Commercial fleets should avoid incurring unnecessary costs by oversizing EV charging infrastructure, it has been said.
Kevin Christopher, head of product at EV fleet management company ZeroMission, said concerns around vehicle range and charging availability were pushing organisations to commit to excessive levels of redundancy.
Speaking on ZeroMission’s webinar on ‘The real costs of electric vehicles and how to manage them effectively’, Christopher said: “For any commercial fleet manager, it is critical that they have the vehicles needed to complete their daily operational requirements, so high reliability and up-time is key.
“To mitigate range anxiety, in particular, we are seeing a lot of commercial fleets investing in 20 to 30% more batteries than are needed.
“This in turn leads to a larger charging infrastructure and additional electrical service, which drives up the cost significantly.”
Christopher also warned that some energy management costs are often overlooked at the planning stage.
He said: “Local grid operators can have complicated rate structures, resulting in a significant premium at certain times of the day, so you need a system that eliminates or vastly reduces charging during these periods to minimise expense on the fuelling side.
“In many cases, fleets are also charged for having dedicated capacity available, on top of paying for the actual consumption of that energy, which means there is a huge financial incentive for rightsizing the charging infrastructure from the start.”
