INFRASTRUCTURE
How to solve the EV infrastructure equation
Underutilised EV chargers plus digital technology equals a fleet charging solution, says Sara Sloman, chief strategy officer, Paythru
INFRASTRUCTURE
How to solve the EV infrastructure equation
Underutilised EV chargers plus digital technology equals a fleet charging solution, says Sara Sloman, chief strategy officer, Paythru
There probably isn’t a person working in business who doesn’t know that fleets are going electric. Many logistics firms and fleet operators in telecommunications, energy, utilities, and retail are rolling out ever more EVs, many with the goal of achieving 100% electric fleets. Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport is now one of largest EV fleets in the UK through its passenger chauffeur and ground operations.
While the transition to EVs is welcome, it creates challenges, most notably, where do the growing numbers of EVs charge? There is a lot of talk about public networks. These networks are expanding at an impressive pace, but for charging confidence it is widely accepted that drivers want to charge their vehicles where they are parked – ideally overnight. That becomes easier if you can keep the vehicle on site, provided you can install enough chargers. But, if drivers take their vehicles home, it is more challenging, since many don’t have driveways where they can install chargers.
A solution is to partner with organisations that already have charging infrastructure sitting idle overnight – such as car parks, industrial parks, or private office car parks. That may be a single partner if you are local, but more likely several partners if you have employees spread out. Rather than building a dedicated hub, you create a virtual distributed hub, where your drivers have lots of pockets of available chargers with preferential access.
“While the transition to EVs is welcome, it creates challenges, most notably, where do the growing numbers of EVs charge? Public networks are expanding at an impressive pace, but drivers want to charge their vehicles where they are parked”
Sara Sloman, chief strategy officer, Paythru
Paying for third party charging hubs
How would this work? The idea would be that your drivers have a company app, through which they locate and book allocated chargers near their homes. That app then manages the payment, either billing it directly to their employer, or to their own account, with a VAT receipt automatically available in the app. They may also have an option to also park (and perhaps charge) their private cars during the day.
This seamless front-end app requires some work behind the scenes. Once you have identified your partners, you can connect their chargers to your ‘virtual charging network’, so they can be located through the app. Agreement of rates and managing payment setups then follows, so that when your drivers charge, the payment automatically goes to the charge point operator in question (and is split with you if you choose to take a cut). That is not too challenging if you have a single site, but it requires adept handling if you are managing payments to multiple sites through the one app.
In the tech industry we talk about this as a ‘platform’ – that’s the bit that sits in the middle and makes everything else work. Think of Airbnb, which is a cloud platform that connects holidaymakers with spaces to stay. The front-end app is just the bit you see. The clever bit is the behind-the-scenes platform that signs up ‘hosts’, creates a searchable database of their homes, enables booking, and collects payments, which it splits between itself and its hosts.
On a smaller scale, a similar platform can be designed to manage the letting of private charge point spaces from multiple parties, and handle the booking and payments, all presented via a seamless front-end app.
As fleet operators continue to electrify, systems that make it quick, easy and secure to access reliable overnight charging will be essential. Cloud payment technologies offer an interesting solution.
With the grazEV app, Paythru will try to ensure that the driver thinks about the charging experience as little as possible.
