Demand soars for EV charging at multifamily properties
As reported by Robyn Griggs Lawrence on Utility Dive , infrastructure options and cost incentives for multifamily have become more complex as the electric vehicle revolution gears up.
The biggest issues facing the electric vehicle industry right now are reliability of ev charging stations and customer service of the companies that own them.
“The chargers are offline a lot. They’re broken a lot. Residents start calling the leasing office, and the people in the leasing office aren’t EV charging experts and don’t know how to troubleshoot,” RET vice president Jameson Hartman said. “It just creates this headache from an operational standpoint and general dissatisfaction for the residents.”
The first wave of companies and startups in the EV charging station industry completely ignored customer service of unreliable stations which led to a drag on EV adoption.
Multifamily is a particularly difficult segment for EV charging stations. Adoption has been stymied by infrastructure costs, the incentive landscape is very confusing and the industry is still figuring out the best solution for multifamily in a way that best manages risk and implements easy to use policies and procedures.
“Whether they like it or not, multifamily owners and operators are being forced to start wading through EV charging options as demand intensifies. EV sales have soared, increasing by 67% from 2021 to 2022, according to Kelley Blue Book, and the U.S. Department of Energy has adopted an International Code Council provision requiring apartment communities to provide EV charging infrastructure for up to 20% of lots with 25 or more parking spaces.”