The race is on for more EV charging stations at stores, offices and apartments

When city approval of a proposed $350 million skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles was on the line, project manager Hamid Behdad knew he had to give in to the last-minute demand of a planning commissioner to quadruple the number of electric vehicle charging stations in the condominium tower. "When you are in the heat of the hearing in the last leg of the proposal, you aren't going to say no," Behdad said, even though he thought the requirement was overkill. Today, with the Perla on Broadway complete and angling for buyers, Behdad said he is "extremely glad that commissioner forced us" to install chargers on 20% of the building's parking stalls. "If we didn't have these 90 chargers, we would be in real trouble selling units," he said. Landlords of apartments, hotels, office buildings and other commercial properties are rushing to avoid similar trouble.