It can be inevitable that, despite having charging infrastructure at home or a depot, your drivers will sometimes need to utilize the public charging network.
That will present its own set of challenges, outlined by Andy Hill ─ LCV Specialist Commercial Vehicle Manager: “At the risk of stating the obvious, there's a big difference between cars and vans! That has particular implications when it comes to charging EVs on the public network because the vast majority of that network is built with cars in mind. For smaller vans, that’s probably not going to cause an issue because they will fit into car-sized spaces."
"The challenge comes with your larger vehicle configured with high roofs or long wheelbases because they will encounter height restricted areas and small charging bays. So, you need to do your research and identify the charging points most likely to suit your needs on the public side.”
Fortunately, information on the public charging network is becoming more widely available, making that research task easier. You can also find useful advice on home and workplace charging in this guide from E.ON ─ a company going on its own EV journey with help from Lex Autolease.
Lex Autolease is ready to help you with this detailed planning too. This includes designing and installing your charging infrastructure in collaboration with best-in-class partners where required and, crucially, using technology such as telematics solutions, monitoring where your current ICE fleet vehicles are being driven and identifying EVs that have the right range for those drive cycles.
Chris Chandler explains how this can give fleet managers and decision makers real peace of mind:
“It really helps with the strategy, and it helps de-risking, because you're not working off what you think the vehicles are doing. You're actually working off solid evidence and mileage and data of where the vehicles are, what they're doing. So, it does add a sort of a layer of risk-proofing for customers.”