4 Tips to make EV fleet charging more efficient
When thinking about optimizing the functionality of your electric vehicle fleet, one of the most important things to consider is charging your EV’s battery. Like any piece of modern technology, your EV’s battery should be monitored frequently — you never want to let your battery drop to zero percent. At Standard Fleet, we believe in making your EV fleet management as stress-free and user-friendly as possible, so we’ve compiled a list of our top tips for making EV fleet charging efficient.
Currently, there are three types of charging stations available on the market. A Level 1 charging station is the most common and provides about five miles of range per one hour of charging and takes about eight hours for a complete charge. A Level 2 charging station works a bit quicker and provides approximately 25 miles of rage per one hour of charging. Even faster than that is the DC Fast Charging station. This is currently the least common type of charging station, however it is expected that DC stations will increase due to the fact that many companies are switching to EV Fleets with mid- to heavy-duty vehicles. A DC station provides anywhere from 100 to 200+ miles of range per 30 minutes of charging.
Along with these three different types of charging stations comes three ways to charge your EV:
At home — A Level 1 charging station is just another way of saying that you’re plugging your car into a standard outlet. As long as your garage has electric service, all EVs come with basic charging units that will allow you to plug into a standard 120-volt wall socket.
Public charging — You may have seen these in reserved parking spots at the grocery store, parking garages, or other public places. Public EV charging stations are still not as popular as standard gas stations, but more and more of them are popping up all over the country. These stations are typically set up as Level 2 stations and are best for getting a quick charging “top off” for your EV battery.
At work — Also typically set up as Level 2 stations, many businesses and office buildings have begun offering charging stations to employees. Although Level 2 charging stations work slower than Level 3, the fact that you can leave your EV plugged in throughout your work day makes this a hands-off, efficient option for charging up your EV.
Whether you’re charging at home or plugging into a Level 3 Tesla Supercharger or Electrify America charging station, here are four ways to optimize EV battery charging:
Set Up Battery Level Alerts For EV Fleet Charging
Like we mentioned above, it is important to monitor the battery levels of your electric vehicle. Allowing your EV’s battery to drain all the way to zero percent is potentially damaging to the battery long-term. Because EV batteries are an incredibly important asset and can be expensive to replace, having battery alerts set up is crucial to conserving the battery’s lifespan. On the other hand, some EV batteries can also be damaged if they are charged to more than 100% and you’d want to be alerted to this as well.
Generally, you want to keep the range in between 20-60%, limiting it to 80% for daily use and only charging to 100% occasionally for long trips where that extra range is required. Even when charging to 100%, don’t keep the battery there for long. Only charge that high if you’re going to pretty quickly turn around and use the battery to below 90-80% again.
We recommend identifying the optimal percentage range for your EV’s battery. For example, setting up reminders for when your battery drops below 20% allows yourself or a renter to know that it is time to charge the vehicle. You can also set up an alert to notify you when the battery has reached the recommended charging limit so that you don’t overcharge your EV. Because some electric vehicles have different battery technologies, this percentage range may vary for each EV used in your fleet.
Charge to the Recommended Levels
A great way to identify the percentage range that your battery should be charging to is to look at your EV’s battery chemistry. Tesla, for example, currently uses a battery chemistry called LFP for some of their models and recommends charging an LFP pack to 100% once a week, or as often as possible. This is in complete opposition to more traditional EV battery packs, which are typically recommended to be limited to an 80% charge. We expect to see the diversity in battery chemistry grow as battery technology continues to develop, and different batteries are used for different purposes. This variation in the EV market will be impacted by price point, practicality, and use case which can make it difficult to keep track of how to best charge your vehicle, especially in a fleet setting. Monitoring and tracking battery health in addition to following best practices for different battery chemistries is a great way to protect your EV’s.
Utilize the Standard Fleet “Fully Charged Range”
Although much less monitoring is required of an EV than a gas-powered car, it is still important to be aware of how your vehicle is performing over time. This function from Standard Fleet allows you to monitor your EV’s battery in order to track degradation over time. Naturally, batteries will degrade over time, but bad practices can lead to battery degradation being dramatically accelerated. Keeping an eye on the health of the battery can ensure a longer-lasting asset and help the operator better monitor and maintain confidence that the best practices are being taken to maintain the health of the battery.
Plan charging stops ahead of time
If you’re planning a longer drive, it is important to plan your charging stops in advance. The last thing you want is to be caught with a low battery level miles away from the nearest charging site. Fortunately, this shouldn’t be too difficult to do. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are more than 46,000 EV charging stations in the country. However, as you move further into small, remote towns, the density of charging stations decreases.
Because of the variety of different charging stations and the towns and cities in which they’re available, making note of the areas with the most efficient charging options will save you a lot of time (and stress) if you’re planning on driving a long distance. Fortunately, there are already many great tools on the market to help you plan charging stops ahead of time. For example, Tesla has a great navigation system to route you to Superchargers, which provides you with info about how many stalls are available, charging rates, and more. Additionally, map services like Apple Maps have routing for EV charging stations like Electrify America, Chargepoint, and more. Looking into software systems like this before hitting the road will alleviate a lot of the stress that comes along with planning road trips!
