It’s time to plug in your company fleet, however the place precisely?

Rising up, folks typically informed me that it’s good to be distinctive, have my very own opinions and never all the time comply with the plenty. I’m grateful for this mindset, because it has pushed me to search out my approach in life and develop as an expert and particular person. However in relation to the electrical automobile business, it’s changing into more and more tough to have a unique opinion than “EVs are nice!” 

Whereas EVs are nice, match many driver and fleet use circumstances, and prospects lastly have quite a few EV choices to select from, public charging infrastructure remains to be scaling.

No query, charging an EV is changing into simpler every day, as charging suppliers set up new public charging stations and develop modern options. It has all the time been tremendous straightforward if you happen to cost at dwelling, the office or a fleet depot. Nevertheless, in relation to utilizing public EV charging stations, primarily fast-charging stations, finding a public fast-charging station that works as meant can nonetheless typically really feel like discovering a needle in a haystack. 

A fast Google search illustrates the extent of the issue. Within the final month alone, quite a few tales throughout Enterprise Insider, The Drive and California Globe have showcased simply how tough and unreliable the U.S. public fast-charging infrastructure may be — with stations which might be damaged or that don’t work as meant. The scenario isn’t significantly better in different components of the world.

We have now not thought of public EV charging networks as a result of it is just too a lot of a variable to really feel assured in assembly customer support stage agreements …

Fortunately, the Biden-Harris administration not too long ago launched the long-awaited Discover of Proposed Rulemaking for proposed minimal requirements and necessities for EV charging tasks funded by the Nationwide Electrical Car Infrastructure (NEVI) Components Program. These minimal requirements are designed to turbocharge the EV business and straight tackle the hurdles recognized within the articles linked above, akin to requiring a minimal variety of charging ports per location and mandating a minimal of 97 % uptime for all federally funded public charging stations.

With all that in thoughts, I used to be curious to learn the way company fleets use public EV charging stations and whether or not they’re experiencing comparable points as on a regular basis drivers. In talking with business executives from Siemens and Iron Mountain, I realized how every firm is leveraging the general public EV charging stations of their geographic area — or on this case, not utilizing it for probably the most half, which says so much proper there.

For each firms, like for a lot of EV drivers and fleets, dwelling charging is the easiest way to cost their EV fleet. That use case is adopted by work/depot charging, after which — perhaps, simply perhaps — public EV charging comes into the image.

Each firms have made a dedication to impress their fleets by means of the Local weather Group’s EV100 initiative, and I labored with them in my prior function because the EV100 Program Supervisor. Every firm’s dedication and progress is tracked within the annual EV100 Progress and Perception Report. 

After I spoke with Kevin Hagen, vice chairman of environmental, social and governance (ESG) technique at Iron Mountain, he mentioned Iron Mountain’s fleet consists of a mixture of light-duty passenger autos, medium-duty cargo vans, last-mile supply autos and conventional fleet autos.

Iron Mountain operates a worldwide fleet of over 5,000 autos, and as a part of its fleet electrification journey, Iron Mountain is dedicated to electrifying 1,110 of its autos as much as 7.5 tons in curb automobile weight by 2030. That interprets to one hundred pc of their firm passenger vehicles and 50 % of their vans. Iron Mountain operates fleet autos all over the world together with within the U.S. and within the U.Okay., the place it not too long ago deployed 12 new electrical vans bringing the corporate’s complete EVs on the highway to roughly 50 autos globally. 

For passenger autos, the sentiment throughout Iron Mountain is that individuals wish to cost at dwelling, whether or not that’s at an condo constructing or standalone residence. Iron Mountain is offering dwelling chargers, by means of a partnership with Enel X, to all staff with an organization automotive to help this broad curiosity.

In talking with Katie Keeton, fleet supervisor at Siemens, she shared an identical opinion that 80 % of Siemens’ passenger automobile charging takes place at dwelling. Siemens is putting in its personal dwelling chargers to help this. The opposite 20 % of charging occurs utilizing the general public EV charging community. This 80/20 break up in charging for Siemens follows a long-standing notion throughout the business that 80 % of charging occurs at dwelling.  

Siemens has a world dedication to impress greater than 43,000 of its autos as much as 7.5 tons in curb automobile weight by 2030. About 3,000 EVs, lots of that are passenger autos, had been already deployed throughout the globe as of Marc, in accordance with the latest EV100 Annual Progress and Perception Report.

Ideas on public charging networks

Even for bigger autos, akin to cargo vans and last-mile supply autos, Iron Mountain doesn’t depend on the general public EV charging community. “The staff has designed driver routes without having to cost exterior of the office/depot setting,” Hagen mentioned, noting that autos come again to a depot to cost.

“We have now not thought of public EV charging networks as a result of it is just too a lot of a variable to really feel assured in assembly customer support stage agreements (SLAs)… For us, it’s all concerning the buyer SLA,” Hagen mentioned. A variable might imply the station is getting used when an Iron Mountain driver urgently wants it or the charging station isn’t working as meant, inflicting a delay. 

Within the case of Siemens, a lot of the fleet that Keeton is electrifying is made up of passenger autos, whether or not the autos are for gross sales representatives or executives. The primary set of service fleet autos (Ford F-150 Lightnings) are coming within the subsequent couple of weeks, and Siemens is branching out into different EV manufacturers.

Keeton mentioned that for the 20 % of charging actions that occur on public networks, drivers have skilled few charging points regarding malfunctioning charging stations. A lot of these autos are Tesla fashions, which might use the notoriously extra dependable Supercharger community. Nonetheless, even the non-Tesla autos haven’t skilled many points, Keeton mentioned, though she famous there isn’t a lot exercise utilizing public EV charging stations, as drivers cost largely at dwelling. 

Full circle, drivers love EVs

After I requested each Hagen and Keeton to share one thing they didn’t anticipate occurring of their firm’s transition in the direction of EVs, each mentioned they had been stunned by simply how a lot drivers need EVs. 

“It’s a meals struggle for who will get to drive an EV at Iron Mountain,” Hagen mentioned, including that EVs are an enormous perk for worker retention and driver satisfaction.

Keeton mentioned she didn’t anticipate simply how a lot drivers would admire Siemens’ fleet electrification technique and the way they’re part of it. Drivers suppose it’s “so cool how they’re on the forefront of this transition,” Keeton mentioned. She famous {that a} main motive for that success is as a result of Siemens has concerned its staff and drivers throughout the entire transition, offering academic assets and making certain drivers really feel comfy and conscious of what automobile fashions exist.

On the finish of the day, a company fleet electrification journey is nothing with out the staff who drive the EVs. Among the many many choices an organization should make as they set out on this journey, none may be extra vital than making certain staff really feel concerned and part of the highway forward!