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Tesla plans to install 20,000 electric vehicle charging stations across 2,000 Hilton properties in the U.S., Mexico and Canada starting next 12 months, the businesses said Thursday.
For Tesla, the buildout of wall connectors is one other way to increase mass adoption by offering more convenient charging locations. The corporate’s Universal Wall Connector can charge any North American vehicle model, not only Tesla vehicles. For Hilton, it’s about meeting demand from leisure and business travelers.
“We’re seeing a rapid and steep increase in the variety of requests for EV charging. We’re trying to meet our guests’ needs with this recent agreement with Tesla,” Matt Schuyler, Hilton’s chief brand officer, told CNBC.
The announcement coincides with the start of business travel season, as more executives will probably be attending conferences resembling the APEC Summit, Communacopia and Dreamforce, offering a possibility for hotel operators to drive revenue. Over the summer, U.S. hotel rates fell as more Americans headed overseas to enjoy time in Europe. This fall, Wall Street analysts will want to see if hotel brands can get business travel bookings in the U.S. back to pre-pandemic levels.
Schuyler says the provision of EV charging stations is playing a major role in driving hotel bookings.
“The number-one search attribute for our hotels is shuttle access for airports. That is No. 1. No. 2 is EV charging. And that is a dramatic change that wasn’t even on the radar just a couple of years ago,” said Schuyler.
Hilton will work with its owners to discover properties alongside roadways and in other key urban locations that will make most sense for Tesla to install its charging stations. The additions will make Hilton’s charging network the most important of any hospitality player, says the corporate.
Deepwater Asset Management’s managing partner Gene Munster predicts electric automobile adoption in the U.S. will steadily increase in the approaching years, from 2% in 2020 to 22% by 2025.