EVSE at work...?
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I am a Federal employee (NASA) and Hell will freeze over before any electric car charging infrastructure will be installed for employees where I work.
Two local Congresswomen authored and got passed a law in 2015 that allowed Federal agencies to install EVSEs and charge employees for their use (part of Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act). Agencies were then required to write plans on how to implement this. I believe that NASA has submitted its plan, but there are no EVSE installed at NASA Ames. I asked my union and they said it would be too complicated to work out how to charge people for their use and then reimburse the Government for the electricity. Good thing that EVs now have 250+ mile range, making this less of an issue.
I also haven't seen any EVSE at NASA GSFC or Johnson Space Center. They are all over the JPL parking lots, but JPL is not part of NASA administratively.
Two local Congresswomen authored and got passed a law in 2015 that allowed Federal agencies to install EVSEs and charge employees for their use (part of Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act). Agencies were then required to write plans on how to implement this. I believe that NASA has submitted its plan, but there are no EVSE installed at NASA Ames. I asked my union and they said it would be too complicated to work out how to charge people for their use and then reimburse the Government for the electricity. Good thing that EVs now have 250+ mile range, making this less of an issue.
I also haven't seen any EVSE at NASA GSFC or Johnson Space Center. They are all over the JPL parking lots, but JPL is not part of NASA administratively.
Small world! I am NASA at KSC and we used to have a couple of chargers several years ago but they were taken out. We now have several Bolts as government cars and chargers for them specifically. Our transportation folks are working to get some chargers installed and hopefully it should happen pretty soon, but I know they are still wrangling over some issues. The plan is for them to be commercial chargers like out in public as we can't provide electricity to people for free, especially considering the amount we buy and the breaks we get on the pricing.
The "too complicated" argument is weak on your union's part. We have agreements and partnerships with several commercial entities and we just install revenue grade meters on their power and water services and effectively become their utility company. We charge our cost plus a small fee for the additional overhead and that is it. About as easy as you would think it should be. I can actually pull the power usage for any facility on the Center, so it can be done to a very granular level if the will is there
My employer installed a bank of eight L2 units for company EVs that got shelved at the start of the pandemic, so the ICE fleet still parks in front of them. We've got free L2 chargers for the public in our pay-to-park public parking lot. But the smartest thing they did was install a dedicated 120v charging system in the employee lot that allows 12 vehicles to plug in to a row of 20 amp outlets and not blow a circuit. This provides enough incentive because many of us can cover our commute, or at least a good portion of it, and the cash outlay was minimal. This system would be easy to expand into other parking areas as EV ownership increases. AND it has the added (cost) benefit of the EV owners having to maintain our own EVSE equipment.
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I don't understand how anybody who has an electric car doesn't have their own charger at home. That would be so inconvenient. I read an article the other day that 20% of Tesla drivers in CA said they would never buy another electric car. Why ? The majority of them said it was because they didn't have a charging infrastructure at home and it it is just not worth the hassle. I think the meaning of the story is that if you live in an apartment where there are no chargers you can plug into overnight or you just don't want to install one at your home, EV's may not be for you.
I'm not really sure how your reply is relevant to what I wrote, but I'll answer with this: EV owners need a reliable and convenient place to charge. If employers want to provide that as a benefit to their employees or for some sort of tax credit arrangement then I'm all for it, especially if it means an employee who lives in an apartment or somewhere where at-home charging isn't practical can have the peace of mind knowing they can top-up their battery in a parking lot where their vehicle spends the better part of its day.
My ability to charge at work on 120 volts / 50 miles of range recovery per workday had prevented me from needing to add a dedicated EVSE at home. The 16 amp one that lives in my frunk has been / still is sufficient, even if occasionally I'd plug it in to a 240 wall outlet at home. The 40A L2 EVSE I bought sat unused / uninstalled for the better part of a year because I simply didn't need it. Until my wife began driving the ID.4, that is.
So I'll agree with you to this point: charging should not be inconvenient. But it doesn't necessarily have to be at home.
My ability to charge at work on 120 volts / 50 miles of range recovery per workday had prevented me from needing to add a dedicated EVSE at home. The 16 amp one that lives in my frunk has been / still is sufficient, even if occasionally I'd plug it in to a 240 wall outlet at home. The 40A L2 EVSE I bought sat unused / uninstalled for the better part of a year because I simply didn't need it. Until my wife began driving the ID.4, that is.
So I'll agree with you to this point: charging should not be inconvenient. But it doesn't necessarily have to be at home.
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Because 20 amp 120 V charging only gives you 3 miles per hour of charging on the ID.4 according to the manual. . There is a limited supply of them at your workplace so once more and more EV's appear on the roads and at your workplace, it will be difficult to be able to plug your car in all day for the 25-30 miles of range. If you don't have an alternative easy way to charge at home you will be disappointed that you bought an EV
Well like I wrote, it's easy to expand this lightweight system as more employees adopt EVs. And most look at this as a perk, not a necessity. Not sure about the figures you provided, but on the ID.4 I'm seeing about 40 miles range per 8 hour session at 16 amps, and the ID.4 is a bit of a pig compared to my i3 which gains 50.
We installed four charge point charges at my work location (private firm). Using in-house electricians and locating the charger near a main panel made the project very affordable. There was a discussion of a fee for charging, but these chargers are still free to everyone after 8+ years .
Get creative on how to keep the install easy and affordable - e.g. EV charger connected to and using a light pole.
Get creative on how to keep the install easy and affordable - e.g. EV charger connected to and using a light pole.
If you are a medium-to-large sized company, the cost of running some wires, paying for some EVSE units, and $$ for electricity is pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of employee perks. If I had to guessimate, it'd pale in comparison to health insurance contributions for (1) employee.
Light poles are great! That's what I was primarily using pre-covid when I was parking in a different lot. That and a few utility receptacles on the outside of the buildings.
We have a single Chargepoint L2 unit in a 3rd employee lot and that thing was down for the count all the time. Yet the 120 volt receptacle connected to it was always working. All the more reason why if you can BYOC (BYOEVSE?) all the better. 120 is everywhere!
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