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Work Charging Station Proposal

3K views 26 replies 19 participants last post by  tutti57 
#1 ·
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what to include in my pitch to management to get a station at work? I'll cover the tax incentives but is that all I have to go with dealing with a large national company?

I am the only one in the lot with an EV too...

I'd run my charging cord out the window if the Windows opened.

My daily commute leave me with 5-10 miles outside of electric range every day.

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#2 ·
Just ask!

I asked my employer not really expecting a positive response. To my amazement, they designated two parking spaces marked "Electric cars only" and installed two 120 volt outlets. Since I'm the only 1 out of a workforce of 300+ I use my own EVSE. If anyone else ever buys a plug-in car, I'll have to go back to my employer and ask them to put in two EVSE's. Who know's maybe they'll agree to that too.

120 Volt trickle charge is plenty for the workplace. I almost always get a full recharge during my 9 hour and 20 min shift.
 
#3 ·
I found a 110-volt outlet on a lamp post in the employee parking area at work. However, I hike a half-mile when I get home to use a 220-volt charging station in a community parking area, then return two hours later to move my car to my parking area at my condominium complex where electric vehicle charging is banned by the homeowners association.
 
#8 ·
How is this even possible? Is this even in the homeowner association's purview? I live in a condo complex and I am on our association's board of directors. Our association would have no issue with people charging their EVs at their unit.

This should be illegal for homeowner associations to ban.
 
#4 ·
It's tough to be the first.

My company has two locations. At the *other* location, they have already allowed a non-employee (think: regular subcontractor, or non-employee union agent) to charge their Tesla. That person provided their own EVSE; the company's electrician installed it, and is not charging for the power.

I asked for the same thing. I provided my own (240V converted) EVSE. The company's electrician installed it, and they're not charging me for the juice.

If all you need is 5-10 miles of extra range, I would suggest you ask just for the ability to plug your 120V EVSE in. It does not require much effort on their part, you're not asking for much juice, and you're getting your foot in the door as the first employee who owns a car with a traction battery. Pointing out tax incentives that will not cover the cost of the installation, when you're the ONLY person currently interested in that benefit, seems *really* self-serving.

When the next two or three EVs show up, you can offer your insight (ha) for planning actual charging stations.

If you really want 240V, I suggest going my route. The EVSE remains your "property", so you have standing to have it to yourself. Ask for it to be put in a non-prime parking area...if you're going to be getting free juice from the company, you can't be seen as having an unfairly prominent parking spot, too.

--Chris
 
#6 ·
A 120V outlet capable of 12 amps can add about 40 miles range during the time a car is typically parked during work. That should be adequate for most drivers.

For the company, 120V outlets are much, much less expensive than 240V "charge stations". As an employee I'd rather have access to a bunch of 120V outlets than fight over who gets to plug in to the one 240V station.
 
#7 ·
Does your workplace have iso14001 certification? We recently got 4x 30 amp stations installed and one major selling point to management was it helps our iso14001 initiatives (environmental improvement) for the year. It also helped we had two volt owners at the time and another person recently joined the volt family so there are 3 volt drivers now.
 
#9 ·
My large national company just blatantly says NO. They have already spent millions in charging stations at many larger sites, and the smaller sites just don't get the love. The also won't allow exceptions or workarounds like using an extention cord, plugging into a 110 outlet, etc. early efforts in that arena led to broken/burnt 110v sockets, and a general fear for safety that caused these rules. I understand it, just don't like it. Alas, at the larger sites, it has become parking wars where volts and Tesla's get criticism from the BEV owners who need the charge more then the vehicles with higher capacities or other propulsion options. It's such a mess that it might be easier if they didn't have this at all.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I'm having trouble justifying why I would want to ask my company to install EVSE's or make an outlet available and provide free electricity to me. What's in it for the company? Why do I deserve a perk no-one else does? How does it benefit employees as a whole? It sounds like a bunch of people (who could run on gas) asking for something for free. After all, this IS a Volt forum.

OTOH, asking to have the barely visible parking lot striping re-done or asking for a permanent handicap sign make sense to me.

FWIW, I still have 35 miles of charge left when I get home.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Those are all good points, but not forward thinking enough in my opinion. I look at this as building out ev infrastructure which needs to start happening sometime. Here in Ontario they have proposed all new houses and office buildings be pre wired for ev charging so that in 10-15 years or sooner there is a very robust charging network. It's my much cheaper to pre wire a whole sub division or parking structure rather than after the fact. For example, 4 stations cost us around 20k to install. You could probably pre wire 50 houses for the same amount.

Using the excess electricity we have at night is also part of the plans, and if you want to offload and charge evs over night you need the infra structure.

And just because a workplace installs EVSEs doesn't mean it's free. My workplace is eventually going to charge a nominal fee for charging which I'm totally fine with. It's still cheaper than gas, and cleaner.
 
#12 ·
I'd be happy with a 110v outlet. What's in it for the company is that it shows they listen to and value their employees. Just another benefit. I know a few people interested in volts at work who haven't bought them yet.

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#13 ·
Since Volt/ELR is PHEV (H=hybrid) I wouldn't ask for special facilities. A BEV owner should have bought a vehicle not dependant on others as well.

ISO comment is interesting though.
 
#18 ·
We just got chargers installed a few months ago. We are a large manufacturer of electronic components for the automotive industry, and EVs / hybrids have more of our content than traditional units. Several of us at our location presented clever, respectful, persuasive, educational arguments to our corporate facilities manager, but they were not an EV supporter and had other priorities so nothing happened. Eventually we heard a talk by a senior executive who has a Tesla and an i8. We reached out to him with the same arguments and he agreed! He gave orders to the facilities group to install chargers "and not just a few". The key as with anything is reaching the right audience at the right time.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Currently there are two 120V circuits for use for employees with EVs at my workplace, they are just GFA outside outlets, and they were put in by one of the electrical engineers who drove a 2013 Volt, who simply asked permission of the Plant Manager.

I currently charge my Nissan Leaf (BEV) on one of these during the day. The electricity cost is negligible for the amount of juice our materials research centre uses per day (heck, the (free) coffee stations alone in the building probably use more electricity per day than charging 5-10kW into the battery of both cars. Even then, if they decided to charge me a small fee for charging, I'd happily pay it.

Currently, the Ontario Government has some major incentives for businesses to install ESVE stations for their employees, but I'm not sure they offer incentives for the electricity used after the ESVE is in place. I believe (but certainly do not demand) that my company will install a few 240V ESVEs when they tear-up and repave the parking lot for a bit of planned construction on the property. It certainly is a good Idea for a materials research company to set a good example on green/sustainability in research-scale-up of consumables. Besides there are a number of people in the building that are on the TESLA pre-order list. The EVs will be coming in force over the next few years.
 
#21 ·
I asked our medium sized company (400 people, 250 at this location) if they would install a 120V outlet. Their biggest concern was the cost of electricity. When I told them that most days it would cost about $.50 (my commute is 17 miles, electricity is less than $.10/kw), they said that wouldn't be enough to notice and they were fine with it. I think they thought it would be a few bucks a day. They ended putting in two outlets, with the company electrician doing the job. Not long after, a co-worker bought a Leaf was ecstatic to learn about the free charging. The return in goodwill far outweighs the actual cost. Plus they can brag that they're a green(er) company.

There's another employee with a Leaf who has only used it one time. But it was mid-winter and the first Leaf owner came to me saying he was stuck and wouldn't have enough range to get his daughter after school. I let him have my space knowing I could use gas if I needed. He's a bit of a whiner and would probably have run to management complaining that we need more outlets, only to have them regret the decision. It's best to work these things out so the company isn't sorry they did this.

Few employees even know about the free charging, but when I tell them it's $.50/a day, they don't care. I'm sure when my co-worker forgets to turn off his office AC unit overnight, he wastes more than that.
 
#24 ·
We're a relatively small company (100 employees) but our product is considered "green". In addition to a 100kW solar system at our new facility, I also was able to convince the owners to put in dual Clipper Creek 40a chargers. I'm the only employee with an EV at the moment but we expect that to change in the next 12-24 months.
 
#25 ·
My work said "no"--part legitimate reason (would require a reserved space in a smaller lot) part stupid fear ("liability").

Now that another coworker has a Volt, we're trying this again. One argument involves cost savings--my employer reimburses for gas during "business travel" and I now have two years of days showing how much lower this cost is for the Volt.

Maybe this will give them an incentive.
 
#26 ·
I was able to convince my workplace of 300 employees to initially allow charging and subsequently allow the EV owners to install charging stations using facility power. Major selling points were the small amount of electricity used (I average 8kWh), the small amount that a 3.3kWh 208V charger will allow in a shift or two, and goodwill in general.

We picked spots as far back in the lot as possible, but still with easy power access. I currently have two EVSE's installed with a third one ready to be put in when time permits. I was the first Volt on site, but there have since been as many as four others driven by coworkers.

Management's major concern after hearing low operating costs was safety and ensuring we didn't have cords strung all over the parking lot. We have been lucky that there have been enough parking spaces for few enough cars on a shift to ensure all the Volts leave with a full charge. Since almost everyone's one way commute is 25 miles or more there is little demand for Leaf, although one of the 200 mile EV's could darken our door one day - perhaps even by me.
 
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