Kentucky will licence EV charging stations from January 2027 — most association chargers fall outside it
Kentucky will licence EV charging stations from January 2027 — most association chargers fall outside it
2026-09-10 · Kentucky · Regulation
What happened. Kentucky created a licensing regime for electric vehicle charging stations. Beginning 1 January 2027, an “electric vehicle power dealer” may not operate a charging station without a retail electric vehicle charging licence from the Department of Revenue, and must pay an annual fee of $100 per charging port.
The provision arrived inside House Bill 757, a large revenue act. The Governor line-item vetoed parts of the bill on 13 April 2026; the House overrode 66-18 and the Senate 31-5 on 14 April 2026, and the Act was delivered to the Secretary of State the same day as 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 161.1
For Kentucky condominium and homeowner associations the operative question is not whether the licence exists but whether it reaches them. On the statute's own definitions, for most associations it does not.
The licence, and the fee
“(1) Beginning January 1, 2027, an electric vehicle power dealer shall not operate an electric vehicle charging station without first obtaining a retail electric vehicle charging license from the department. A retail electric vehicle charging license shall be valid from the date of issuance until January 31 of the following calendar year.
(2) The department shall collect an annual license fee in the amount of one hundred dollars ($100) per electric vehicle charging port located at an electric vehicle charging station…”
Fees go into a dedicated trust and agency account — the retail electric vehicle charging station licence fund — which may be spent only on implementing and administering the licensing and inspection programme. From 1 January 2027 the Department is also to inspect each licensed station.
The three-part test that decides whether your community is covered
Everything turns on the definition, and the definition is conjunctive:
“‘Electric vehicle charging station’ means any place with electric vehicle supply equipment that has an electrical power charging capacity of twenty (20) kilowatts or more and that: (a) Is accessible to general public vehicular traffic; and (b) Sells electricity at retail to charge a battery or other storage device of an electric vehicle.”
An “electric vehicle power dealer” is then simply “a person who owns or leases an electric vehicle charging station,” and a “charging port” is the system that can power one vehicle at a time, however many connectors it has.
All three limbs must be satisfied. A station under 20 kW is outside the definition however it is used. A station that is not accessible to general public vehicular traffic is outside it. And a station that does not sell electricity at retail is outside it.
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- Working the test against a real community
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