Surprise! My work installing EVSEs out of the blue.

So, I sent an email to the executives a year or two ago showing them the department of energy's workplace charging challenge website. I told them up front that I did not need the charger because I live 3 miles from work. And I'm the only one currently driving a plug-in car. But I mentioned that because we build products for electrical utility companies (many who have partnered with the DoE on the workplace charging program) that it might at least look good when the customers come to our facility. I also hoped it might encourage more employees to make the switch.

I assumed it had fallen on deaf ears because I never heard anything back. But I was over in the maintenance department today and saw two brand new leviton EVSE sitting there on the floor. I asked one of the guys and they said they just showed up and they are supposed to install them in the parking lot. I couldn't believe it.

So now we're going to have these two chargers installed within a week or two (that's my guess) but there won't really be anyone using them. I have really no need. I arrive at work with a virtually full battery every morning. I'm sure I might use them from time to time like when I have to go out during lunch and run errands or something.

Here's what really concerns me.. We have around 200-300 employees at this facility and unfortunately sometimes there is nowhere to park. So when parking fills up, people wind up parking in handicapped or visitor parking. So I can almost assure you the EV spots will be ICE'd most of the time.

These stations are also just "dumb" stations.. As in, they don't use any sort of card for access. You just plug in and it charges, like a residential unit. Which, is fine with me. But I have no idea what the plan is to determine if they will ask employees to pay for the use, or give it away for free, etc. I can't believe nobody approached me to discuss it with me since everyone knows I'm the only one driving a plug-in car. Nobody seems to know anything about it and the Execs aren't very approachable people, so I'm not going to go talk to them unless they come to me.

I do hope it means other employees will consider a plug-in car, though.

That sounds great to me. I would make a point of using them just to help them realize they do have value to employees. Just consider not charging at night and charge there

As to being ICEd - I would say using them to charge might help others recognize that they are actually used and not just "wasted" spaces.

We Had 1 EV car, (I think a volt) My company put in a 208V/40A x 2 Charger off on one side of the main lot, He left the company, and they made them general purpose Spaces again.

I got a Leaf, and about two weeks later one of my co.worker got one also, For now they are more or less assigned spaces to us. There is one other EV Car but he works Night shift and we are gone by then. A few other people are thinking about getting EV's and if they get them we will work out the Noon Space swap.

Our Security Dept enforces the reserved spaces (EV, Handi, UnitedWay) (1st warning is a phone call, 2nd is Secuirty Note, 3rd note to your boss, 4th (I think you lose option to park onsite). We are a smaller site ~150 people, and have enough spaces, (Some are off in a side lot that is not overly convenient, but still enough spaces for when we completely fill the building (if ever) there are enough spaces.

Our Two Chargers are open and free, We don't advertise we have a chargers on any of the plug locator sites, we have security 24x7 onsite, If we had someone just pull in and charge it would get noticed.

adric22 said:

I do hope it means other employees will consider a plug-in car, though.

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When I started at my current company (July 2012) at our northern facility we had two chargepoints that were installed with the new building. We only had myself and another person using them. Today there are something like 20 cars for 9 charging stations. Indeed, if you build it, they will come.

JeremyW said:

When I started at my current company (July 2012) at our northern facility we had two chargepoints that were installed with the new building. We only had myself and another person using them. Today there are something like 20 cars for 9 charging stations. Indeed, if you build it, they will come.

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Yeah, but you live in California... I'm in Fort Worth, TX. EV adoption around here is much slower.

adric22 said:

I'm in Fort Worth, TX. EV adoption around here is much slower.

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True. But give it time. You should revisit this statement in two years. I'd suggest occasionally using the stations. Once people see a car plugged in some of them will at least be curious. I lived a mile away from my old work, and ended up using workplace charging frequently because it was cheaper (but not free). Of course our parking lot wasn't impacted like yours sounds. But hopefully they'll at least put up some signage.

adric22 said:

Yeah, but you live in California... I'm in Fort Worth, TX. EV adoption around here is much slower.

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I dunno, I think have reached some sort of tipping point. On my commute, I see Volts and Leafs daily and at least Model S per week -- and not just the same one or two Leafs over and over. With in a half-mile radius of my work place (generic industrial part off of 635/Luna), there is at least two volts, an iMiev (?!?), me, a Model S and a couple of Blink chargers.

Great news about the chargers but...

I am shocked to hear your company allows people to literally park on the lawn.

I worked at a place that had 900+ employees and was there when we transitioned to a new location. during shift changes (we had shifts that started every half hour thru out most of the day but very large groups that came in at 7 AM and 2 PM so there were a lot of people who would literally park anywhere knowing that they could come out on first break and move their cars to one of several available spots after the earlier shifts had left.

This included the fire lanes, loading zones, customer parking and parking designated for other tenants in the business complex. Only handicapped parking was honored. (we had 3 in wheelchairs and one who was legally blind. She could see but only about 10-15 feet...)

As part of the safety committee, we instituted a 2 warning system, then we started towing. We also went thru the expense and time to color code the parking lot and lease additional spaces (that were unfortunately about 2 blocks away but best we could do) the company bought the paint but we painted the lines on our off time.

it took towing 2 cars for all the violations to stop. people complained (walking two block in WA winters is generally unpleasant especially considering that we have one of the lowest percentage of umbrella ownership in country)

DaveinOlyWA said:

Great news about the chargers but...

Only handicapped parking was honored. (we had 3 in wheelchairs and one who was legally blind. She could see but only about 10-15 feet...)

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Your Blind Employee had a Parking Space / Car ?

DaveinOlyWA said:

Great news about the chargers but...

I am shocked to hear your company allows people to literally park on the lawn.

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I worked for a (US Gov agency), we had parking for about 50 cars, but had probably 300 based out if the office. About 25 or so worked full time in the office, The rest of us only came by the office about once a week or so to drop off paper work. Once the new manager (She has her own reserved space) thought it would be a good idea to have a All Hands meeting and have all 300+ of us all there at one time.

All the spaces were gone in no time, We just started parking in the parking lot lanes so more or less we had a lot full of cars with no Blacktop left. All the roads around the building were parked both sides also. So made those roads more or less one way. The office itself did not have a space large enough for 300 people and I'm sure it was against fire code anyway.

That was the 1st and only All hand meeting she held, (She moved on soon after.) The New Manager had his all hands meeting at the High School few miles away, that had enough parking...

I'm up in Mass - my company has installed two chargers but have put a cost of $1/hr to use them. Talking to facilities they said the reason was to encourage folks to free up the spot once charged. Seems they could have approached it differently, but oh well. I think there are maybe 3 of us so far that have EVs. I live close (much like the OP) so don't really need it. I would consider using it to encourage adoption but frankly not willing to pay and/or have to move the car mid-day.

I believe that if workplace EV charging is to become the norm then, at least at my office, they need to have enough chargers for folks to be able to sit all day or at least just move a plug mid-day. IF I have to go move my car (and we have a very large parking lot) mid-day that will be a serious inconvenience, especially if it were necessary on a daily basis due to range to get home. I'm pretty sure that would be a deal breaker for me to buy an EV for work commuting. I like the convenience of electric - what's the value in saving 10-15 minutes a week at the gas station if you have to spend that much time daily moving your car eh?

Level 1 is the answer. All I want is a dedicated 5-15 receptacle. everyone can plug in, slowly charge and have 50 percent more charge at the end of the day and not have to move their car. Even if you factor in replacing the receptacles annualy, it's still way cheaper than installing level 2 chargers. What do they have against that? I think people don't trust us to be smart enough to not electrocute ourselves.

adric22 said:

I can't believe nobody approached me to discuss it with me since everyone knows I'm the only one driving a plug-in car.

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Amazing isn't it?

They will place them in the best location they think is right. Probably premium spots near the door.
Then they will be surprised that they get blocked.

Glad they have decided to get dumb EVSE's at least they got that right Units that require cards are waaaaaay too much hassle for employees wanting to use units daily. As for charging, they could do payroll deduction on an honesty basis for those who plan to use the units.

Just a little update on this. So I was talking with one of our customer service people that I knew was somewhat pro-EV (even though they don't have one yet) and uncovered a little of the mystery on this. Apparently the company was under pressure to take on some "green initiatives." I got the impression it was our larger customers that were pressuring this. Apparently charging stations were some of several things that we were asked to do, including installing a bike rack. Incidentally, I saw the bike rack in the maintenance dept. right next to the EVSEs.. That is apparently waiting to be installed.

So it appears the letter I sent a year or two ago had little to do with it.

JPWhite said:

Amazing isn't it?

They will place them in the best location they think is right. Probably premium spots near the door.
Then they will be surprised that they get blocked.

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Indeed. I already know where they are putting them and they are literally the two most desirable parking spaces in the company. I'm sure this was decided mainly because they will be seen by all of the visitors who come to the facility. (hence the customers) When I talked to the maintenance people a couple of years ago about putting stations in they actually pointed out an area at the back of the parking lot that would actually be easier to run wires to, and also be less likely to be ICE'd.

Nice to work somewhere the building management is progressive. The owners of the building where I work say they're not putting any EV charging spots because "god put enough oil on the Earth to last until the rapture". :shock:

I have no range anxiety since my workplace is 9 miles from my house, but there are several EVs in our parking lot: An i-MiEV, a LEAF, and a Volt. Sometimes a Tesla Roadster.

aarond12 said:

Nice to work somewhere the building management is progressive. The owners of the building where I work say they're not putting any EV charging spots because "god put enough oil on the Earth to last until the rapture". :shock:

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Sadly.. I have heard the same excuses before as to why we (society) don't need EVs.

When rapture comes, all EV drivers get the day off.

Sounds like something that would come out of Palin's mouth.

adric22 said:

aarond12 said:

Nice to work somewhere the building management is progressive. The owners of the building where I work say they're not putting any EV charging spots because "god put enough oil on the Earth to last until the rapture". :shock:

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Sadly.. I have heard the same excuses before as to why we (society) don't need EVs.

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That's an interesting take on the Bible - "Know ye that as the depletion of oil draws nigh, the end shall come..." :lol:

Really, that's nothing more than spinning religion to justify the thinking that "it won't happen until after I'm gone, so why should I worry?"

When I hear that thinking, I call people out on it. It's presumptuous, and neglects the fact that we are called to be good stewards for as long as we remain on the earth.

Anyway, congratulations on the new EVSEs!

JPWhite said:

adric22 said:

I can't believe nobody approached me to discuss it with me since everyone knows I'm the only one driving a plug-in car.

Click to expand...

Amazing isn't it?

They will place them in the best location they think is right. Probably premium spots near the door.
Then they will be surprised that they get blocked.

Glad they have decided to get dumb EVSE's at least they got that right Units that require cards are waaaaaay too much hassle for employees wanting to use units daily. As for charging, they could do payroll deduction on an honesty basis for those who plan to use the units.

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Somehow I think this is covered in other threads, but... We have three campuses with card operated EVSEs. Employees (and contractors !!) absolutely DO use their cards, pay the 50c/hour to charge, and move their cars somewhat promptly. The 50c/hour doesn't cover the cost of electricity for most vehicles, but it does discourage occupying the space/cable all day. I often plan my mornings to move my car when I'm charged and need to go to another campus. Teslas aren't too popular with the other EV drivers, as they can occupy a cable all day long trying to fill a 60 or 80kWH electron pool (at 5.x kW/Hr).