One factor that will help influence how the EV charging market will develop is the makeup of the housing market in a region.  The kind of dwelling people live in – a single-family home or a multi-unit dwelling (MUD) – will to a great degree determine their need for residential and public charging infrastructure.

Single family homes are much more likely to have a garage or dedicated parking spot where installing an EV charger would be relatively convenient.  EV owners who can charge overnight and only pay for the electricity will do the vast majority of their charging at home, and so their inclination to pay for charging around town will be minimal.

While some apartment complexes see EV charging as an important amenity to offer their customers, it’s much more challenging to install chargers in multi-unit dwellings.  As a new study from UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation shows, both physical and regulatory hurdles will force some EV drivers who aren’t homeowners to rely primarily on public charging.

The early adopters who are buying plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) today tend to be homeowners, so the current need for public EV charging is not high.  However, as the PEV market grows, more renters will be buying PEVs, and that will require an increasing ratio of public EV chargers to vehicles.

Similarly, a country’s mix of single family homes and MUDs affects the need for public EV chargers.  According to Pike Research’s Global Building Stock Database report, in the United States, 85% of dwellings are single family homes, while in Europe, the ratio varies widely.  Countries such as the Netherlands (55%) and Denmark, which have high percentages of urban populations, will require public charging and will be ripe markets for smaller PEVs due to parking restrictions.  Conversely, countries that are dominated by single family homes, like the United Kingdom and Ireland, will have a greater percentage of drivers charging their PEVs at home.

(Source: Pike Research)

Other factors, such as PEV sales, local incentives, traffic, parking, and urban density, will also influence the EV charging market.  The split between battery electric vehicles, which can use fast DC chargers, and plug-in hybrids, which have smaller battery packs, will affect EV charging equipment sales as well.  An optimal mix would limit both the number of instances where motorists have to wait for a charging spot and the number of chargers that are infrequently accessed.

Pike Research’s Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment in Europe report forecasts that despite the Netherlands’ smaller relative population, the country will have the 4^th largest market in Europe for EV charging equipment.

Total EV Charging Equipment Unit Sales by Country, Europe: 2012-2020

(Source: Pike Research)

A cooperative organization was recently formed in Europe to study the sharing of information from public EV charging stations with each other as well as with “smart infrastructure” that would collect data-charging utilization rates as part of the growing Smart Transportation movement.   Optimizing the use of public charging equipment will also result in a healthier market for PEVs.