Every day, more and more plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) can be spotted on the roads of Southern California. High gasoline prices, state zero emission vehicle programs, federal fuel economy and vehicle emissions standards, improved battery technology, and concerns over climate change and energy security have created a growing market for PEVs.

Planners have a key role to play in facilitating the transition to PEVs as one of many sustainable modes of transportation. By helping create opportunities to charge at drivers’ daily destinations, such as home, work, and retail centers, planners will lead the way in making PEV charging convenient and cost-efficient.

To play this new role, planners must understand new dynamics created by PEVs as well as effectively employ traditional planning tools. To guide local governments in meeting demand for PEV charging in Southern California, the UCLA Luskin Center has published the Southern California Plug-in Electric Vehicle Plan and Atlas. Funding for both the Plan and the Atlas were provided by the Southern California Association of Governments, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the U.S. Department of Energy.

 The Southern California Regional PEV Readiness Plan will enable planners to understand:

• Where PEVs are being driven across the region and how many more will be on local roads in order to prioritize and target planning efforts
• The travel patterns and charging needs of PEV drivers to facilitate the siting of charging opportunities that support drivers’ daily travel
• The challenges of creating charging opportunities at residences, workplaces, and retail centers in order to better design technical assistance, and
• How zoning, building codes, permitting and parking regulations can drive down the soft and hard costs of charging equipment installation

In addition, this plan also provides practical planning guidance on:

• Permitting and inspecting PEV charging equipment cost-effectively
• Making building and zoning codes PEV-ready
• Regulating parking and signage for PEV charging
• Incentivizing new development to provide wiring and/or hardware for PEV charging
• Siting and pricing charging stations on public property
• Designing and providing technical assistance to commercial property owners, employers and owners of multi-unit dwellings (MUDs)
• Designing supportive utility polices, and
• Developing outreach to prospective PEV drivers and charge station site hosts

For the first time, local planners can see how many PEVs are registered locally and in what neighborhoods PEV registrations are concentrated. The Southern California Plug-in Electric Vehicle Atlas also provides projections of PEV growth over time by council of government (COG).

Using the Southern California Association of Governments’ regional travel model, local planners can also see predictions of PEV daytime travel to employment and retail destinations. For each of the 15 COGs that comprise the SCAG area, the Southern California Plug-in Electric Vehicle Atlas features the following tools:

• A table and graph forecasting PEV growth to 2022
• A map of neighborhood PEV registration density as of 2012
• A map of PEV morning travel to work, providing spatial daytime PEV density
• A map of employment centers identified by numbers of employees
• A map overlaying employment centers on daytime PEV density
• A map of publicly-accessible charging locations, identified by power level and number of stations per location
• A map of multi-unit residences by number of units and density
• A map of retail destinations, from older strip development to regional centers
• A map overlaying retail centers on PEV mid-day travel, providing spatial retail PEV density
• A map of stand-alone parking facilities

The Atlas provides this suite of spatial tools for PEV readiness planning for the following COGs:

Arroyo Verdugo Subregion

City of Los Angeles

Coachella Valley Association of Governments

Gateway Cities Council of Governments

Imperial County Transportation Commission

Las Virgenes Malibu Council of Governments

North Los Angeles County

Orange County Council of Governments

San Bernardino Associated Governments

San Fernando Valley Council of Governments

San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments

South Bay Cities Council of Governments

Ventura Council of Governments

Western Riverside Council of Governments

Westside Cities Council of Governments

The Southern California Plug-in Electric Vehicle Atlas also provides projections of annual PEV growth over 10 years by utility service territory for the following utilities:

Azusa Light and Power
Burbank Water and Power
Cerritos Electric Utility
Glendale Water and Power
Pasadena Water and Power
Vernon Light and Power
Anaheim Public Utilities Department
City of Banning Electric Utility
City of Colton Utilities Services
Imperial Irrigation District
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Riverside Public Utilities
Southern California Edison
Anza Electric Cooperative
Moreno Valley Electric Utility
Rancho Cucamonga Municipal Utility
San Diego Gas & Electric (portion within SCAG)

These projections are designed to help regional planners and utilities locate current and future demand for PEV charging and coordinate efforts to meet that demand.