Charging poles at your business? Here's what you need to think about

Will your company soon be using electric passenger cars, vans or trucks? Or are you going to significantly increase the number of electric cars? Then you want a charging solution that best suits your fleet, operations and grid connection. You will find practical guidelines for this in the updated manual on depot charging.

As a business owner, you prefer to charge your vehicles on your own property, at times when the vehicles are stationary for an extended period of time. There are several aspects involved in this "depot loading," which are covered in the depot loading handbook:

• How do you identify your charging needs? With a few simple steps, you'll quickly get a clear picture of what you're going to need to charge all of your vehicles.
• How much power do you need? You'll read about regular and smart charging and the difference between charging vans and trucks. You also get an explanation of how to calculate the power you need.
• What should you pay attention to when choosing a charging station? How many kWh should the charging station have? Do you take a pole with 1 or 2 charging points? Don't forget to check if your charging station is insured. Charging posts may already be covered by your current insurance.
• Does this fit your electricity connection? You can easily look up which connection you have. Check your bills or the contract of your grid operator. Do you have a small consumption connection (3 x 80 ampere or lower)? Then you will not receive a bill from the grid operator, but the grid costs are included in the bill from your energy supplier.
• How to prepare for the installation of charging stations? In most cases, installing charging stations is permit-free. However, permit conditions may apply, for example, for a canopy or for specific distances between the charging station and the property line.

Three example companies

There are actually 3 manuals depot charging, depending on the size of the fleet:

• For entrepreneurs with a small fleet of vehicles (example: three vans) and a small consumption connection (3 x 35A).
• For entrepreneurs with a medium-sized fleet (example: three vans and twelve large trucks) and a small consumption connection (3 x 80A).
• For entrepreneurs with a large fleet (example: ten delivery vans, twenty large trucks and twenty heavy tractor-trailer combinations) and a large consumption connection (630 kVA).

Do you not immediately recognize yourself in any of the companies? Then see which combination of vehicles and electricity connection suits you best.