The United States is currently experiencing a transportation revolution with the quick adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). EVs made up 7% of all new car sales in 2023, a number forecasted to leap to 30% by 2030.
With consumers moving toward zero-emission vehicles, businesses must adapt to accommodate the increasing need for accessible charging — or lose customers, employees, and tenants. Corporations are also being pushed to electrify their own transportation fleets to reduce emissions and achieve corporate sustainability goals.
Commercial EV charging stations are a no-brainer for retailers, logistics providers, apartment complexes, and just about any other kind of business. Here are some advantages, use cases, and considerations that will help you approach your EV charging infrastructure project with confidence.
Luxman Energy Commercial EV Charging Stations
The advantages of Commercial EV charging Stations
So, to start with, let’s dive right into some of the advantages of adding electric vehicle chargers to your property, and why you should view commercial EV charging stations as an attractive business opportunity.
Increased Sales & Revenue
Now while installing commercial goes is much more than a bolt on and a plug, on your property it can actually be worth having them installed when it comes to your bottom line. A new study analyzing data from 140,000 businesses in California found that a single EV charging station installed nearby provided a sales increase of around 1.4%, or $6.7 million. But that’s not the only thing EV chargers can do to offer a financial benefit. Companies can turn EV chargers into cashgenerating assets by simply charging a nominal fee to drivers.
Higher Property Value
For rental properties, EV chargers are premium amenities that allow real estate developers and landlords to increase fees. This combined feature can translate to a considerable increase in property value for office building owners and managers, apartment owners, and owners of other leased properties. Like gyms, free parking and doorman services, onsite EV charging stations entice new tenants and entice existing ones to renew their leases year after year.
Improved Sustainability
By installing Commercial EV chargers, you can future-proof the business and take advantage of the transition to greener methods of transportation, helping you help the environment and meet emissions reduction targets. For example, installing chargers at your property encourages employees to adopt and drive electric vehicle, potentially reducing the amount of emissions that are indirectly attributable to your business (known as Scope 3 emissions).
In addition, organizations that install EV chargers and electrify their fleets can decrease Scope 1 emissions, which are emissions resulting from the day-to-day operations of a business. And if you run your chargers on renewable energy such as solar surplus rather than grid electricity, you can further reduce Scope 2 emissions (emissions resulting from purchased energy).
EV Charging Stations Use Cases for Commercial Customers
So, your business knows in theory that the installation of commercial electric vehicle charging stations is a good investment — but how do you put it into actual practice? Now let’s examine the most common use cases for EV chargers.
Public Charging
As the name suggests, public charging is open for any driver who wants to charge their vehicle while on your premises. Such charging is generally seen among retailers, parking lots, colleges, towns and other properties serving drivers all day. One thing to note with public EV charging is that it requires owners and operators to predict how much the public will want chargers in their respective areas — something we’ll discuss in further detail shortly.
Workplace & Multi-Family Community Charging
EV charging is also perfectly positioned to support properties where drivers are parked longer, such as workplaces (from office buildings to hospitals) and multi-family communities (like apartments, condos and townhomes). There are many benefits: Providing EV chargers in the workplace can be an essential part of getting existing employees back to the office after COVID and attracting new hires. As noted in the previous section, it has been shown that property values, rents, and occupancy rates can be higher when EV charging is offered to tenants in residential buildings.
Fleet Charging
Reliable and accessible EV charging is critical for businesses such as logistics companies, transportation hubs and municipalities that want to electrify their fleets. To ensure that their vehicles are charged and available when needed, these organizations can only do this by installing EV charging stations at their depots. Companies deploying fleet EV charging might also opt to dedicate some chargers to employees and visitors.
Key Factors to Consider When Charging Commercial EVs
To ensure a successful onsite EV charging project, there are a few factors to consider before getting started. It is not uncommon, and there are tried-and-tested solutions that help overcome them, even though some can be tricky for businesses like yours.
Charging Demand
How many chargers you decide to put in will ultimately depend on the number of EVs you expect to host at your site. Install too few and drivers will grumble when they have to wait for an open plug. Install too many, and you’ll end up with charging hardware you have to pay for that may never see enough use.
Businesses can combat uncertainties in charging demand by surveying employees to find out whether they drive an EV or plan to do so in the near future. It can be useful to study EV penetration rates in your area when evaluating charging needs from customers and visitors, and to partner with an EV charging solutions provider like Luxman Energy who can help you conduct demand forecasting.
Upfront & Ongoing Costs
As with any big investment, EV charging projects have initial (one-time) and recurring (O&M) costs.
Upfront Costs
The most apparent upfront cost is the chargers themselves and the expense of having them installed. Less immediate initial costs can include site preparation, permits and needed upgrades to any electrical infrastructure if your site doesn’t have the additional power capacity necessary to support chargers.
Ongoing Costs
There are ongoing operating costs associated with maintaining the chargers — including electricity, preventative maintenance and load management software. Demand charges — in which utilities charge their customers more for the highest period of electricity usage — can also be a factor.
Ways to Reduce Costs
Luckily, there are tools out there to ride out a majority of these costs. Federal tax credits and state specific incentive and rebates can help cover your installation and hardware costs, while utilizing proper EV charging load management minimizes infrastructure upgrades and eliminates spikes in consumption that trigger demand charges. Financing options, such as loans and leases, can also help organizations in that they allow the cost of an EV charging installation to be spread out over time.
Business owners may also want to consider a longer warranty plan for their chargers. This simple action can enhance charger performance, reliability and uptime —and help prevent costly replacement expenses, as well.
Charger Location & Access for Drivers
Where you plan to put your EV charging project, and where within that locati0n the chargers will go, is critically important.
Whether your property is a good candidate for EV chargers depends on many of the factors we’ve already covered — local charging demand, availability of state-specific incentives, power capacity. (An experienced EV charging provider can help make sense of it all and can develop an effective EV charger locati0n strategy.)
As far as where precisely on the property chargers should be installed, consider the traffic flow through your parking lot to locate chargers in the most convenient yet unobstructive places. The distance to the building’s power supply is also a consideration, as cabling will need to run to power the chargers. Chargers are spread out across a wider area and may need to be connected to a cellular signal with LTE connectivity in order to speak to your energy management system.
It’s also important to consider driver access when sitting EV chargers. “State or local codes may have specific requirements related to the design, marking, and signage for an ADA-compliant EV charging space and/or the minimum number of accessible charging ports that must be provided,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center.
Charger Type
EV chargers for sale vary in charging speeds and connectors. The two types of chargers most often found in commercial EV charging installations are Level 2 chargers, which provide around 25 miles per hour of charging, and Level 3 or DC Fast Chargers (DCFC), capable of over 200 miles per hour of charge time.
Which chargers you decide to install depends largely on charger access (who will be using the chargers) and dwell time (how long a driver is expected to be plugged in). Public chargers along a busy highway, for example, tend to be DCFC, so drivers can “top up” their car on a quick pitstop. Chargers on a corporate campus, though, should be more MQTT, as employees probably will be parked all day.
Driver Experience
Finally, you want to ensure that EV drivers who use your property can charge with ease. Happy drivers are the key to getting more drivers to your business, after all. This entails, most importantly, not simply having sufficient chargers available to meet demand, but also ensuring that drivers are getting that energy during their charge session.
There are lots of ways to parse out energy to chargers on a property, and not all of them are created equal. Luxman Energy employs a driver input driven adaptive charging model that controls charging demand in an intelligent manner.
EV drivers can use the Luxman Energy App to input their car’s make and model, how much energy they need, and their estimated parking duration. Drivers seeking to exit earlier than those with equal or lower energy needs, but who will remain parked longer, are prioritized.
Luxman Energy X™ — Reinventing the energy management process with Adaptive Load Management® — Luxman Energy. With patented algorithms, it orchestrates EV charging in real time, taking into account the driver’s schedule, the energy load of the building and even the pulse of the power grid.
EV drivers use the app to pay for their charge session. In addition to monitoring charger status, emissions reduction data and a lot more, property owners can track charging revenue in the online dashboard of the Luxman Energy X.
Let Luxman Energy Handle Your First (or Next) EV Charging Installation
Luxman Energy can help whether you are starting your very first EV charging initiative or expanding the existing system. We are a full-service EV charging solutions provider that provides the entire project life cycle from initial sites assessment to turnkey development construction and ongoing asset management.
Luxman Energy then uses its adaptive charging capabilities and its deep experience in the EV policy and incentives landscape to help you control installation and operating costs while delivering on your sustainability commitments to stakeholders. Now reach us to kick-start.
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