating the terms is the most common source of a deficient submittal.
EV Capable — the space has reserved electrical capacity for future charging, but not the infrastructure to support a charger. Panel capacity and raceway, no dedicated branch circuit.
EV Ready — everything is in place for a functional station except the charger itself: a complete circuit, conductors and overcurrent protection, terminating at a receptacle or equipment location at the space.
EVSE Installed — operational charging equipment present at the space.
The residential shift is from Capable to Ready, and it is substantive. A capable space is a line on a panel schedule and a conduit stub. A ready space is a completed, energized circuit terminating in a receptacle. Reviewing a residential submittal against the older capable standard will pass drawings that do not comply.
What applies where
New multifamily. At minimum one EV-ready space per dwelling unit. Every assigned stall requires a complete circuit — conductor and breaker — terminating in an EV receptacle, at low-power Level 2 (208/240 V) on a 20-amp circuit per assigned space. Separately, at least 25% of common or shared spaces require functioning Level 2 chargers installed, accessible to all residents and guests.
The two requirements are cumulative and apply to different populations of stalls. A 20-unit building with 10 common spaces needs 20 EV-ready assigned spaces plus at least 3 installed chargers in the common area. A submittal that satisfies the per-unit count and treats the common-space obligation as absorbed by it is short.
Hotels and motels. 40% of total parking spaces EV-ready, and 25% of spaces with Level 2 chargers installed. A 300-space hotel needs 120 EV-ready and 75 with installed equipment. These are two percentages against the same denominator, not a tiered subset — check both counts independently.
Nonresidential. Requirements scale by lot size, with no EV requirement at 1–9 spaces, and with office and retail carrying a higher EV-capable share than other occupancy types. Nonresidential remains substantially a capable-plus-installed structure rather than the ready standard applied to residential.
The load-calculation question is the real review issue
The per-unit low-power Level 2 requirement at 20 amps is what makes this cycle a service-capacity problem rather than a conduit problem.
A 100-unit building with 100 assigned stalls now carries 100 dedicated 20-amp circuits terminating in receptacles. On a straight non-coincident calculation that is a very large connected load, and it will drive service size, transformer capacity, and utility coordination well beyond what the same building required under the prior cycle.
This is where plan review should focus its attention. The percentages are countable from the site plan in minutes. Whether the electrical design actually supports the required circuits — and on what basis the load calculation was performed — is the question that determines whether the building can deliver what the drawings promise. A submittal relying on automatic load management to reduce the calculated demand should state the method and show the equipment; one that simply presents a reduced number without a stated basis warrants a comment.
The low-power designation is deliberate policy here. Twenty amps per space is slow charging, but for a resident parked overnight it is more than sufficient, and it makes per-unit provision achievable at a service size that remains buildable. Reviewers should not treat a 20-amp circuit as an under-design; it is the specified standard.
Additions and alterations carry a discretionary finding
For additions or alterations to existing multifamily buildings and hotels or motels, all new or altered parking spaces require either EV Ready infrastructure or an installed charger — unless determined infeasible by the building designer and subject to local agency approval.
That infeasibility path is the provision most likely to be applied inconsistently across jurisdictions, and it is worth a local agency deciding its posture deliberately rather than case by case at the counter.
Two questions define that posture. What constitutes infeasibility — genuine physical or service constraints, or cost? And what documentation supports the finding — a stamped analysis of available service capacity and a panel study, or an assertion? A jurisdiction that does not answer these in writing will approve inconsistent findings, and retrofit compliance is precisely where the long-run charging capacity of the existing building stock is determined.
A reasonable default is to require the infeasibility request to identify the specific constraint, quantify it, and state what partial compliance is achievable. A finding that no spaces can be made EV Ready is different from one that half can, and the code’s language does not require an all-or-nothing outcome.
Accessibility is a separate code path
CALGreen sets the quantity and infrastructure requirements. It does not resolve accessible-EVCS obligations, which run through the accessibility provisions and govern the number, dimensions, and dispersal of accessible charging spaces and the routes serving them.
A submittal that meets the CALGreen counts can still fail accessibility review, particularly on common-space charger placement in multifamily projects where the required 25% installed chargers are clustered in a location without a compliant route. Reviewing the two requirements together, rather than sequentially, avoids the most expensive version of this correction.
The practical checklist
For a residential submittal: confirm circuits terminate at receptacles rather than stubbing out, confirm the per-unit count and the separate 25% common-space installed count, and scrutinise the service calculation and any load-management assumption. For hotels: verify the 40% and 25% counts independently against total spaces. For alterations: require the infeasibility finding to be specific, quantified, and to state achievable partial compliance.
The percentages will be met. Whether the electrical service behind them was honestly sized is the question that determines if these spaces ever charge a vehicle.