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EVSE - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Why EV charging stations?
• Why would someone want to own charging stations now?
  
• As a Property Manager or Facility Owner - What’s in it for me? 
  
• Can I require drivers to pay for using my charging stations?
  
• Do these new Charging Stations work with any electric vehicle?
  
• Who provides service and maintenance for the charging station?
  
• Why do charging stations need to be “networked”?
  
• Which types of locations are best for new EV charging stations?
  
• How much does it cost to charge the EVs?
  
• Are charging station owners required to pay any service, transaction, or network fees?

The Federal government wants to create an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure so that people will feel comfortable buying electric cars. Ten major automobile manufacturers have announced plans to start shipping electric vehicles between 2010 and 2012. The new electric cars are appealing, family-sized vehicles that will be popular. Electric cars are good for the country because they help create a cleaner environment, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and operate vehicles at a lower cost than current gas-powered vehicles.

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Many people purchasing a Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) will have a charging station installed at their home. Those who do not have a private garage or dedicated parking space will need public charging infrastructure to charge their vehicle. Also, a major concern for the adoption of 100% electric vehicles is a concept called “range anxiety”: the fear that your vehicle will not have enough electricity to make it home for charging. Therefore drivers need charging stations in public garages, workplaces, sports venues, hospital parking lots, retail stores, restaurants, cultural or recreation centers, and any other location where they will park and can “top off” their batteries. 

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As Electric Vehicles become more and more popular, you can attract new customers by offering charging services. You can “charge to charge” to increase parking revenues. You can offer EV charging to your employees, customers, visitors, community, etc. You will be viewed as a leader in this EV revolution and further differentiate yourself from your competition. You, the station owner, can lead the way to a cleaner, healthier tomorrow.

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Absolutely. While it is common for some owners to provide free charging as a perk or amenity, we expect a growing majority of owners to charge fees to use their charging stations. While most regions don’t allow owners to “resell electricity” as a public utility, you can set a fixed fee, a time-per-hour fee, a monthly all-inclusive fee, a premium valet fee, or a number of other parking fee structures. Some systems have the ability to take credit cards, ChargePass™,  and other convenient payment methods. We expect owners to create their own business case to decide on the fee level that makes financial sense to them. ABM has broad industry experience and can help in the process.

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All the EV charging stations that ABM recommends are designed to work with all new electric vehicles on the market. The new industry standard for Level-2 charging is the SAE J-1772™ connector. Some drivers of older EVs might need a simple cord adapter to use the new standard that was adopted in 2010.

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The authorized ABM team will provide a formal proposal for installation and can set up a plan with you for maintenance of the charging station. This may include being available to for on-site service assistance as needed.

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Networked charging stations provide many benefits to EV drivers and charging station owners. The networking allows a driver to identify where charging stations are located and even which charging stations are currently being used. Any charging station attached to a network can transmit information about the charging session including: start time, time of completion, ground fault interruption, or even a disruption in service from vandalism or utility demand response. Networked charging stations have the ability to email or send SMS messages to a driver alerting him or her about their charging session status.

For station owners, networked charging is very valuable; you can see charging status, station utilization, energy delivered, and many more parameters across your inventory of charging stations in all locations. You can quickly identify and resolve charging station issues, and all networked charging stations can be remotely accessed by the owner or by support staff to resolve issues avoiding costly trips to the site.

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We are seeing a demand in every region and it is driven by the number of new EVs shipped to key metropolitan areas. California is the leading market by a wide margin at this early stage. Charging stations need to be spread throughout the entire metropolitan region. Examples of good locations: large parking garages in centrally located areas; office parks with many employees - some of whom would purchase an electric vehicle; airports or train stations with heavy traffic; shopping malls and restaurants; high profile places like sporting venues, monuments or recreation areas; marinas, etc.

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The 2011 models of two popular EVs draw about 3.3KW. The cost of electricity ranges widely by region and by utility. As an example, let’s use a sample price of electricity of 10 cents ($ .10) per Kilowatt Hour (KWH). At that price it would cost about $.33 (33 cents) per hour to charge the vehicles. If the autos are able to double their battery charge speed in the future, which is anticipated, the Level-2 charging tops out at 7.2 KW so it could cost approximately 66 cents per hour of electrical cost at this rate.

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Pricing of network-based services vary by program and align with the value they offer when running a public electric charging infrastructure. Some fees are based on the applications and programs selected. Networked systems typically allow for remote troubleshooting and problem resolution of the charging stations. Web-based portals provide access to statistics of your charging stations for utilization, energy usage, etc.

Some stations are capable of handling revenue collection and payment processing on behalf of the station owner without the burden of administrative overhead. Transaction fees may apply, similar in nature to credit card transaction fees for merchants.

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For more information, please contact your ABM sales team or our EVSE program team leaders:

Cameron Funk
949-888-2340

Ken Sapp
949-330-1542