Electric vehicle charging has become a big aspect of commercial real estate. There are significant practical issues facing property owners who are trying to anticipate how many residents or commercial tenants or consumers will expect to plug in when they park.

There are big financial implications as well: equipment, installation expertise, running enough power capacity, potentially tearing up existing parking spaces to make them charge-worthy. Some new business strategies, based on energy-as-a-service business models, have firms providing the capital and services to property owners and then taking monthly payments so the financing is spread over time but as operational costs, with the immediate tax deductions that follow.

There's also been a lot of hype. Get ready now or the EV avalanche will bury you when no one wants to rent your apartment, office, retail, or industrial space. Certainly, some data has been convincing. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, using data from Wards Intelligence, EVs and hybrids took 10.9% of light-duty vehicles sales in 2021. According to the Wall Street Journal, EV-only sales were 5.8% of all vehicles sold in 2022, up from 3.2% the year before.