As our recent guide to EV and EV Charger incentives shows, most European countries are now pushing forward with electrification to cut carbon emissions significantly by 2030. The UK announced a new £400 million fund for EV chargers just last month, Italy has introduced a comprehensive EV incentives program for the first time this year, and Germany has just ratified its updated 2030 Climate Plan, continuing current incentives well into 2025. Other countries are on the same pathway. This means that EVs -and their chargers-are coming and they’re here to stay.
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So, get ready to say goodbye to petrol pumps and hello to sparkly new EV charging points at your local service station, as many Norwegians and Americans are already doing. Businesses that want to not just survive, but thrive, in this increasingly electric environment will have to keep up. With EV charger incentives now becoming the norm across much of Europe, businesses of all kinds must take advantage of the opportunity to develop their own charging infrastructure for employees and/or customers. Not only do government incentives normally have time limits but without such infrastructure, your business may increasingly struggle to compete with those who have already gone electric. Continue reading to discover other potential benefits of charging stations for your business:
Get The Green Light
Today’s consumers are more concerned with the ethical reputation of the companies they buy from than those of the past. A report by Forbes in 2017 found that a whopping 87% of consumers tend to have a more positive image of a company that supports social or environmental issues. 88% are also more likely to remain loyal to such a company than a less eco-conscious competitor. In other words, most people today are concerned about social and environmental issues and increasingly opt to buy from and work with companies that fit with their personal ethical values. This is especially the case for millennials and “generation Xers” and those who already own or who may in the future own an electric vehicle – usually a more environmentally-minded demographic.
Whether you’re a supermarket offering charging facilities to your customers or a logistics company with an electric fleet and its own charging infrastructure, installing EV chargers on your premises shows your company is choosing to go green. EV charging can be part of a larger sustainability goal. This in turn allows certain businesses to gain industry-recognized sustainability qualifications, such as LEED certification. For real-estate companies aiming to gain country or continent-specific environmental accreditation, for example, installing EV chargers for their tenants may really help them to tick important boxes for such certification.
This will not only boost your brand image and reputation, increasing customer loyalty, and bringing in new customers, especially as more and more people become EV owners. It will also help to attract and retain employees who, like consumers, are increasingly concerned with environmental and social issues. Installing EV chargers may also actively encourage environmentally-friendly behaviors among employees, clients, or tenants who haven’t yet ‘gone green. Indeed, according to a survey conducted by the US Department of Energy, workers are 20 times more likely to buy an electric vehicle if their employers offer free charging at work. Besides all the business benefits then, going electric will also give you the sheer satisfaction of doing something good for the environment!
Make Your Business The Convenient Choice
Going greener by installing EV chargers will not only boost customer loyalty due to reputation. As more people own EVs, and the drive towards an electric future in 2030 really kicks in, EV chargers will become essential facilities. If freely accessible WiFi is now present in most public places in Europe, EV charging will also become near-ubiquitous in the coming years. Customers will expect their favorite shops, restaurants, and hotels to provide them – and if they don’t, they will switch providers. After all, why would you go grocery shopping and not charge your EV for free if you could?
When it comes to more remote businesses like service stations and hotels that require longer travel time, EV chargers will be even more essential. For customers who may have had to drive long distances, charging will be more than just convenient: they’ll need it to continue their journey. This is also true of commercial or residential real estate. Companies renting office space will increasingly expect these businesses to offer EV chargers for their employees. Meanwhile, tenants who are EV owners will, understandably, expect to be able to charge their car at their home too.
Future employees or service partners that use EVs will also increasingly begin to consider charging stations as granted, inevitably picking the employers or partners that offer them over those who don’t. A good pension package and Friday night drinks with work friends are only some of the requirements that today’s employees expect; onsite charging will become the norm as more people commute to work using EVs or electric scooters. Indeed, research shows that employees increasingly appreciate charging stations at their workplace. In the US alone, 74% of Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) owners express a strong interest in workplace charging. The benefits of EV charging stations for your business are therefore not just limited to the customer side. They’ll also help your company internally by driving recruitment and higher employee retainment rates.
Installing EV chargers will grow your brand’s visibility and draw in new clients. New applications such as Zapmap and Open Charge Map enable EV drivers to plan routes, locate sites with electric charging points, add their own charging locations, and create discussions. Users can add information about the site and give reviews based on their experience. This kind of application opens up a business’ potential customer base; many visitors may be local, others may be passersby, but both will help to build brand visibility by word-of-mouth. If you manage to get a good review – aided perhaps by special deals in store for EV owners who charge at your site – you will be able to consolidate brand loyalty and encourage first-time chargers to return in the future.
You might be thinking: ‘but how do EVs relate to my business? I don’t know if any of my customers even own EVs!’ Whether you’re a local café or a nationwide hotel chain, it’s still worth trying to encourage EV owners to form part of your customer base. Research shows that EV owners tend to be higher-earning than the average population. They’re predominantly men with higher levels of education, in full-time employment, and around the ages of 30–45. Looking towards the future, such research also shows that electric vehicles may soon become popular among higher-income females and retirees/pensioners. Providing charging facilities may, therefore, give you a competitive advantage in terms of opening up new audiences or growing existing ones over the years.
Currently, EV owners also appear to have high levels of disposable income, making them potentially bigger-spenders when they visit your business. As EVs become more affordable across the board, with advanced battery technology becoming cheaper and government incentives and regulations ramping up, they are likely to become the norm for everyone, regardless of socio-economic background. Investing in infrastructure that accommodates EVs, then, will likely make your business more market-resilient and give it broader appeal in the future.
Going electric means serious savings for your business. Company fleets that are partially or fully electrified will enable you to access government subsidy funds and leverage tax benefits such as avoiding company car tax. Not only that, but they’ll also allow you to make ongoing savings, such as eliminating tolls on motorways. When local incentives, like subsidies for charging infrastructure via schemes like the UK’s Workplace Charging Scheme, are combined with the comparatively low cost of electricity versus petrol, taking the EV route is a no-brainer for your budget. If installing a charger is virtually free, depending on where your business is based, and charging and maintaining EVs is always cheaper than petrol options, why on earth would any business not electrify their fleet?
Reducing your carbon footprint also has the advantage of lowering your carbon emissions tax. The EU ETS, regulating the carbon emissions tax across the continent, applies to a variety of businesses, from power generators to large industrial premises and manufacturers, including food processing plants, to certain public sector facilities, to hospitals. If your business is taxed under these regulations, reducing your carbon footprint should be high on your priorities if you want to keep your revenues high.
Another often overlooked saving point is the energy resilience that having an electric fleet can offer in emergency scenarios. Investing in chargers that are bi-directional, in other words, that are ‘two-way’ and can convert and direct energy both into the car and out of it back to its source, means that EVs plugged into your charging infrastructure can act as a source of energy (via their battery storage) during power-outs or shortages. Renewable energies are not necessarily, as is often believed, more unreliable than fossil fuels – in fact, in some cases, they have been shown to actually strengthen grid resilience. Even so, you can never rule out possible shortages. Indeed, the number one threat to grid resilience when it comes to renewables is probably erratic weather patterns and natural hazards, as renewable sources of energy are often physically climate-vulnerable. With climate change making global weather patterns more erratic, natural weather hazards may occur more often, potentially becoming a bigger issue in terms of grid resilience. EVs may, therefore, provide an important emergency energy source in times of need, saving your business thousands of euros in potential lost business that could occur due to energy failures.
Additionally, EV chargers will allow you to increase revenue. Firstly, customers with EVs are more likely to stay at your site for more time to charge, thus encouraging them to purchase more products or services. Depending on the charger type – fast, rapid, or slow – EVs take an average time of 30 minutes to 12 hours to charge. By opting for a fast-charging system with an average charging time of, say, an hour, you can offer customers a quick-enough charging service while also encouraging them to stay a little longer and purchase that item they’ve been eyeing up for weeks.
Secondly, EV charging points can be a source of extra revenue in themselves. Depending on the business model you go for, you may want to generate additional income by selling electricity to EV owners. This may be a blanket (everyone pays) or stratified (only the public rather than customers pay) strategy. But either way, it will bring in new funds, even if only used as a way to attract customers via free charging to boost sales of your actual products and services. Businesses with chargers can also generate revenue via targeted advertising; EV owners who agree to receive emails, for instance, can be sent new information about promotions and opportunities to encourage them to come back in the future. Advertising space can also be sold to external organizations for a fee.
Installing your own charging stations on-site will give you access to a high volume of useful data, for example, C02 savings, kWh-usage, energy costs, and charging point activity. Such data can be used to inform internal reports, tax declarations, and logistics and marketing plans to boost accuracy and make implementation processes more effective. Having your own chargers also means that such data does not need to be bought from a third party or filtered by one, meaning that your employees, business owners, and fleet managers can have direct access to data insights. They can, therefore, use it in the most agile and flexible ways to gain insights into various aspects of your business.
As demonstrated by our EV incentives guide in Europe, most European countries are aiming for near-total electrification by 2030. The fossil fuel to electric vehicle transition is already happening. However, when combined with increasing incentives and the breakthrough in battery technology development that’s just around the corner, this shift is set to be in full swing by 2025-30. Indeed, given that there were around 3 million EVs in the world in 2018, it’s estimated that that number will rise to 125 million by 2030. EVs are where it’s at: if your business wants to capitalize on the many benefits noted in this article and stay competitive, you should enter the arena and get investing in EV charging infrastructure sooner, rather than later.
To find out what kind of charger would work best for your business, visit our website here.
By 2025, 25% of vehicle sales will be electric. Get ahead of the curve by installing EV charging stations at your business. Here are seven reasons why you should consider installing EV charging stations at your business.
While it may be the simplest reason, businesses have an opportunity to do their part to clean up the environment by making it easier for employees, visitors, and customers to charge their electric vehicles. One of the most often cited reasons for not buying an EV is range anxiety — fear of not finding a charging station before the vehicle runs out of power. Providing charging stations can encourage employees, visitors, and customers in the area to make their next car an EV.
According to Energy.gov, access to electric vehicle charging stations at workplaces doubled between 2012 and 2014, and 90% of employers reported that their stations were in regular use 5 days a week. Five years later, industry experts and environmentalists alike have discovered that the key to putting more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road is to make sure there is enough electric vehicle service equipment (EVSEs) for potential customers to feel certain they will be able to charge their EV regularly. According to Green Tech Media, EV chargers barely make a dent in an overall electric bill, a general increase of less than 4%. Corporations and employers are always looking for a benefits package that will attract great employees. Providing electric vehicle charging stations at the workplace as benefits and amenities will attract and retain top talent who are environmentally conscious and comfortable with cutting-edge technology. EV drivers on average are younger, more technology-savvy, and higher income than gas-powered vehicle drivers: employees who will lead a business into the future. The EV charging stations also send a clear message to staff and customers alike: This business working toward a greener future.
25%
# of Vehicle Sales to be Electric by 2025
When businesses choose to join the Blink Network, the EV equipment appears on the Blink Map, which electric car drivers utilize to find locations to plug in and charge. The Blink Map is easily accessible to anyone who owns a smartphone through the Blink Mobile app. Some other apps EV drivers are familiar with include: PlugShare — PlugShare shows locations of charging stations all around the world, and even includes the type of plug each station supports, as well as local restaurants, shopping, and rest areas. ChargeHub — ChargeHub provides much the same information but has a smaller community. Locations are also limited to the U.S. and Canada. It includes information on finding accessories to charge at home as well. Chargemap — Based in France, Chargemap includes charging stations all over the world but is particularly useful if visiting overseas. Requires user to create an account. Open Charge Map — Open Charge Map provides addresses, distance from your home, business contact info, and the number of charging ports, but leaves out reviews and comments. EV drivers can identify and locate your business as a place to charge their cars. Since the average charge time is around a half-hour, they are also likely to be interested in shopping or dining in the area while they charge.
EV owners are usually interested in many different kinds of environmentally friendly products. According to CleanTechnica, 28-40% of EV drivers have a home solar panel. If your business sells solar panels, or any other green product, putting in EV charging stations can encourage possible customers to drop by your business on a regular basis, making them more likely to purchase from you.
From Walgreens to Target, large franchise stores are putting in EV chargers to encourage EV drivers to come to their location. Businesses don’t have to be strictly "green" to grab the attention of EV drivers who are looking for a place to charge, and maybe a spot to run in and grab a gallon of milk on the way home. Once your business grabs the EV driver’s attention, you will become their preferred destination for anything which may require them to stop on the way somewhere.
If your company operates a garage, visitors often pay to park there. Charging for using EV services tacks on an additional charge. With little or no effort or additional staff required, charging for parking and EV station usage can provide an additional source of income. Most businesses charge between 39 and 79 cents per kilowatt-hour. Charging for hours of usage, or hours parked in the spot, can also be helpful for getting employees to move their cars once charged and allow someone else to use the charger, as well as keeping gas-fueled vehicles from parking in the spot and blocking the charger. Those who choose to charge a fee will need an EVSE solution with access control. Soon the fees from charging will more than cover the cost of installation and maintenance. Networking your EV equipment can allow your company to streamline the garage exit process, so drivers can pay for both at the same time
Federal The Alternative Fuel Refueling Infrastructure Tax Credit is available to qualifying businesses in key census tracts. While the earlier version of this tax credit offered 30% up to $30,000 per location, businesses that install EV chargers in 2023-2032 may receive 6% up to $100,000 per charging station. Businesses that also meet prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements can increase the per-station tax credit from 6% to 30%. A tax credit may also be available through the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. States
California offers the greatest number of options, in fact, the cities of Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Santa Barbara offer their own credits. L.A. offers rebates on all level 2 chargers, Anaheim likewise offer up to $500 for businesses who provide level 2 chargers to employees, and Santa Barbara offers reimbursements of $20,000 for DC fast chargers, and up to $10,000 per Level 2 charger for public entities. The Golden State itself offers financing options, tax breaks, and even grants of up to $6,000 per charger.
In Colorado, the Colorado Energy Office and Regional Air Quality Council grants can fund 80% of the cost of electric vehicle supply equipment, up to $6,260.
For Florida, Orlando and the Orlando Utilities Commission offer a rebate of up to $1,000 for the installation and purchase of electric vehicle supply equipment.
In Illinois, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity provides rebates for some of the cost of EVSE installation, which a maximum rebate of $49,000, depending on the number of chargers installed.
In Massachusetts, MassDEP can provide up to 60% of funding for hardware costs.
In Texas, The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Alternative Fueling Facilities Program covers up to 60% of eligible costs of up to $600,000 on dispensing alternative fuels.
In fact, almost every state has some kind of rebate offer or tax credits. Each state has different criteria, and businesses can check individual criteria here.
To learn more about commercial EV charging incentives, visit Blink's Commercial Incentives search tool.
An employee survey is a good place to start when assessing current and future demand for EV charging stations. When planning for EV charging solutions, pair the results from your employee survey with projections for future demand. Ask These Survey Questions
Do you or anyone in your household own a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or battery electric vehicle (BEV)?
If yes, where do you charge your vehicle most often?
If yes, do you use an EV to commute to work?
Are you considering leasing or purchasing an EV in the next year?
Is having access to EV charging at work a deciding factor in your decision to lease or purchase an EV?
If EV charging is available at your workplace, how likely are you to charge there?
Do you feel your company should do more to support green energy?
Do you feel offering workplace charging stations is an important employee benefit?
The next question is whether companies want to manage their own EVSE or hire a vendor to manage it for them. Some companies choose to manage their own charging stations and create a department exclusively for the operation of the charging stations. Responsibilities include: creating reservation systems, time limits, liability waivers for use of equipment, and hiring an employee(s) to operate the chargers and possibly move cars. Most corporations prefer to leave EVSE operations to a networked service like Blink Charging. Blink handles installation, management, price, and budget for the company for a subscription fee. Another advantage to hiring a vendor is that their EV Chargers can appear on Google Maps, which can increase the exposure and profit of a company’s parking garage when EV owners choose to pay not only a fee to charge, but also a fee for parking. Networked services can also consolidate garage parking credit card machines with EVSE, so customers can pay for parking and charging at the same time, rather than having two distinct and payment systems. Networked chargers also allow businesses to instantly track things like how often their charges are in use and if they should change pricing.
Blink works with smart businesses to be at the forefront of the green energy revolution by installing EV charging stations which attract EV drivers and support sustainability, making your location EV-friendly. Many companies are choosing to provide EVSE at the workplace to make going green easier for employees, to attract the talent they want to hire, and to inform customers about their positive environmental policies. A hundred years ago, the automobile revolutionized transportation and changed the way we live and travel forever. Today, electric vehicles are the next step on the road to the future. Electric vehicles are the future of transportation, and businesses not taking the leap toward it are going to be left behind. Do the right thing for the environment while sending the message to your employees and customers: We care about going green and creating a community for those who also care. Tomorrow will be here before you Blink. Are you ready?