Best chargers for home EV fleet charging

Company car and van drivers have led the charge with adopting electric vehicles (EV) in greater numbers.

It means many company vehicle drivers that have made the switch to electric need a reliable and intelligent smart home charger to help efficiently manage their energy, costs and getting reimbursed for business mileage.

Home electric vehicle chargers are the most cost-effective way to charge electric vehicles and so businesses are encouraging it over public charging, wherever possible.

There will be varied policies in place from business to business.

Some fleets will be heavily involved with helping to assist drivers with their home charger installation, energy and reimbursement. Other businesses will be more hands-off, but still keen to manage costs where possible.

These chargers are also relevant for those companies looking to install in commercial locations, or workplace charging too.

WaEV-Charge EV1i

What makes the WaEV-Charge EV1i a good home fleet EV charger?

The WaEV EV1i is a budget friendly option, which is important for fleets that are closely managing their costs, particularly for those larger fleets that have thousands of vehicles.

This charger is available priced from £922 installed, or at just £12.59 when financed monthly.

Charge sessions are managed through the EV.energy app and while this can be used by EV owners, the app is also able to cater to fleets that can scale and offer data across multiple vehicles.

The EV.energy app offers full access to a fleet dashboard that shows real-time vehicle stats, charging data and GPS location.

Fleet managers can also see live, historic charging data, including energy, cost and carbon emissions to get a full view of their electric fleet.

Easee One

What makes the Easee One a good home fleet EV charger?

The Easee One is another great option that is keenly priced from £941.20 installed at home locations and offers functionality that may appeal to fleet drivers and businesses alike.

The company has its Easee Portal that makes managing multiple Easee chargers, well, easy.

The Portal allows uses to see which chargers are active, approve users for chargers and sites, and register new Easee Keys. These are wireless Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) key fobs that can be used by drivers to start charging sessions.

The Easee Key can be used to track individual company vehicle drivers across multiple workplace charger locations.

Hypervolt Home 3.0

What makes the Hypervolt Home 3.0 a good home fleet EV charger?

The Hypervolt Home 3.0 is a charger packed with features as standard, including real time consumption reporting based on energy tariffs, scheduled charging and advanced cost reports.

It's also possible to integrate the Home 3 with solar panel installations for those company car drivers that have a close eye on renewables, their own carbon footprint output, which is in turn partly the company's carbon output too.

Hypverolt's technology means it's possible to easily export charging data to a spreadsheet, which can be sent to fleet managers, or used by drivers to look at charging session dates, times, the amount of energy consumed and the cost of energy based on the tariff.

Simpson and Partners Home 7

What makes the Home 7 a good home fleet EV charger?

Not only is the Simpson and Partners Home 7 a charger that offers a highly customisable and unique design, it's practical too.

See daily, monthly, and yearly reports all in your S&P app

The Smart Home Energy System app enables Home 7 users to see electricity consumption, oversee charging costs and track every kWh used.

This is across energy usage in the home and through any solar generated electricity. Drivers can export itemised reports to a spreadsheet that can help inform vehicle and energy budgeting.

Honorable mentions...

Easee Charge

Some fleet drivers will be doing higher mileages in their company electric vehicle. This means potentially needing a higher range EV, that will be charging up at rapids to add enough range to get back home after meetings.

This can sometimes mean returning back to base with a lower percentage of range left and the need to add more into the battery overnight or before the next working day to get closer to 80 or 100% before hitting the road again.

This is where a three-phase 22kW higher powered home charger like the Easee Charge might come in handy and be worth the extra investment.

A 22kw charger can charge an EV about three times faster than the standard 7.4kw home charger.

In other words, a typical home charge point can provide up to 30 miles of range per hour whereas 22kW can offer up to 90 miles of range per hour.

It can also be used with Easee's Portal charger management services, as outlined above too.

Ohme Home Pro and Ohme ePod

The Ohme Home Pro and ePod feature advanced cost tracking software.

The Ohme app can help set up schedules for charging based on your energy tariff and time preferences.

Customers can also easily connect their electricity tariff and let Ohme automatically schedule your own EV charging, to charge during off-peak hours.

Drivers can also keep an eye on electric car charging, electricity costs, and every kWh used to better understand energy usage at home.

Understanding charging reimbursements: Business and private mileage

Home charging will be the predominant means of powering most fleet vehicles, and also among the greenest and cheapest, but it also means the employer potentially risks ceding control of a central element of fleet operation to employees.

Fleets can work with companies like AllStar Electric (formally Mina) and TMC to link software that can track home charging sessions, private mileage and business mileage to help accurately determine what should be paid back to employees for the energy used.

It means drivers get paid the right amount for the miles they have driven and businesses aren't underpaying or overpaying for energy too.

Innovations in this space include the ability for drivers to record their business journeys through TMC’s app, enabling AllStar to connect to the employee’s smart charger and calculate the actual cost of electricity used for business mileage based on the employee’s electricity tariff.

The employee’s energy bill is credited directly, so there are no expenses to claim by the employee.  The business receives one monthly bill to cover home charging for the whole fleet.

Smart Home Charge interviewed Mina's (now Allstar Electric) chief executive and co-founder Ashley Tate, where he spoke about solving some of the challenges around home charging for fleet drivers in more detail.

In conclusion...

Smart home charging is growing increasingly sophisticated and it's getting even easier to run your company car as efficiently as possible and control costs for the driver and business alike.

If you're a company car driver have a chat with your fleet manager about their policies around home chargers, reimbursement and some of the options available to them, including the range of chargers and solutions highlighted above.