When a fleet operator embarks on depot electrification, the most common mistake is a total lack of synchronicity. Far too often, businesses rush into buying vehicles before they are prepared for what they actually need onsite. The classic, painful symptom of this is when vehicles arrive before the charging infrastructure has even been installed.

To avoid these mistakes, you must start with a clear, 10-year vision. Squeezing the most out of a site requires translating your specific routes, schedules and payloads into precise energy requirements. Knowing exactly how much power you need, and when, dictates battery sizes, charger capacity and parking layout design. Crucially, each step of a phased rollout must never be a dead-end road for the next. You need to map out where your final grid connections, transformers and switchboxes will sit from day one so you never have to rip up the ground twice.

This includes choosing the right hardware infrastructure. While trucks and buses require heavy DC charging, van operations can vary. You must choose between standalone monolithic chargers with individual AC connections, or a distributed solution utilising a central power block with DC wiring to individual satellites. We’ve just introduced a hybrid solution, called Express Solo. It can charge two vehicles simultaneously as a monolithic standalone solution, or more, when connected to DC-dispensers. This can reduce make-ready costs by up to 20%.

This long-term planning is also vital for managing the physical layout as you transition from diesel to electric. In the early stages, if an EV or charger fails, you can rely on a buffer of remaining diesel spares. But once your yard is 80% electric, that safety net disappears. Your operational planning must be completely bulletproof to ensure total vehicle uptime.

Furthermore, a site assessment often reveals that the existing grid wire cannot support a long-term vision. Smart software allows you to move charging windows across different time periods, utilising the entire vehicle dwell time to maximise the fixed power you do have. It can reduce a fleet’s energy expenses by 20% to 40% through peak shaving and by integrating with flexible, day-ahead dynamic pricing structures to align the heaviest charging periods with the cheapest electricity windows.

Of course, not every vehicle can return to a depot. Looking at the public charging network, capabilities remain severely limited for heavy commercial vehicles. For trucks and buses, the sheer density of public rapid points is simply too low. As public truck charging is both scarce and expensive, we are seeing an emerging trend where depot operators who run local return-to-base fleets are increasingly opening up their private depot charging capabilities to third-party fleets via dedicated software.

This reciprocal approach opens up completely new commercial avenues through cross-agreements between different companies. By allowing a partner fleet to use your semi-public depot chargers, they secure a significantly lower price than the public network offers. Simultaneously, you get to utilise your infrastructure during the hours your own vehicles are out on the road, generating a faster return on your capital investment. For companies trying to build a viable business case for high-voltage depot development, this secondary charging revenue can completely tip the balance.

Managing this effectively requires data not only from the charger but also from the vehicle, but fleets must realise that standard vehicle telematics and back-end charge management software show two completely different sides of the coin. We design highly granular bus telematics that track millisecond amperage, voltage, state of charge (SOC) and battery temperatures to not only provide alerts in terms of a critical battery status but also to calculate energy consumption and efficiency. But standard fleet telematics are far more limited.