Hotels race to fill demand for electric car chargers

Electric vehicles are rapidly growing from niche to normal. A Bloomberg New Energy Finance report, "Electric Vehicle Outlook 2018," predicts that sales of electric vehicles will increase from a record 1.1 million worldwide in 2017 to 11 million in 2025 and then to 30 million in 2030 as the price of manufacturing the vehicles falls. “China will lead this transition, with sales there accounting for almost 50 percent of the global EV market in 2025,” the report claimed.

That’s a lot of electric cars on the highway—and hotels are stepping up their efforts to cash in on the growing demand for charging stations. But if the decision to install a charger seems easy, choosing what kind of unit to install is much more complicated. Factors can include compatibility between charger and vehicle, different partnership models with the supplying company and different ways of sharing revenue.