EV Chargepoint Installation

Before getting into how to charge your EV, it’s beneficial to understanding how the EV charging infrastructure or ecosystem works.

EV chargepoints can be installed in any location where there’s enough available power, with many relatively lower powered EV chargers installed at places where drivers spend a long time parked, this way, the vehicle (electric car or motorbike) will be charging whilst they’re spending time at that location or destination, giving them a fuller battery when they return to move to the next location. The majority of drivers tend to charge their EV overnight at home, but charge points are increasingly appearing, at work place premises, as well as public destinations such as supermarkets, shopping centre car parks and out of town retail parks. Plus there’s also en-route charging for long-distance journeys, which must be higher powered for faster charging. This is what we call the EV charging ecosystem .. and this will be an area of change over the coming years.

A quick tip about public EV charging ... Manufacturers recommend only charging EVs to 80%, as this helps to prolong the life of the battery and will still provide you with plenty of driving miles - so consider moving once you have got to what you consider an appropriate threshold.. The one exception to this is wintertime charging. As it takes battery power to heat up a battery to the optimal operating temperature, staying plugged in will extend your driving range during cold weather. Read more in the next section.

Home EV chargepoint

For most EV owners, a home EV charging point is the best option when it comes to keeping their vehiclecharged and ready. These charging points can be installed in a convenient location, are weatherproof and are specifically designed to handle the high wattage that electric car charging requires.

Public EV charging station

Alongside shopping centres, car parks and other destinations where you may soend some time, it is now a legal requirement for all large petrol stations and motorway services to provide charging points too, and with EVs continuing to grow in popularity, this number is only expected to increase over the coming years. While these stations can offer a range of fast charging speeds, the downside is that it’ll cost you more to charge your car using a public station than it would at home. It’s also important to understand that your EV won’t be automatically compatible with every public charging station out there because different stations will use different charging connectors. You also need to make sure you have a compatiblecharging connector for your electric vehicle.

There are two types of vehicle-side connectors used:

• AC (alternating current) – Slow charging.
  Typically used for home charging at home, work place and at some public charge points.
• DC (direct current) - fast charging
  Typically found at petrol garages and at motorway service stations

Read more in the next section.

There are two main types of EV charger: universal (untethered) and tethered.

Tethered:

Some chargepoints - including all DC rapid chargers and a handful of fast chargepoints - are tethered, Tethered chargers come with a charging cable attached – you simply park up and plug in. The main benefit of this type of socket is its convenience, while the main drawbacks are a fixed-length
cable and the risk that you may end up needing an adaptor if you should switch to a car that has a different type of socket.

Universal or untethered

Universal chargers can connect to all EVs, but require you to provide your own compatible charging cable. The main benefit of this type of socket is its flexibility. Most AC (slower) charging ports have a socket and no cable.

Charging cables have two connectors - one for the chargepoint socket, and one for the electric car. Electric vehicles either have a Type 1 or, more commonly, Type 2 socket for slow/fast charging and CHAdeMO or CCS for DC rapid charging (for those vehicles that can).

Read more in next section.

Important note

Most electric cars will come with a charging cable for a three-pin domestic plug and, while youcan use this to charge your EV, we’d advise against it. Three-pin domestic plugs are slow to charge, aren’t designed to handle high charging loads, and aren’t designed to be a long-term charging solution (it wouldn’t be safe to use them all the time).

Charging an electric car is similar to charging a mobile phone; you top it up during the day if you need to and give it a full charge at home overnight.There are a few elements that go into determining how long it takes to charge an EV. But in general, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 12+ hours, depending on the charging rate of the chargepoint, the size of the EV battery and its connectors.

Charging speeds are calculated in kWh, which is how many kilowatts of energy a charger will supply per hour. The capacity of EV batteries is also measured in kilowatts. You can easily calculate how quickly a charger will top up your EV’s battery by dividing a battery’s capacity by a charger’s speed.

There are two common charging speeds found for EV chargers.

Slow chargers

Slow chargers use alternating current (AC) and normally charge at speeds of 3.7kWH or 7.4kWh (while some go up to 22kWh, these are rare in the UK). You’ll usually find these chargers at home, in workplaces and at some public charging points. Type 1 and type 2 connectors support slow charging.

Fast chargers

Fast chargers use direct current (DC), and the most common charging speed is 50kWh. You’ll usually find these chargers in workplaces and public locations like motorway service stations. Type 2, CHAdeMO and Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors support fast charging.

EV's can save you hundreds of pounds less to charge per year compared to filling the same size car with petrol or diesel – at least for those who can charge at home (where you can be on a special EV energy tariff with a lower cost per KWh or use solar energy to charge for free.) Overall how much it will cost you to charge mainly depends on where you charge it.

Those unable to charge from home will have to rely on public charging points,
which will cost more. Community charging is also an option – this is where
people can rent their charger to EV owners (via services such as Co-Charger or Just Park)

The fastest way to charge an electric car is to use a public rapid or ultra-rapid charging point, but that's also the most expensive way to keep your electric vehicle running. You could easily end up paying more per mile than a petrol or diesel car when using these chargers. However, some public EV charge points are free to use.

Given the number of varying factors and fluctuations in pricing we are reluctant to add pricing tables here - but you we urge you to seek current information when looking to purchase, Overall there are a number of factors that will influence how much running an EV may cost you too - here are a few of the main ones:

• Model of car
• Size of battery
• Average mileage
• Charging speed of the car and your charger
• Electricity tariffs
• Cost of home charging points

However, as an electric car is cheaper to run than a petrol or diesel one, you can rest assured that you’ll be making a saving in the long-run and helping the environment if you make the switch.

Home charging via a specific charging point is the most convenient, safe and cost-effective way to charge your vehicle, especially if you have an EV specific energy tariff which includes reduced rates for overnight charging. Plus as EVs are already extremely eco-friendly, charging at home allows you to take that one step further. You could alternatively choose a renewable energy tariff and you’ll avoid the carbon emissions that may result from using public charging points - or better still, you can charge for free if you have a solar panel system during the day, and overnight too if you have a solar energy storage battery. (You may not realise this, but storage batteries can be used to store energy that you have imported at a cheaper rate at a previous time to use later too, which is ideal during the less sunny months)

Home charging is usually a cost saving exercise, but there are ways home owners can generate income from the EV chargepoint too. Community platforms such as Co Charger have developed unique community charging schemes which giving homeowners with EV chargers the opportunity to share them with a few neighbours, and monetise their investment.

For more details see EV chargepoint resources 

Many larger businesses who invest in EV chargepoints do so for their vehicle fleets - but charge points can be set up with a variety of different tariff models, allowing chargepoint owners to either recover cost, or generate a profit. When set at a sensible level, a profit can be generated whilst the charge point remains attractive to drivers as a much cheaper alternative to traditional fuels.

It largely depends on what the charge point owner is trying to achieve - a "destination" charger may offer free charging, to entice visitors to our shopping centre, for instance. However a charging "hub" on a major road network may charge a premium due to the convenience of charging when on a large journey. Here's a summary of the core busines opportunities:

Loss leader model

With this model, EV charging is provided free to grow market share by attracting and retaining customers, with the costs offset by the increased revenue gained through existing business activities.

Cost recovery

With this model, a fee is levied on drivers to use the chargepoints. This matches the operational costs and, if total cost recovery is sought, an additional margin is added to pay back hardware and installation costs.

EV drivers are increasingly acceptant of paying a fee to charge their car, though most will judge the value of the price against their home electricity rates. So long as prices are set within the window of what drivers find acceptable, it can be possible for chargepoint hosts to collect a revenue

Profit making

With this model, a higher fee is levied on drivers to use the chargepoints. This fee covers operational, hardware and installation costs and provides a profitable revenue stream on top.

Fully funded

In some circumstances, charging infrastructure providers will offer to provide and install chargepoints free of charge to a business. This can work very effectively, but it is important to take a long term view to ensure that what is offered is of mutual benefit to you and your customers.

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When planning the installation of charging infrastructure, it is first important to understand the likely costs. These are split between:

Hardware

Hardware costs vary depending on the power that chargepoints can deliver, the features that they offer and their build quality.

Installation

When it comes to the cost of installing commercial EV chargepoints, every install is different . Cost can vary depending on:

• The power required for the chargepoints.
• How the chargepoints are to be installed (e.g. wall mounting is cheaper than concreting in bases).
• The distance between the chargepoint and the connection point.
• How the supply cable is to be fixed en route to the chargepoint (e.g.
  trenching through hardstanding to bury cable is much more expensive than clipping to a wall).

Grid reinforcement

It will always be less expensive to install charging points without having to upgrade the supply to the site. At the least expensive it can be possible to arrange for your District Network Operator (DNO) to install a larger fuse to increase capacity at a site, but the costs of increasing capacity up-stream (e.g. uprating the local substation) are usually very significant.

Electrical

The electrical costs are defined by whatever price you pay per kWh - or whether you generate your own energy via either solar or other renewable method.

Maintenance

To ensure the charging infrastructure remains operable, some maintenance will likely be required. Most reputable providers will offer some combination of maintenance and/or extended warranties.

When choosing which charging infrastructure is right for your business, it is imperative to understand the fundamentals of where and when cars charge and how your chargepoints will fit into the drivers’ EV charging ecosystem.

We can provide you with this information when advising which chargepoints best suit your use case. Contact our commercial team today