EV Charging at Multifamily Properties

Since 2012 I have been assisting commercial property owners, workplaces and multifamily property owners and HOA’s discuss and deploy EV Charging on their properties, both retrofit and development. Currently there is a lot of chatter in the industry about how to scale charging infrastructure at multifamily properties and the role of utilities.  My perspective is...

 Parking lots were not designed for power and there is not enough “house” electrical capacity to serve more than a couple of vehicles. However, sharing charging stations does not work well with drivers and tenants who think of themselves at HOME and want a dedicated charger. Solution = have utilities bring in make readies and either provide charging programs or outsource management. The utilities are the only ones who can provide the scalable power!

 New development is trying to save money and power capacity is very expensive based on the requirement for dedicated load for each charging station. Extend the load to 100% of the spots on a property and that is a huge amount of power capacity and capital cost. Solution = Need more flexibility in NEC 625, and more load management systems.

 Business models of vendors don’t jibe with business models of property owners. Generally property owners invest in infrastructure and amenities when they can get ROI from 100% of the tenants as rent. Not true with EV Charging especially if the property has to invest capital costs or pay yearly software fees to run a charging network. Solution = develop more appropriate models for charging with the assistance of the customer, the property owner, not the driver.

 I hear all the time from property owners that they are not experiencing demand for charging infrastructure from tenants. That installed chargers often sit unused. The conundrum is that a driver may purchase a car and not be able to charge in a multifamily property for six months, while the powers that be fight it out. How many people would buy cars under those circumstances? This does not seem to be a scalable business model for the electrification of the transportation system. Solution = develop an ecosystem and programs that do three things…provide charging to properties at low cost and minor administrivia AND provide dedicated charging to drivers at reasonable fees, simultaneously AND market the properties and potential vehicle owners to car dealers for targeted marketing and vehicle discounts.

 Happy to talk more about these issues, please contact me at https://www.evchargingpros.com

 John Kalb, Founder - EV Charging Pros founder, has over 30 years of management, operational, and technical experience developing business opportunities from emerging trends. He established the firm in 2012 as an independent consultancy to help property owners and developers understand the business realities of EV charging.   In 2014 John co-founded the Multifamily EV Charging Working Group, and has delivered EV Charging projects for CAA, Prometheus and Trinity and other multifamily operators and developers. He is on the Board of Directors of City Car Share, Charge Across Town and the CA EV Alliance.