As the market for EV chargers continues to develop, many of our clients ask us whether chargers installed today will be made obsolete in the next 10 to 20 years. By understanding the needs of building users, it is possible to develop a plan for EV charging which ensures financial and carbon abatement benefits, while also future-proofing a building as efficiently as possible to account for changing demands.

BY TOM SHARP & BORIS PAUL – MONDAY 17TH OF JANUARY, 2022

Concerns

1. Will standard charging speeds drastically increase?

The maximum charging speed of commercially available chargers has greatly increased in recent years from slow chargers (3-6 kW) to fast chargers (7 kW or 22 kW), and now to rapid and ultra-rapid chargers (50-350 kW). 

This does not automatically mean all EVs will soon be fully charged in 5 minutes because charging speed is limited by the EV’s battery. Even high-end EVs today accept a maximum of 50 kW, so if they are plugged into an ultra-rapid charger, they will still only draw 50 kW of power from the charger. Because EVs are expected to have a lifetime of 10-20 years, the move towards charging speeds that exceed those of today’s fast chargers will be significantly hindered by charging limits on EVs for at least the next decade.

     

2. What charging hardware will be necessary in the future

The most capital-intensive part of installing an EV charge bank is often the groundworks that are needed to lay the cables. This is also the most difficult part to later retrofit with different equipment, so ensuring the cables in place can handle increased power is the single most important aspect of future-proofing a charge bank. There is not one truly universal charger type that works for all EVs so choosing a charger type depends on a number of factors, including which country the charge bank is in.  To cover all bases and be as future proof as possible, some new charge banks have the charger type most common in their country plus a ‘Combined Charging System’ (CCS) charger. CCS chargers are relatively new and have a number of useful capabilities, including rapid and ultra-rapid charging, AC and DC charging, and three-phase charging. CCS chargers are becoming increasingly popular, especially across Europe and North America, and are expected to be more widely used in almost all markets in the coming years.

 

 

                         

3. New charger functionalities

Smart charging systems allow remote control and monitoring of charging as well as other automatic features.

The programming features available can be expected to keep changing in the coming years but smart charging systems can update their programming, so are relatively future-proof.

Vehicle to grid (V2G) or Vehicle to building (V2B) is the capability to use an EV battery as a battery to power other electrical systems. This allows power to be sold back to the grid at times of low supply, or for electricity consumption spikes in a building to be covered with no extra cost for greater power consumption. Chargers with V2G or V2B capabilities could be play a vital role in the future security of the grid in the relatively near future.

Your chargers

Like with all new technologies, EV chargers will continue to change and develop for years to come, but it is possible to avoid having stranded assets by making well-informed choices appropriate for your buildings. Whether new charger capabilities are worth the extra capital cost and potential power charges for faster charging depends on how building users are expected to use the chargers and what the EV market will be like in the location of a building. As long as the critical hardware is in place for the demands of your building, future upgrades in say 10 years’ time will be much cheaper than installing a new system.

 

If you are interested in knowing more about EV charging stations, Longevity Power explains here what are the different ownership models for asset managers who wonder whether they should invest in EV chargers themselves, or go through a third-party.

Longevity Power is a multi-disciplinary energy and sustainability consultancy which can support you in this field. We have worked with asset managers in their net-zero carbon strategies and have delivered renewable energy and EV charging feasibility studies and installations across Europe, Asia, and North America. For more information on our energy practice, please contact Anthony Maguire at [email protected].

 

 

 

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Topping, C., February 2021, ‘Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) explained: What it is and how it works’, accessed 14 January 2022, available here

Virta, 2020, ‘Vehicle-to-grid (V2G): Everything you need to know’, accessed 14 January 2022, available here

Costello, E., July 2019, ‘Your car could act as a giant battery to power your home’, accessed 14 January 2022, available here

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