At the 2022 Australasian Fleet Conference and Exhibition Sales Director of EVSE Australia, Sam Korkees explained the important considerations for choosing, installing, and managing EV infrastructure.
Sam explained four keys of a successful transition to an EV fleet and how it’s critical to have a plan for ongoing site operations and maintenance, while also staying agile to adapt in this dynamic and rapidly evolving market.
The Right Hardware Mix
- Charging infrastructure should be based on your fleet’s operational needs, overcompensating or under compensating can lead to extra costs
- Understanding the driving patterns of your drivers is critical to determining your fleet’s operational needs
- Take a vehicle and charger agnostic approach: consider a full range of vehicle and charging solutions
Reliability and design
- Site Selection: the correct site selection will help minimize project costs and timelines, while also leading to convenience around future charging
- Site Assessment: While equipment costs may be known, installation costs can vary wildly. A site assessment will help you develop an installation plan.
- Engineering, and Design: Ask your charging service provider to provide detailed engineering design so that you have a reference for future expansion
Software to unlock enduring value
- Energy management: Load shifting to reduce demand charges and avoid unnecessary upgrades.
- Charging optimization: co-optimization of vehicle duty cycle, fleet uptime, and fuel costs
- Interoperability: open-standards like OCPP will avoid vendor lock-in
- Home integration: track your fleet vehicles charged at employee’s homes to allow for reimbursement
Future thinking integrated solutions
- Reliability and Uptime: Your fleet is business critical. Ensure it’s monitored with live notifications
- Service Level Agreement and Maintenance in Place: Negotiate costs early and if possible, try to integrate into a fixed term.
- Australian based support: You don’t have time to deal with international support centres and automated ticket systems.
The EV revolution is here. Are you ready?
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