- We get lots of questions from electricians
who want to step up from installing residential chargers
and into the world of commercial-type charger installations.
Now, this could be because they have a customer
who's had one installed at home,
but also wants another one at the workplace
so they can charge there.
Or someone who owns a business,
they could be they want to offer charging
to visitors to a bed and breakfast,
or perhaps a host at an Airbnb.
Electric vehicle drivers are increasingly
making their purchasing decisions
based on the ability to charge at the destination.
So this could be lunch at a restaurant,
overnight stay at a hotel, or visiting a business
for a few hours for a meeting.
Either way, offering your visitors the chance
to charge an electric vehicle while they're there
is a smart business decision.
The reality of destination charging is
it's all down to supply and demand.
Is there demand for charging at the location
and can the power supply available at the site
cope with EV charging?
Now, the lofty ambition for a lot of businesses
would be to offer something like this,
a DC fast charging station.
However, the chances that you have a spare
quarter of a million watts of power available
on your existing electrical installation are slim,
and the cost of the chargers is pretty expensive.
But then when you fold in the cost
of all the additional infrastructure you need,
that's probably beyond the reaches of most business.
Now DC fast charging, it is fantastic
for when you're on the road or near the open road.
So you can quickly pull off,
get as charged as quick as possible,
and continue onto your destination.
So destination or "guestination" charging,
as I heard it referred to earlier this week,
implies you're gonna be somewhere for some time.
So that could be a business meeting,
perhaps a round a golf.
But either way, you're gonna be there for some time
and all you need is enough charge
to get you back on the road ,on the way home,
or to a DC fast charging station.
This Vauxhall Corsa-E has a 50 kilowatt battery
and three hours of destination charging is enough
to put 70 miles worth of range into that battery.
Installers often ask us to recommend a charger
for commercial applications
and the reality is there are absolutely
loads of great charges out there,
lots of them we have reviewed on the channel before.
You might be looking for something really discreet
that blends in with the building
or something that's more visible
with a great user interface that's accessible on the front.
However, the reality is a commercial charger
relies upon the software behind it
for a successful installation.
Now, lots of times, this comes bundled with the charger
but you may wish to move away from that
if you want to manage different charge points
from different manufacturers on one software platform.
For ChargePoint owners and operators
the software is really important
because it fulfills two vital functions.
The first being who can
access the ChargePoint and charge from it,
and the second how do you bill them
for the amount of power that's been used to charge.
One of the leading providers
of software for ChargePoint management is Monta
and they've got a really fantastic app
and they've solved another problem that's occurring
as destination charging becomes more popular
with more and more EVs.
So I'm about to take an electrically powered journey
to see what they've been up to,
join a very polite queue,
and hopefully solve the problem of charger rage.
Now, if you want an example of charger rage,
this would be it.
Somebody's parked in the EV charging bay
and they're not even charging.
So they're preventing other users
from getting their charge. Angry.
Now, it's often said that the British people love queuing
and yeah, we certainly do.
A group of people with a common objective
often results in an orderly queue.
However, when it comes to EVs, things have changed really
and I'm done a fully charged live,
and this is like a herd of wildebeest
gathering at an EV watering hole.
And there's loads of EVs in this car park
but there's not many charges.
So how are we gonna manage that queuing situation
when it comes to EV chargers?
Well, let's go and have a look.
Now, we got here at 9:30
and these bay are already full of EVs charging.
So how am I gonna charge until I get home?
And the owners of these EVs could fully charge
and stay in that shore all day.
Hmm. Or I could wait in my car
and wait for them to come back
and hopefully there'll be nobody else in this car park
also thinks that they're at the front of the queue.
Now if only there was a solution to that.
Well, these charge points here have been equipped
with some new software functionality
that's built into the Monta app, the Smart Queue.
Now, the best way to think about that
is a little bit when you're on holiday
and you want that prime position by the pool.
You don't want anybody else to get there
but you also want to have breakfast.
Now I want to see the show, but I also want the charge.
So how am we gonna get place in the queue?
Well, we do what we do on holiday
of get your towel out
and put the towel over the sunbed
so you're reserving your spot.
And that's the best way to think about Smart Queue.
It's a way to reserve your spot.
So as soon as one of these cars leaves
I get a notification and I can charge.
Now, this new Smart Queue functionality has been trialed
during the fully charged show
and the results have been compelling
which is good news for ChargePoint owners
and operators and obviously installers, too.
Through the Monta app
I can choose to join the Smart Queue
and as soon as the charger becomes free,
I receive a notification.
I then have 15 minutes to occupy the charger
and start the charging process.
If I'm busy, I could choose to skip a place in the queue
but the average time between reaching the front of the queue
and starting the charge during the trial
was just over six minutes.
So pretty, pretty efficient swap over process.
Of course, for this to work,
you have to persuade the car in the charger
to move as soon as possible
when they've finished charging.
And the most effective way is to bill them
for occupying the space by the minute
so the space quickly turns from an EV charger
to a costly parking space.
This carrot and stick can be customized
in the setup of the Smart Queue
and this technique has been used in DC fast charging,
such as the Tesla Network for several years
but it's the first time I've seen this
as a package for destination and workplace charging.
This is a fantastic development for ChargePoint operators
as it allows you to easily manage your ChargePoint
and offer a level of assurance to users
that they can charge without having to sit around
waiting for a charger to become free,
which means more time inside the venue
or being productive in the workplace.
The world of EV charging is relatively new
and learning the behavior of EV drivers
is an important part of the journey.
There are so many variables
when it comes to destination charging.
Not everybody arrives empty
and not every onboard charger actually has the same speed
so different models of cars perform differently.
So it'll be interesting to see
how this new Smart Queue technology evolves
to serve the needs of both users and ChargePoint operators.
I'd like to see the option to possibly
limit the charge time to stop people hogging chargers
which is when the battery level exceeds 80%
and charging speed typically slows down.
A question you might be asking,
do I need a special charger to use this technology?
The good news is it can be enabled
with any charger that supports OCPP compatibility.
So what is OCPP?
Well, you can find out in this video here
where I'll be updating this charger with the Monta app
and all the great features.