What is Home Charging for Electric Vehicles?

In today’s EV Fleet Glossary, we are exploring the concept of home charging for electric vehicles, a practice that is becoming increasingly significant as businesses electrify their fleets.

Definition

Home charging refers to the process of charging electric vehicles at a private residence. This typically involves installing a dedicated charging station, also known as a wallbox, which connects to the home’s electrical system. Home charging provides the convenience of charging EVs overnight, ensuring they are ready for use the next day, whether for personal, business, or fleet purposes.

Relevance in fleet electrification

As companies transition to electric vehicles, home charging offers several benefits, such as:

• Convenience: Home charging provides significant convenience for employees, allowing them to charge their vehicles overnight and start each day with a full battery.
• Increased utilization: By enabling home charging, companies can ensure that EVs are consistently charged and ready for use.
• Employee satisfaction: Offering home charging can positively impact employee satisfaction and retention. It shows a commitment to sustainability and employee well-being, enhancing the company's reputation.
• Lower depot power requirements: Home charging reduces the need for extensive power capacity upgrades at company depots. This makes it feasible to start the electrification process even if the depot’s electrical infrastructure wouldn't support full fleet electrification initially.
• Cost efficiency: In many cases, home charging can be more cost-effective than charging at company depots due to lower residential electricity rates.
• Flexible charging locations: For companies with large fleets that do not own their parking spaces, such as those in shared office buildings, installing chargers may be challenging or impossible. Home charging offers a practical solution where depot installations are not viable or are restricted by property limitations.

Fleet electrification with Volteum’s solutions

At Volteum, we recognize the importance of home charging as part of an overall fleet electrification strategy. Both of our key products consider whether a company allows home charging and incorporate this into the planning and operations of the electric fleet:

• Electric Fleet Planner: When developing a charging infrastructure plan, our tool takes into account the possibility of home charging, ensuring that the overall charging setup is efficient and cost-effective.
• Electric Fleet Operations: Our solution optimizes charging schedules, including for vehicles that charge at home. We help ensure that EVs are charged at the right times, minimizing costs and maximizing utilization time, whether vehicles are charged at home, at depots, or both.

Volteum’s solutions provide the flexibility needed to manage fleet electrification, considering all potential charging scenarios to ensure seamless and efficient operations.

Conclusion

Home charging offers flexibility and cost benefits for EV fleets but requires thoughtful planning to address its challenges - read more about the topic in this blog post. With Volteum’s tools, companies can smoothly integrate home charging into their electrification strategy, ensuring efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Stay tuned as we continue exploring key concepts in electric fleet management through our EV Fleet Glossary series - see you next time!