Charging Infrastructure

Why provide workplace EV charging?

First and foremost, by providing EV charging stations at your workplace, employees without home charging options, or range anxiety concerns can perhaps for the first time, consider an EV for their personal vehicle. This means that your organization would be supporting our community’s goal to reach an 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050, as an increase in EV adoption is an important piece.

Beyond the environmental benefits to the region, the benefits to your business are significant.

Employee Benefits

With a relatively low cost for you, there are numerous benefits in providing this option to employees. By providing workplace charging, you are:

  • Increasing your total compensation package
  • Attracting value-oriented and educated employees.
  • Attracting candidates with EVs or who will consider sustainability related initiatives and policies when choosing a workplace who will see this as an incentive
  • Promoting and aligning values of environment and sustainability for improved employee engagement
  • Reducing commuting costs for employees
  • Reducing your organization’s Scope 3 emissions

Sustainability is no longer a “nice to have” for organizations to be seen as socially responsible, but a “must have” if retailers want to meet consumers’ demands.

Source: 2019 Canadian Consumer Insights: Return on experience is a metric businesses can’t ignore

Brand Alignment

Providing charging stations positions organizations is a great place to do business, but also demonstrates a clear commitment to company sustainability. It solidifies the organization’s brand as a leader in practices of environmental sustainability.

You are also making a very clear demonstration to your customers, clients, members and suppliers that you are technologically advanced and environmentally conscious.

Customer Service

There are numerous unquantifiable benefits that public service and customer facing organizations can gain from investing in electric vehicle charging stations. This includes alignment with corporate values not only promotes a commitment to environmental sustainability, but fosters customer goodwill.

Meanwhile, more quantifiable benefits include attracting and retaining desirable clientele, encouraging these customers to stay longer while their vehicles charge, and supporting emission reductions in your community.

The Case for Retailers

There are a lot of reasons that EV chargers are good for retail. According to ChargePoint, charging not only attracts customers and keeps them around longer, but can also increase the amount of time and money they spend in a store. By adding EV charging, the retailer tripled time in store and, as a result, tripled customer spend. Read more about the benefits in their blog: Five Ways Retail Stores Can Boost Sales with EV Charging.

One major retailer found that shoppers spent about $1 for every minute they were in the store

How to get started with workplace charging

There a few key factors to consider before you get started – details such as, how many will you need, should it be free, and what will the access be? A great tool to help walk you through these initial considerations is Clean Air Partnership’s Creating an Effective Workplace Electric Vehicle Charging Policy resource.

When you are ready to get started, reach out to the team at DriveZero and we can help you with any questions you may have!

Or read through Partners in Project Green Charge Up Ontario, A Guide for Business to Invest in Electric Vehicle Charging Stations for a comprehensive guide as well as Case Studies of Ontario based projects.

Charger Types

Level 1

Also know as a standard outlet, uses a 110 volt system and adds about 8 kilometers of range per hour. For owners of plug-in hybrid electric cars this is usually enough.

Level 2

Common in both private households and in public places, use a 240 volt system (similar to a clothes dryer plug) and adds 30-50 kilometers of range per hour.

Level 3

Also known as Direct Current Fast Chargers, these use a 480 volt system and can add more than 100 kilometres of range per hour. These stations make longer trips feasible for EV drivers.