Case Study: EV Charging Retrofit for a 50-Unit Condo Building

A 50-unit condo association in suburban Chicago was facing growing pressure from residents who owned or were planning to buy electric vehicles. In early 2023, the board received a formal written request from seven unit owners — triggering the state's right-to-charge statute, which gives Illinois condo owners the legal right to request dedicated EV charging in their assigned parking space, subject to reasonable conditions set by the association.

The building had been constructed in 1987 with a 200-amp main service panel that fed the underground parking garage. Capacity was tight, and the board's first instinct was to do nothing. But with Illinois law requiring a response, and with EV ownership in the building expected to grow, they hired an electrical engineer for a $1,500 site assessment and learned they had more options than they thought.

The site assessment revealed that the building's existing electrical service could support up to 12 simultaneous Level 2 chargers without a panel upgrade — but only if a load management system was installed to prevent all chargers from running at full power at the same time. This is sometimes called dynamic load balancing or smart charging. Rather than paying for a $45,000 main panel upgrade upfront, the board chose to install a load management system from ChargePoint that automatically distributes available power across active chargers.

The board held three community meetings over two months to explain the plan and gather resident input. They voted 38 to 7 to proceed with a phased installation: 12 ChargePoint CT4000 chargers in the first phase, with conduit and wiring roughed in for 20 more spaces to allow for cheaper expansion later.

The first phase covered installation of 12 Level 2 charging stations (ChargePoint CT4000), wiring and conduit for all 32 future-ready spaces, load management software setup, and permits and inspections. Total project cost before incentives came to $84,000.

The federal 30C tax credit covered 30% of eligible costs, reducing the bill by $25,200. A ComEd make-ready rebate added another $8,400 in savings, bringing the net cost to the association down to $50,400 — roughly $4,200 per charger for the initial 12 units. The 20 future-ready conduit stubs cost about $600 each to rough in during the first phase, far cheaper than the $2,800 per stub it would cost to open walls again later.

The board financed $40,000 through a special assessment spread over 24 months — about $83 per unit per month — and drew $10,400 from the building's capital reserve fund.

Rather than burying charging costs in HOA dues, the association chose a resident-pays model using ChargePoint's billing platform. Each charger was assigned to one resident via a personal ChargePoint account. Residents pay $0.22 per kWh — slightly above the building's blended electricity rate of $0.18 per kWh — which generates a small surplus that covers the monthly network fee and builds a maintenance reserve.

Charging sessions are logged automatically, and residents receive itemized monthly statements. In the first 12 months of operation, the charger network generated $6,240 in revenue against $5,040 in network fees, creating a modest $1,200 annual surplus deposited into the reserve.

The board president identified several things the association would repeat: commissioning a professional site assessment before any vendor conversations, installing conduit for future spaces during the initial dig, and choosing an OCPP-compliant charger so the board is not locked into one network provider forever. Setting charging fees slightly above cost to fund maintenance, and holding multiple community meetings before voting, were also seen as the right calls.

On the other hand, the board wished they had started the permitting process earlier — the city of Evanston required a 9-week turnaround on permits, delaying the install by two months. They also would have negotiated a longer labor warranty with the installer, and budgeted time for resident onboarding, since several unit owners needed help setting up their ChargePoint accounts in the first few months.

This project shows that even a 35-year-old building with limited electrical capacity can support EV charging without a prohibitively expensive panel upgrade — as long as smart load management is part of the design from day one. The key was getting a professional site assessment first, rather than assuming the worst or the best about the building's existing infrastructure.

The financial picture worked largely because the board acted while the federal 30C tax credit was in full effect and while ComEd's make-ready program still had funding available. Both programs have enrollment windows and annual funding caps, so waiting can mean missing a full funding cycle.

If your building is starting to receive requests from EV-owning residents — or if your state has a right-to-charge law on the books — the time to plan is before those requests become formal demands. A site assessment, a vendor comparison, and a community meeting can all happen within 60 to 90 days, and they will put your board in a far stronger position than reacting under pressure.