Tesla and Hilton are collaborating install up to 20,000 charging stations for electric vehicles at Hilton hotels and properties. The project will begin in early 2024, and the chargers are expected to be installed in 2,000 locations across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Hilton says this is the largest electric vehicle network planned by any hospitality company. On paper, there are enough chargers to have 10 installed per location, but the distribution may vary, as Hilton says “at least six” will be installed in any location. According to the company, the availability of electric vehicle charging will play an important role in 2023 in converting searches into stays. Hilton.com.
Tesla’s recently launched Universal Wall Connector charger (which Hilton is ordering) can specifically share power with up to six matching chargers connected to the same utility line. Level 2 AC chargers are designed to provide up to 44 miles of range to Tesla per hour at a charging rate of 11.5 kW (48 A).
The Tesla Universal Wall Connector comes with a clip-on adapter to switch from the Tesla NACS connector to the J1772.Image: Tesla
The Tesla Universal Wall Connector features a magic dock-like adapter detacher that works with Tesla and all other electric vehicles. Tesla sells these chargers on its online store for $595 each, and appears to have delisted its J1772 charger, launched last October, which can’t be connected to a Tesla without an external adapter (Tesla includes this adapter with its cars). If Hilton had to pay retail (probably not) for 20,000 chargers, he would spend at least $11.9 million on the hardware alone.
Related
All the news on electric vehicle charging in the USA
Many hotels today don’t have chargers or only have one or two, and like many places in the U.S., reliability is questionable. A quick search on the PlugShare EV charger locator app reveals this just a Hilton hotel in Manhattan, New Yorkhas an on-site battery charger.
Hilton’s choice to have an integrated solution to go from J1772 to NACS is reasonable since not all EVs are Teslas and most EVs will have J1772 sockets in the years to come.
Nearly all automakers (the latest being Honda) are banding together to adopt the Tesla connector, now called the North American Charging Standard (NACS). If NACS becomes the truly dominant standard someday, then maybe Hilton can just plug in universal wall connector adapters (maybe someday).
Leave a Comment