76% of drivers polled in a nationwide survey think it’s important for employers to provide access to charging at work. Whether used as a tool to attract new talent, increase productivity, or push corporate ESG goals forward, workplace charging is clearly a sought-after employee perk that benefits both parties.
But how one chooses to build and implement EV charging is just as important as the initial decision, and can make the largest impact in the day-to-day lives of employees. In order to efficiently serve the most people, one has to think about the best construction, layout, and installation of these chargers.
Not thinking about site design first can and often results in hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in employee productivity — from searching for an available charger, to moving their EV, to refocusing at their desk. For a senior level employee, this can be a large sum.
Create Charging Clusters for Convenience
Typically, charging stations are not set up with productivity impact in mind, or built to scale. Many companies choose to build charging infrastructure simply where there’s enough access to electricity, or ample space in the parking lot. Others invest as little as possible into renovations, and place chargers where only minimal construction is required to save money.
Because of this, large office spaces with thousands of employees rarely have enough EV chargers for each driver. When used on a first-come, first-served basis, this means that someone is constantly waiting for an open space. In the morning, this means an inconsistent commute and delayed arrival time, but in the afternoon, this manifests as time spent leaving the office, moving vehicles, and re-concentrating.
Charging “clusters” are dedicated areas for EV charging that are grouped together for easy installation, access, and recall. Bringing a larger amount of chargers into one central location instead of scattered throughout your property minimizes inefficiencies by reducing traffic congestion, confusion, and seemingly-endless searching. Building in this way vs. standalone “islands” reduces total driving and idle time and instead, introduces purposeful site design. Now, if all spaces are unavailable, your employee immediately knows exactly where and when to come back later.
Save Money with Better Construction
It’s no secret that implementing EV charging requires an initial up-front investment. But companies can minimize these costs by regulating construction to a central location. Expanding each “island” would take additional time and money to trench, plus inefficiencies caused by changing construction sites, or sending EV drivers to new locations.
By using the “cluster” method, organizations only need to shut one area of the parking lot down to trench and run conduit. All in all, this approach creates the best driver experience. When used in tandem with intelligent load management solutions like SmartPower, businesses can maximize available infrastructure to deliver the highest number of chargers possible in a single location.