Honolulu Airport’s Rental Facility Lacks EV Infrastructure

At Honolulu Airport’s rental car facility, the state’s Transportation Department didn’t include any charging stations for electric rental vehicles or charger-ready parking stalls in the finished product, according to a report by Honolulu Civil Beat.

Completed in December 2021, the five-story rental car facility houses 10 rental car company offices and their fleets.

Kelly Kunishige, communications manager with Hawaii’s Department of Transportation, said Sixt has added one EV charger on level 4 of the rental car facility, but the department didn’t know if it was a basic Level 1 charger or a faster Level 2 charger, according to the report.

Rep. Nicole Lowen, who heads the Hawaii House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, said the failure to include charging stations or EV-ready parking stalls in the facility is “a travesty,” according to the report.

“We were EV ready in that we had the load in those areas,” Ed Sniffen, the acting director of the Department of Transportation, told the Civil Beat.

Kunishige said the department has ordered 32 charging stations that comply with a national program, which provides federal money to states to deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure, according to the article. However, none of these stations are planned to be installed at the Honolulu Airport.

Introduced by Lowen, a new bill would require all new state buildings to be designed with electric vehicle in mind. According to the report, the bill is targeted at parking lots used by state workers, but it could also apply to facilities like airport rental car structures. The bill would “require that the design of new state facilities are electric vehicle charger ready.”