Workplace charging

I'm convinced that one of the quickest ways to increase demands for electric vehicles is for companies to support workplace charging. That's because a charger in front of a building with an EV plugged into it is a conversation piece. Conventionally fueled vehicle drivers can see how charging works and ask questions to EV drivers, about costs of owning an EV (i.e How much does it cost to charge?), range (How far do you drive each day?) and other EV attributes (Can you use carpool lanes?). Workplace charging enables employees with longer commutes to own an EV. And because employees are parked for long periods of time, there are opportunities for multiple vehicles to charge throughout the day. Chargers at the workplace can have really high utilization and those chargers become public chargers in the evening and on weekends. With software from companies like Coulomb operators can set multiple rates (and accessibility) based on who is using the charger and when they're using it.

We have three (free) unrestricted Chargepoint EVSEs in front of our office in Mountain View. Since they were commissioned in February and October 2012, they've "dispensed" 584 charges and 4,310 kWh. This year average charging on a daily basis was 25kWh. At the end of the year I'll look into off-peak and weekend usage of the chargers. I plotted monthly and cumulative energy use so far in 2013 and daily utilization of the past thirty days, in case anyone is interested.