Property-level electric vehicle (EV) charging has a significant impact on multifamily residents’ decision to own or drive an EV within the next five years, a new survey from SWTCH Energy has found. Multifamily residents are 2.5 times more likely to own an EV compared with those whose building doesn’t offer EV charging.
Sixty-seven percent of residents say that having EV charging in their building would make them consider getting an EV, but 82% of non-EV drivers are without charging in their buildings.
The survey, conducted in partnership with a third-party research firm, polled over 1,500 intergenerational consumers who rent or own an apartment or condominium in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami or Tampa.
Nearly half of respondents (47%) find a sustainable, eco-conscious lifestyle to be “very” or “extremely” important to them, and 66% of residents believe that access to EV charging would benefit residential communities.
Non-EV owners or lessees say lack of charging (31%) in their multifamily building is a barrier to using an EV, and 47.5% agree that high purchase and lease prices are a contributing factor to using an EV.
"This data further shows that at-home EV charging for the over 44 million Americans living in multifamily properties is a critical component to achieving transportation electrification," says Sofia Berrada, head of strategy at SWTCH. "SWTCH has long been focused on expanding EV charging at multifamily properties. Coupled with the declining costs of EVs, we have a unique opportunity to support residents, property owners, and operators' sustainability journey in the most cost-effective way."
The majority of residents (96.7%) say developer and operator efforts to lower utility costs for residents would be valuable. SWTCH says this should draw property developers' and operators’ attention to energy technologies such as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), which can help reduce the use of fossil fuels, ultimately lowering the cost of electricity for consumers and reducing carbon emissions and air pollution.
