Charting the Expanding Universe of Commercial EV Chargers
December 3rd, 2021 | by Richard Hall
If you read the title and reacted - “they must mean EVSEs” - then you’re our kind of expert! Of course chargers are in the vehicles themselves - but Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) is an absolute prerequisite for any commercial vehicle fleet electrification project.
ZappyRide actively researches the specifications of commercial and personal chargers in a directory used by a growing array of website tools. These sites are offered by vehicle manufacturers and electric utilities that help fleet operators understand the ownership costs of electrifying their fleets. Perhaps one of the most visible today is PG&Es Fleet Electrification website - a site use by hundreds of fleet operators across California to understand cost and emissions savings of electrification.
The Authoritative Industry Charger Directory
Our goal is to provide the most authoritative directory of electric vehicle chargers available, and make this available to our customers as a browsable charger directory with easy filtering by power output, form factor (wall mounted, pedestal, pantograph...) and key features such as vehicle to grid, OSCP and OCPP support
The charger data ZappyRide collects isn’t only presented in a charger directory, it is a key subcomponent of our fleet total cost of ownership tool - a tool which lets commercial vehicle operators understand all of the many cost elements of electrifying their fleets including:
Charger costs
“Behind the meter” Infrastructure costs
Fossil fuel costs, where we use the specific cost per gallon of gas or diesel based on vehicle’s location
Electricity fuel costs, where we may use the local utility’s commercial cost of electricity per kWh or for selected major utilities time of use charging costs
Maintenance costs where EVs have far fewer moving parts than their fossil fuel equivalents and cost a fraction to maintain
Insurance costs which can differ by state
Vehicle resale values
Our fleet electrification tools let fleet operators choose between:
Generic chargers, these are archetypes of common charger types that use the average price for chargers with a given kW output and ports. Fleet operators may want to budget an electrification project before committing to specific charger models.
Specific charger models, ZappyRide has collated the specifications for hundreds of charger models.
Easily Filterable Specifications for Hundreds of Chargers
ZappyRide collects an array of data points that fleet operators look for when choosing chargers:
The basics such as:
Whether the charger is level 1, level 2 or a fast charger
kW output
Required voltage supply
Amperage-=
Number of ports
The form factor, meaning whether a charger is wall mounted, pedestal, induction or pantograph (overhead)
The supported plug types, so you can be assured that you can connect a specific vehicle to any charger
Certifications such as UL, cULuS, ETL, cETLus, CSA or CE
Cord length
OSCP or OCPP version support
Network connectivity - and whether this is ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular 3G, 4G or 5G LTE
Reader accessories such as readers for credit cards used by public charging stations, RFID or NFC tags that identify vehicles in a fleet when they are charged
Warranty length
And, of course, price...
We Know - Charge Pricing is Sensitive!
At ZappyRide we realize pricing can be a sensitive matter, not so much for personal chargers at the low end of the market, but it is super sensitive and rarely divulged for more expensive commercial chargers.
To help fleet operators understand costs when manufacturers do not publish charger prices, ZappyRide uses a formula to generate an estimated price derived from the kW output and the number of ports. While not 100% accurate this provides important insight for chargers which are a major cost component when budgeting to electrify a vehicle fleet.
We Don’t Just Share Charger Costs - We Calculate Rebates and Incentives
While chargers represent a major component cost of fleet electrification, ZappyRide tracks hundreds of incentives and rebates that discount the cost of chargers and vehicles.
Our cost of ownership tools incorporate sophisticated incentive evaluators that take into consideration many factors such as your organization type, location, whether you are in a California disadvantaged community and of course charger types and costs. These incentive evaluators give ZappyRide powered sites like PG&E’s fleet electrification website the ability not just to show the charger cost, but to estimate applicable discounts and rebates that are often worth thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.
We Don’t Charge Charger Manufacturers to be Listed in Our Directory
ZappyRide’s goal is to offer the authoritative electric vehicle charger directory. While we have spent thousands of hours scouring the web for specifications of chargers we know data is never “perfect” - but this is what we strive for.
If you are a charger manufacturer and want to check if we list your chargers, or you want to correct information we share about your specification or estimated price, please get in touch with us. We actively want you to contact us to ensure our directory is complete and represents your products accurately as you would want.
We don’t charge you to list your charger, and sharing your charger specifications with us will ensure your products appear in tools used by a highly precise target audience of charger purchasers actively considering fleet electrification or planning to install chargers at a public charging site or in an apartment complex or multi-unit dwelling (MUD).
Help ZappyRide progress the industry by sharing your charger specs with us and maintaining this authoritative charger directory!
Check out our Charging Solution Suppliers page and our Commercial Electrification Planner page to learn more about how we are making charging easier to understand and implement.
Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear from you. Contact us to get started!