Business and Electric Vehicles

It's good business to support Electric Vehicles. It is also very easy for a business to get started.

There are many things that a business can do to support Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). I've been surprised at how slowly businesses have been to embrace this growing community.

Most people look at it and think that it is complicated or expensive and the reality is that they are wrong. It is easy and inexpensive to take the first steps. I'll talk about ways a business can start small and attract a new, growing demographic out there.

The first step is to take one or all of the light posts in your parking lot. Have an electrician add an exterior 120V outlet to the light post. This is a standard three-prong outlet that you would see on the outside of your house or on your porch. I recommend one that has Ground Fault Interrupt (GFI) capability. Then just paint the stripes on the parking spaces near this lamp post with green paint. Let your customers know that these are designated for EVs or PHEVs.

If you look at it, you're already paying a lot of money to light the parking lot at night. Those high power lights in your parking lot are driving a huge overhead expense. Compare that with the 2-5 kWh that any EV or PHEV will pull from the same circuit.

Don't charge for this service. The national average electric rate is $0.12 per kWh. The Chevy Volt and Ford Fusion have batteries that are only about 7-10 kWh in capacity. To fill a 7.5 kWh battery on 120V charing takes about 8 hours. So either the customers will have to spend hours in your store, likely buying things or they are going to take around $0.25 of electricity from you. The fact that you offer EV spots will bring clients that will more than make up for the $0.25 you spend to charge their vehicle.

You don't need fancy charging stations with 240V plugs and the like. Every EV or PHEV has the ability to charge from a standard 120V outlet. You don't have to lose huge sections of your parking lot either. With a heavy duty power cord, only a cord of 25 feet or less is considered safe for the amperage being drawn to recharge. This means that drivers don't have huge extension cords. You only need to designate the adjacent parking spots as EV spots.

You don't have to lose close parking spots. Right now the drivers of EVs and PHEVs are sacrificing to move the technology forward. The cars are expensive and the charging locations are few. This community is okay with walking a little further from their car to your door if it means they might get 3 or 4 more miles of EV distance from plugging in.

After you have set up the electric charging spots, let people know about it. You can put up a poster in your window. Customers will see the new green parking spaces. Then go to websites like plugshare.com and register your business as one with free charing. The community of EV and PHEV drivers are using Apps and websites like PlugShare.com to find businesses that offer charing stations. Sure there are places with fancy 240V charging stations and charging stations that cost money. Your 120V free spots will still be noticed since very few businesses are doing anything. Look around at your neighbors. They haven't gotten on board yet. You should also know that the Ford Mobile website for EV and PHEV drivers pulls its information directly from PlugShare.com. By registering your outlets, every Ford driver will be able to find your business.

There are two types of businesses who can really take advantage of offering charging stations, even 120V stations. They are hotels and family restaurants.

Hotels are easy. People are spending the night there. That means they are likely to be there for the full 8 hours that it takes to charge a PHEV completely. Even a full charge for a PHEV at the national average rate will cost you $1.20 per car. There just aren't that many cars out there. If you really need the money charge everyone who stays there an extra $1.20 a night and you'll cover this utility cost. As a PHEV driver, if I pull off the Interstate and there are two hotels, one that offers charging and one that doesn't, I'll stay at the one with the charging station, even if it is $5 more per night. We do this for the future, not for the money.

Family Restaurants are a little more difficult to see. This applies to any sit down restaurant. First this may get EV and PHEV drivers just to come in the front door. Even if they don't get much charge from your parking lot, they will chose your restaurant over your neighbors and competitors. If they are charging, they are more likely to stay longer. This sounds like a bad thing since the restaurant business is based on turnover and volume. Still these customers are more likely to get an appetizer or desert or both if it means they get to charge for just a little bit longer. Any amount of charge is better than none. Appetizers and deserts are where the restaurant's highest margins are. Selling more of these is worth the lingering customer.

You don't need the high voltage, high amperage specialized charing stations. A 120V standard outdoor GFI outlet is fine. You don't need to charge for it. The cost to you is minimal and the benefits of advertising and public relations are huge. Pretty soon more and more businesses are going to figure out that there is profit in giving away free electricity. The paid charing stations will dry up and not recover the installation costs to their owners.

You can even convert the whole parking lot to have standard outlets and make a living. If you don't believe me take a road trip to Glacier National Park. Along the way stop in local cities in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Visit the local grocery stores and shopping malls. There is a shopping mall in Great Falls, Montana off 10th Ave South where there is an outlet in front of every parking space. I know because I used to live there. The prices for goods in the shops are comparable to those in any other store around the nation. These plugs were not installed for EVs or PHEVs. They've been there for decades. They were installed for block heaters.

A block heater is a heating element that screws into the engine block of a car. It has a standard three-prong plug that sticks out of the grill of the car. In places like North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana the winters can get so cold that oil in a car engine starts to change from a liquid to a solid, or more of a sludgy goo. The heater in the block keeps the oil liquid and easy to push around and lubricate the engine. The heating element is a constant draw of electricity to warm the inefficient heating element of the block heater. The whole time cars are plugged into these outlets they are drawing electricity. All of these outlets are free for customers to use so their engines don't seize up while they are shopping.

An EV or PHEV will only draw enough electrify for it to charge the battery. Once the 7-10 kWh are drawn, the car stops drawing electricity. If businesses in the northern tier have been able to make profits from giving away electricity, any business any where can do the same.

If you're worried about maintaining these outlets, don't worry. I don't think there is a harsher proving ground for these outlet stations than in North Dakota, South Dakota, or Montana. The temperatures can easily dip below -30 deg F. Then there is the ice. With foot traffic and parked cars it is difficult to clear snow from parking lots before it turns to ice. A car trying to park on a sheet of ice will slip and slide. Many times these posts have been run into by drivers and they still survive.

If they can do it, you can do it. And you can be the first in your shopping area to show your support for alternative energy vehicles like EVs and PHEVs. What are you waiting for?