The rise in popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) has huge implications for the hotel industry. Increasingly, patrons may be looking for EV charging as an amenity they expect.
Plus, more and more tourists are choosing to rent EVs. By 2027, the EV rental market is projected to increase by USD 11,246.65 million, with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 13%.
All of these trends indicate that now is the time for hotels to think about how to drive revenue with EV charging.
There are many considerations that drive decisions regarding your EV charging environment and the types of chargers you install. The installation of EV chargers is much more complex than just calling an electrician to drop some hardware into your parking lot.
What do you hope to gain from EV charging? How will you measure and manage energy consumption? Where is the optimal placement of chargers in your hotel lot? Future Energy works as your partner to help identify important questions before any EV charging project gets underway. Your hotel’s specific use case provides the answers to how your hotel can drive revenue with EV charging.
Uncovering Opportunities to Increase Revenue with EV Charging
EV charging presents hotel and hospitality businesses with numerous options to help drive revenue.
Charging Options for Hospitality Businesses
Many businesses charge clients directly for EV charging. They pay automatically through an app associated with the EV charger.
As another option, your business may elect to provide EV charging as an amenity for patrons. Some businesses choose to combine strategies, offering free charging for a certain amount of time and then charging a fee per kilowatt or by minute. You also can build “free” charging directly into a special room rate.
You can even offer EV charging to employees, either asking them to pay for their own charging or including it as a benefit.
Drawing Customers to Your Door
Networked EV chargers appear on EV charging applications. That way, EV drivers find your location. They are more likely to patronize your services if they know that EV charging is available.
For example, the Columbus, Ohio, shopping, dining, and entertainment destination Easton found numerous benefits from the installation of just five EV charging stations:
About 40% of drivers spent more time patronizing Easton businesses than the average customer did.
Around 350 drivers use the new stations monthly, with usage on the rise.
More than 10,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions have been prevented, aligning the company with sustainability messaging that appeals to consumers.
Enhancing Your Brand
In the near future, customers may expect EV charging as an amenity in the same way they expect wireless internet today. Quality and consistency in the EV charging experience will be essential for maintaining guest brand loyalty.
You can incorporate EV charging into your daily operations, further enhancing the guest experience and providing additional sources for revenue. For example, you can offer valet charging as a service. You connect EV charging to your company’s branded app and notify a guest when the vehicle is ready. Guests can reserve EV charging stations along with their rooms using your app. Something Future Energy’s custom built software can assist with!
Managing Energy Effectively to Reduce Costs for Your EV Chargers
Effective energy management is critical for any business that wishes to install EV chargers. Otherwise, you may get stuck with an unpleasant surprise when your electricity bill arrives.
Future Energy offers a cloud-based energy management software called Interface. Interface allows full integration, automation, and control of your power systems.
Real-Time Power Management
There are many factors that determine ongoing costs to your business for charging an electric vehicle. How long will you allow a single vehicle to occupy an EV charging station? How much power is consumed with each charge?
Interface provides this critical data in real-time. Interface also connects with all of your property’s electrical systems, balancing power use so that you don’t exceed peak load. Going over your peak load for just a minute can affect your electricity rate for the entire year.
Interface gives you visibility into the energy use, health, and success of all EV charging environments at enterprise-level scale.
On-Demand Pricing
Say you decide to charge customers for their own EV charging. What happens if electricity costs rise?
Interface automates the relationship between a rise in electricity costs and the price you are charging customers. In other words, as utility rates rise, so do your prices. In this way, you manage profitability automatically.
Detailed Analytics and Reporting
You can use the data that Interface collects and manages to develop detailed reports that shed further light on the economics of EV charging. Integrated EV charging apps share data with Interface so that you don’t need to hire additional personnel to measure the number of users and equate these metrics with revenue. Interface provides a dashboard you can customize to do all the reporting for you across your entire brand multi-site portfolio at every business level.
In short, Future Energy helps your hotel business take EV charging to the next level. You’re not just measuring energy use and the associated costs. Instead, you benefit from analytics that Interface provides, driven by machine learning. The results help drive better understanding of your use cases and uncover additional opportunities to use EV charging to drive revenue.
Identifying Financial Incentive Programs
Hotels and hospitality businesses have numerous financial incentives available to offset the costs of EV charger installation, up to 100% in certain situations.
Assessing Qualifications for Federal Tax Credits
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides a tax credit for charging stations in an “eligible census tract.” Businesses in these areas, where the poverty rate is at least 20% or median family income doesn’t exceed 80% of the statewide median, can receive substantial funding.
There are more than 85,000 eligible census tracts in the United States. Future Energy helps assess your data points so that you can qualify for funds.
Tapping into NEVI Funds
Each state has a percentage of $7.5 billion in federal funds allocated for a national EV charger network as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. Future Energy not only helps to determine if you qualify but also assists with the complex application process.
We helped a global automobile manufacturer determine that 78 of its franchises qualify for NEVI funds. We bring the same expertise and client attention to the hospitality industry.
Uncovering Multiple Layers of Available Funding for EV Charging
Future Energy helps hotel and hospitality businesses identify funding at the state and local levels as well. Our Financial Incentive National Database tool uncovers 99% of all available money for EV charger installation.
Benefiting from EV Charging Experts
Future Energy’s subject matter experts have partnered with thousands of businesses to help uncover opportunities for driving revenue with EV charging solutions. Contact Future Energy today for additional information about how we can help your hotel learn more about how to incorporate EV charging into your operations.
Posted By Sam DiNello
Sam DiNello is Chief Executive Officer at Future Energy. He is an expert in the EV infrastructure space and passionate about innovative data-driven solutions that help companies access real-time intelligence for real-time action.
