How To Provide At-home Fleet Vehicle Charging For Employees

When considering investing in electric vehicle charging infrastructure for your business, the possibilities aren't limited to workplace charging.

For those companies whose fleet vehicles include take-home electric cars for employees, creating a charging network that includes in-home charging is a great incentive for staff and a worthwhile strategy for achieving sustainability goals by reducing carbon emissions. 

Although an intimidating proposition, expanding workplace EV charging to include both ends of an employee commute makes sense as a majority of EV charging takes place overnight in EV owners homes. This allows them to start each day on a full charge, supplemented by public charging stations and workplace chargers instead of relying on them exclusively.

Building an at-home EV charging network. 

This case study is based on our experience working with a large NZ corporate who has begun converting their entire range of fleet vehicles to EVs. Many of these cars have become employee take-home vehicles with some travelling extensively throughout provincial New Zealand. 

As this business began the transition to electrify their fleet they discovered some new challenges to overcome, one of which was how to provide charging infrastructure in employees’ homes. In order to ensure the development of a successful charging program, a number of issues were considered;

• Employees did not always own their home, in which case landlord consent was often required to install the EV charge point.

• Most of the homes had a single-phase electricity supply, meaning a maximum capacity of 63 amps to the home. This presented potential issues when adding up to 32 amps of EV charging load to the existing consumption during peak times.

• Homes were required to have off-street or garaged parking, with access to the home’s electricity supply.

• For cost reasons, all home charge points needed to be mounted on a wall, removing additional costs for pedestals and other mounting hardware.

• Separate stand-alone garages tended not to be suitable as the existing electrical capacity was insufficient. It was often found to be costly to upgrade the circuit to a stand-alone building.

• Access to charging session data was required to allow for reimbursement of electricity costs, meaning that a connected or ‘smart’ charging solution was necessary.

One of the first steps the business took was to partner with Evnex. As both a local EV charging equipment manufacturer and national installation service provider, we surveyed all of the employee's homes for suitability, and provided guidance on smart charging hardware. We suggested ways to reduce installation costs which included the use of a type A RCD instead of a type B RCD. Next began the process of installing the EV charge points across a wide range of homes.

Employee EV Charging Experience

‍In terms of employee satisfaction, the process was without hassle. The installations were professionally managed and employees are now able to charge their electric vehicles overnight at speeds of up to 40km of range per hour or 400km over a 10 hour period.

The process is simple; plug in, charge, and forget. Each month employees are reimbursed for all energy costs used at an agreed rate. They even have the ability to charge a personal vehicle at home with the same charge point as the associated energy costs are split out separately. The Evnex mobile app assists in allowing these EV drivers to monitor their charging costs and schedule charging times when cheaper, and more sustainable off-peak electricity rates are available.

As the EV chargers are connected to the internet via the cellular network, there was no requirement to connect to the employee’s private home network. 

Company Charging Network Experience

From the company’s point of view, the Evnex EV smart charging system allows them to manage employee charging requirements in a cost-effective manner. 

All sessions are recorded and an automated process is in place for monthly employee reimbursement via their payroll system. The fleet manager receives monthly reports covering individual consumption, cost, and even CO2 savings. 

As employees leave the business from time to time, it's a simple and relatively affordable deinstallation process, with the charging hardware then reallocated to new employees.

If you're looking to provide charging solutions for your employees at home, talk to us about hardware options and how to make the installation process straight-forward.