How do I pitch to my employer for charging infrastructure ?

[mkjayakumar]

I work for a Fortune 500 company and I discovered there are two other Leafs besides mine.

I checked with the facilities manager to see if they have any interest in providing charging infrastructure as a part of some green initiative. I was asked to send a formal emai, and if there is enough interest then there is definitely a possibility.

I was wondering if forum members can give me some tips in framing up an email that will come out as something that will (in this order):

a) do good for the image of the enterprise
b) good for the environment
c) create more awareness on EVs

Thanks and appreciate your inputs. Here is a picture of two Leafs in my office parking lot:

[not sure how to include pictures... hmmm]

 

[mkjayakumar]

Basically I don't want that to come out as someone trying to free load electricity on company's dime..

 

[EvansvilleLeaf]

I think you have the framing right. Is the parking lot visible to non-company people who will see this greenwashing? Do they want to project an environmentally conscious image? A sign might be a good suggestion if yes to both. You should probably include numbers on CO2 emissions and barrels per year saved for the commutes of EVers, and the low cost of charging even if used all work day - maybe even get them thinking of company Leafs if that's applicable to the business!

 

[lpickup]

See if there are local programs designed to encourage green initiatives in your area.

In NC's Research Triangle Park, companies are encouraged (required?) to support objectives such as carpooling, use of public transportation, telecommuting, and use of alternative fuel vehicles for commuting. In fact my understanding is that they are required to survey employees and must report annual figures on how many employees are using those types of alternatives. I don't know whether or not there are actual targets, but the data is being tracked. If there is some kind of program where your company campus is located, it could be that there may be some very real incentives to your employee enabling infrastructure like that.

 

[TRONZ]

Also remember to point out each EV charging up is one less car competing ($$$) for the limited oil supplies.

 

[adric22]

Probably wouldn't hurt to offer to pay for the installation and/or electricity. It becomes kind of hard to argue with that. I know that can be prohibitively expensive in some cases, though.

 

[thankyouOB]

talk to the PR folks and see if they are interested in that as part of the company's public face.
they would be best to carry the ball, along with facilities saying it is easy to do.

 

[Nubo]

I would contact Chargepoint, or have the company do so. As I understand it, Chargepoint will install the equipment and then the company can choose how to administer the privileges. It can be offered free, or charge what they wish to cover expenses.

 

[EricBayArea]

It is good to point out that there are many federal incentives (and potentially state incentives as well) that your company could take advantage of at this early stage in the game. Point out as of 2011 there were 3 mainstream cars to utilize Level 2 EV charging (J1772) - LEAF, Volt, Tesla. As of 2012 there will be 7, adding the Plug-In Prius, Ford Focus EV, Mitsubishi i, and Coda… that is more than twice as many from 2011 to 2012. In 3 years time there will be many other Plug-Ins (hybrid and EV alike).

Obviously not everyone needs to charge but the more people who have these cars that can charge, the better it is for the environment.

Point out that there are obvious costs to installing and maintaining Level 2 chargers, inclusive of electricity costs. If interest grows too rapidly or employees complain about free electricity to other employees, the company can implement a paid service for a small amount to discourage people who do not need it (e.g. a Volt owner who lives 15 miles away would probably not pay $2 for a day of charging, but a LEAF owner who needs the electricity to get home will gladly pay $2 as compared to driving his/her other ICE car). This will also encourage employees to buy plug-in cars - knowing that their company provides an infrastructure to help them fight the war on terror / oil

Building on the PR / Marketing aspect, if the office building is located in an area that is near shopping or other retail, the chargers can be setup for non-employees to use on the weekend and nights (potentially for a fee) which will show the company as being green and environmentally conscious. Even if the building is not near retail, EV owners that see the company offers their chargers to the public will be seen as a positive thing (e.g. I find myself using Walgreen's over competitors because I know they have a lot of ChargePoint chargers and support EVs) - even if it is not offered the location nearest to me.

And if they decide to move forward, try to convince them to setup as many as they feel comfortable with now. It may cost more to add more later than adding them now and leaving them vacant for a year or two.

 

[nosuchthing]

I wonder if any manufacturer of L2 and L3 chargers is going to come up with a timer that calculates the kW per time unit so whoever owns the charger equipment can program it in cents per kW to show cost incurred and charge the BEV owner correctly.

I charged at Sutter Health facility for three months (until the administrator threw me out and had my boss write me up). I used L1 at a rate of 5 kW per charge at 11.7 cents per kW. So my top off came to about 60 cents over 4 hrs or so daily. I'd not want to be charged more (or less) for the above.

We need to bring the cost of paid charging to the level of parking meters today that would include a credit card swipe. Cost per kW would be clearly stated on the machine. Now wouldn't that be a nice Utopia!

Be prepared though: your employer, unless it is flush with cash like Google, wants no part of catering to your environmentally correct car. They like to talk about going green. Talk is cheap and so is doing nothing.

Case in point: Sutter's new facility they are building from scratch in Ca. They will NOT stub the ground with 220 volt conduits. We're not even talking about Blink machines here. Just to prepare the ground for what's coming. It's obviously "cheaper" to rip up spanking new sidewalks and parking surfaces later when it becomes obvious the customer wants it (as well as the employees). "Forward looking" means -- for this company at least -- four inches in front of their nose.

So that's what we're up against. I am back to my old ICE while the Leaf sits.

 

[mkjayakumar]

Reached a dead end, but atleast I tried, and got a sympathetic hearing.

You should read this bottom up

- Jay

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From: <Facilities Director>
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:35 AM
To: Jayakumar, Jay
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car

Jay, all of our parking lot lights are on 277 volt single phase and as you can guess are only on at night. That said, due to the distance from the main building out to the parking lot areas a higher voltage feed would be required due to the voltage drop from the length of runs. This would mean a step down transformer would have to be added with a power panel and everything would need to be weather tight for exterior conditions. We actually looked a couple of different solutions but again kept running up against capital investment will no identifiable ROI for the investment.

My hope in the future is the technology would advance where solar charging stations can be available as a reasonable cost and eliminate the need to run electrical feeders out to parking spaces. This would allow for charging stations to be placed anywhere in a parking lot. I guess we are ahead of the technology curve.

Regards,
<yyy>

From: Jayakumar, Jay
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:24 AM
To: <Facilities Director>
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car

Dear <Facilities Director>,

Thanks for your quick reply.  I agree that the Blink option would require you to run a 220V cable/socket and associated infrastructure which does involve capital expenses.

On the other hand has the company looked into the possibility of installing a run of the mill standard 120V socket perhaps in few lighting poles in the parking lot? That in fact would be sufficient for this facilities patrons. Just wondering.

Again thanks for taking the time to respond back to me.

Regards
Jay Jayakumar

From: <Facilities Director>
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:09 AM
To: Jayakumar, Jay
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car

Jay, I'm very familiar with the infrastructure needed to add charging stations in our parking lot, we actually reviewed with Blink/Ecotality late last year. The capital investment on <Company>'s side to reach our parking areas has made the concept a very low priority at this time.

Thank you for offering to share your thoughts but at this time this is not something we are looking at investing in.

<YYY>
Director
Facilities & Corporate Services

From: Jayakumar, Jay
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 10:58 AM
To: <Facilities Director>
Subject: RE: Provision to charge an electric car

Dear <Facilities Director>,

Let me introduce myself as a long term Texas resident, an ex-HP employee and currently an employee of <company>. I am the Program Manager for Infrastructure services for <company>’s test servers and equipment and have been working in this facility for close to 3 years now.

Wanted to share with you the following email I sent to <yyy>. If you would like to meet me in person, I would be glad to stop by at your office anytime.

regards
Jay Jayakumar  
<signature>

From: Jayakumar, Jay
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 4:45 PM
To: <Facilities Manager>
Subject: Provision to charge an electric car

Dear <Facilities Manager>,

Apropos the conversation we had last month, I am following up with an email on the subject of providing a means to charge an electric car in our facility.

As you might already know that cars that run on electricity are getting more common now a days and these vehicles are getting increasingly popular to save on Gasoline expenses and also as responsible citizens they serve as a means to contribute less to the pollution. These vehicles depend on a public infrastructure of charging stations, spread across businesses, hotels, shopping centers, malls, etc., but more so where these vehicles are parked for fairly long time. The charging times are typically in the order of hours, not minutes. The range of these cars at this time is less than 100 miles, that sometimes a charge for a few hours while in office may be necessary.

As a result many corporations, with an eye towards encouraging these green initiatives among its employees and making electric cars more practical, have provided some means to charge electric cars. There are two simple options that both work reasonably well.

a) Couple of simple standard 120V sockets. No different from the ones we have at our homes that we plug our iPhones in.
b) 220 V sockets (similar to our home dryer plugs) wherein a vendor would install their charging equipment – free of cost. BLINK/Ecotality is one such company that does this throughout DFW metro area.

Please note that the cost of actual electricity usage would be fairly insignificant – around $2 for 9 hours of charging on 120V. So the cost for the corporation on electricity usage per month would be very minimal to nothing, but the benefits for the employees who depend on a charger to get back home, are pretty high. In fact it would be great if <company> can identify a means to have the concerned users pay for the charges, so that no one is under the illusion that they are getting free electricity. Also this is a great statement for <company> to make that they care for the environment and employees that need these services.

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards
Jay Jayakumar

 

[KJD]

Reached a dead end, but atleast I tried, and got a sympathetic hearing - Jay

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would not give up just yet. You just need to try a slightly different direction that is all.

A friend of mine recently did get permission to charge at his work and I liked his approach. Instead of asking facilities for help, he went to the HR department. The HR manager often views their job as an employee advocate.

He pitched it to the company as a low cost employee perk. Something that would build employee loyalty and reduce employee turnover.

The other thought I have is your company is large, so talk to the public relations department. They might be interested in pushing the green agenda with company management.

KJD

 

[smkettner]

I agree facilities and maintenance department should not make the decision or handle the request.
Management should make the decision and direct the facilities department accordingly.

 

[lpickup]

Right. There will probably never be a FINANCIAL return on the investment, if that's what the facilities guys are looking for. Rather, it is a PR or recruiting return on the investment. Having said that, it does appear that they did think it through pretty well!

 

[thankyouOB]

hey, in SOCAL there is some incentive from the AQ folks on companies to promote rideshare, EVs, and etc. to clean the air.
they prolly are no such things in Texas.

 

[DaveEV]

My hope in the future is the technology would advance where solar charging stations can be available as a reasonable cost and eliminate the need to run electrical feeders out to parking spaces. This would allow for charging stations to be placed anywhere in a parking lot. I guess we are ahead of the technology curve.

Solar charging (you'll need battery storage, too) is not likely to become affordable any time soon. Not to mention that IMO, all solar should be grid tied to maximize the useful energy you get out of it.

What kind of distances is it out to your parking lot?

Now you know first hand why charging stations tend to get "prime" parking locations (close to existing infrastructure) and why it's so difficult to get stations installed (trenching long distances is expensive).

 

[jimcmorr]

I got the exact same run around when I asked my employer (a well known life insurance co) a couple of years ago. Even before the LEAF was a glimmer in my eye! I was going to convert a ICE to an electric for my commute. That was when Gasoline in this area was $4.12 a gallon for regular. I'm a remote worker now and don't need their help with charge infrastructure.

 

[rumpole]

What I want is for Nissan to prepare a single page spec sheet telling how much energy the car uses, what the typical costs are, and graphics on what it all looks like so that the new Leaf owner can show it to their building landlord, condo association, or employer to let them know that no one is trying to "steal" electricity, and charging isn't wierd or unusual. This would even help with convincing someone to put in L1 charging, ie a 110V outlet, or give access to an exisiting one.

I know of at least one person who wanted to simply be able to plug in their Leaf with L1 at their apartment, and the manager thought it would crash the electric service for the building. Something with Nissans name on it would go a long way to dispelling disinformation or noninformation.

 

[lpickup]

What I want is for Nissan to prepare a single page spec sheet telling how much energy the car uses, what the typical costs are, and graphics on what it all looks like so that the new Leaf owner can show it to their building landlord, condo association, or employer to let them know that no one is trying to "steal" electricity, and charging isn't wierd or unusual.

What about the LEAF's Moroney sticker that came attached to your car:

Seems to be exactly what you're looking for!

 

[kubel]

I went to my manager to just request 120V access, the manager passed the request to the chief information officer, and he passed the request to human resources. Human resources ultimately passed it to senior management where it was quickly approved. But here's the kicker- some supervisor in a completely unrelated department identified it as a possible OSHA violation and literally pulled the plug. So now they have to install a GFCI exterior plug with a cover. Unfortunately, the cheapest place where they could put it was behind the building, very far from any entrances. But on the positive side, it's away from employees that might complain, and it's right below a security camera.

At no point did any department consider cost as it went straight to senior management and the project was (I'm assuming) rolled into a capital expense job that the electrician was coming to do anyway. It's supposed to be done this weekend or next week- so we'll see. Senior management was almost excited to give me permission to plug in and said they were going to look into the possibility of installing a charging station in the near future. There is no return on this investment. There is no increase of productivity from workers. But there is huge public relations and human relations bragging opportunity. The people who have the responsibility to do that bragging are the ones you need to make your proposal to. Otherwise, all departments will want assurances there will be a ROI in order to even get consideration from senior management to make the capital expense request, and that won't happen.