By Stephanie Fuhrman

There was a time when electric cars were easy to spot. First, there was the Toyota Prius hybrid, slowly followed by the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf. A little over a decade later, Tesla introduced the Model S. While a handful of other models were introduced during the same period, it wasn’t until 2016 that new sales of electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) took off. With the trend only expected to rapidly increase, those of us in multifamily are going to find ourselves responsible for resident charging capability.

In the last two decades, the United States has witnessed a significant shift in the interest in environmental issues, including recycling, energy use, and EVs, the latter of which has seen some false starts. In 2012, Tesla’s Model S lit a spark in the EV market, and it prompted U.S. auto manufacturers to produce a wider range of models. In 2017, new EV sales broke 200,000 annually for the first time. Sales then jumped to 300,000 in 2018 and hovered around that number until last year, when an astonishing spike sent new sales to more than 600,000 per year. According to KPMG, this trend is only expected to increase, with 52% of all new vehicle sales projected to be electric by 2030.

The increases in production and the surge in environmental concern in society, along with governments taking more substantial environmental positions, have combined to foster a more permanent and growing adoption of EVs throughout the nation. The decision by all major auto manufacturers to offer EVs and PHEVs in affordable, midsize, and luxury models has driven up appeal, meaning EV charging stations are beginning to shift from amenity to necessity.

Read Stephanie Fuhrman’s article in Multifamily Executive.