Last month, the City of Phoenix released its Charging Infrastructure Action Plan, a roadmap for expanding EV charging across the city through 2030. It was developed with C40 Cities and the engineering firm WSP, and it focuses on the drivers who put the most miles on Valley roads: rideshare, delivery, taxi, and non-emergency medical transport drivers.
You might be wondering why a plan built around Uber and DoorDash drivers matters to a property owner or business. These high-mileage drivers are the most demanding users a charging network will ever have. They need chargers that are close by, fast, reliable, and usable on a 110° afternoon. So the plan amounts to a detailed map of where charging demand in Phoenix is headed and the standard it’s going to be built to. Here’s the essential information.
The big picture
- EV adoption has roughly tripled. Registered EVs in the City of Phoenix grew from about 12,200 in 2021 to 37,100 in 2026. Maricopa County went from 48,500 to nearly 140,000.
- Charging hasn’t kept up evenly. As of early 2026, the metro had about 943 charging locations and 2,762 ports, concentrated in higher-income East Valley corridors and thin in the West Valley, the urban fringe, and around apartment communities.
- The gap is specific. Phoenix needs roughly 1,300 to 1,900 new public ports by 2030, concentrated in fewer than 20 ZIP codes rather than spread evenly across the metro.
Where the chargers need to go
The plan identifies two gaps that matter most. The first is near-home Level 2 charging for renters. Drivers who live in apartments can’t plug in overnight, and the plan calls home charging the “make or break factor” for whether a driver can go electric at all. The deepest need is in the South Phoenix and West Valley multifamily corridors.
The second is fast charging where drivers already wait. The headline project is a 12- to 20-stall DC fast charging bank (150 kW or higher per stall) at the Sky Harbor rideshare waiting lot, which today has no on-lot charging at all. Beyond the airport, the plan names destination hubs at Downtown Phoenix, Old Town Scottsdale, ASU and Mill Avenue, Westgate, and Arrowhead.
The highest-priority ZIP codes for early action are 85034, 85042, 85040, 85043, 85006, 85008, 85020, 85387, 85354, and 85337. If your property is in one of them, you’re sitting in the plan’s first wave.
Phoenix heat gets its own rulebook
This is the part of the plan we’d underline twice. It sets Phoenix-specific design standards because equipment built for a national average doesn’t hold up here:
- Charger cabinets rated for at least 122°F of continuous operation. Standard cabinets rated for 104°F to 113°F will derate or shut down.
- Liquid-cooled cables at 150 kW and above. A passively cooled “150 kW” charger may only deliver 90 to 110 kW on a summer afternoon, exactly when demand peaks.
- Shade over every stall, plus lighting, cameras, and nearby restrooms and water at sites where drivers wait more than 15 minutes.
- A 95% uptime target, measured with a summer-weighted standard, because “a failed August session costs a driver a shift.”
- Planning for a 6- to 8-year service life instead of the typical 10, with maintenance visits timed around monsoon season and summer peak rather than once a year.
What it means for your property
If you own or manage apartments: The plan’s first move includes a multifamily Level 2 retrofit pilot in three priority ZIP codes, backed by APS and SRP make-ready dollars and a standard landlord-tenant agreement template. Down the road, the City is also looking at requiring a share of EV-ready parking in new multifamily construction in priority areas.
If you run retail, restaurants, or a venue near a destination hub: Destination fast charging is a core part of the plan. One proposed “Rest & Recharge” concept would offer businesses preferential financing for a fast charger in exchange for being a driver-friendly stop, with food, restrooms, and a cool place to wait.
If you’re considering DC fast charging at all: Timing matters. The plan estimates 9 to 18 months from initial screening to energization for sites that need a service upgrade. It also flags the next 24 to 36 months as the most favorable window to connect, before growing data center loads tighten feeder capacity. With the federal 30C charging tax credit now sunset, utility programs carry more weight: SRP offers $20,000 to $45,000 in rebates for Level 3 installations, and the plan proposes SBA loan support to help property owners finance chargers.
Our take
The plan is clear that its port target isn’t something the City builds alone. It’s a shared target for the utility, airport, platform, and private partners “whose sites, dollars, and permits actually stand up chargers.” That’s an open invitation to Valley property owners, and the incentives, utility programs, and priority areas are now spelled out in one place.
The other lesson runs through the whole document: reliability is everything. One driver in the City’s focus groups summed it up: “We were constantly having to stop and recharge, which is why we went back to the hybrid.” A charger that goes down in July doesn’t just cost a session. It costs the trust of every driver who was counting on it.
That’s the standard we build to. Talk to EvolvedEV about designing and installing heat-ready charging at your property, and ask about Evolved360, our monitoring and maintenance program that keeps chargers online through a Phoenix summer.
Sources
- City of Phoenix, Charging Infrastructure Action Plan: Accelerating Electrification of High Mileage Vehicles (2026), developed with C40 Cities and WSP USA
- Project page: C40 Cities, “Let’s Accelerate: Supporting ride-hail drivers to drive electric in Phoenix”
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