Companies like SWTCH Energy are focusing their charging tech toward multifamily housing — a perennial issue among policymakers concerned that renters and others in high-density urban housing will be left out of the EV market, if only because home charging is not available.
“We’re still in the early days of people really committing to venturing out and doing a larger proportion of their charging away from the home or work,” said Roger Lanctot, director of automotive connected mobility in the global automotive practice at TechInsights, during an electric vehicle charging panel last month. The discussion was organized by IBM and EV charging technology company Terbine.
“Only 20 percent of charging is happening in the wild. And I think that’s going to change. I think that has to change,” Lanctot noted, adding the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program to build out a network of high-speed chargers nationwide on key corridors, like interstate highways, will be central to this evolution.
Meanwhile, the private and public sectors are both focused heavily on that other 80 percent of charging — happening at home or even workplaces.
SWTCH has developed technology with apartment buildings in mind, allowing the installation of charging without the need for significant power infrastructure upgrades. The technology uses an energy management tool to adjust the level of power delivered to chargers, depending on the building’s real-time energy load.
SWTCH Control has the ability to monitor the other electricity loads on a shared panel — such as air conditioning — and will curtail the power used by the EV chargers in periods of peak demand to ensure the electrical system is always kept safe, explained Sam Bordenave, head of finance and strategy at SWTCH. “And then the chargers will use more power in periods of lower demand throughout the night to ensure drivers get a full charge by the morning.”
The company has joined the EV Acceleration Challenge, a White House program to hear from public- and private-sector organizations related to technologies, policies or other initiatives taken to advance the use of electric vehicles. The company plans to install some 20,000 chargers in multi-unit housing by 2024.
“There's strong interest from property owners and it's driven by tenant demand and policy changes,” said Bordenave. “EV charging at multiresidential buildings has gone from a nice-to-have amenity to a must-have necessity, a shift that’s only quickening as states including California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon and New York propose EV charging readiness mandates at new multiresidential buildings.”
SWTCH technology does not connect the charger to the apartment’s electric meter, but instead puts the property manager in charge of setting rates.
“The SWTCH charging platform allows building managers to indicate the cost for residents and guests to charge, allowing them to recoup the cost of the electricity and initial investment,” Bordenave explained.
State and other incentives could help to bring down the installation costs for the infrastructure.
“Consumers are absolutely willing to embrace EVs. They are. They understand the reasoning behind it,” said Brenda Cucci, a senior partner with IBM’s Sustainability and Responsible Business Division, speaking on the EV charging panel last month. “But they’re very wary about the persistent costs, what will be included, where will they get charging? They’ve heard nothing but horror stories regarding the charging issues.”
