Regulated by the French LOM law, bringing electric vehicles into company fleets is an unavoidable step. However, switching from combustion-engine to electric company cars can create reluctance among staff. Supporting employees will help ensure the fleet charges smoothly. Chargemap shares its tips to anticipate this change and best manage your fleet's charging at public charging stations.
Supporting your employees in the move to electric vehicles
Helping staff understand the company's vision and involving them as much as possible in this change is essential to its success.
Why?
Raising awareness of electric vehicles and charging is essential for the fleet transition to go as smoothly as possible, without affecting staff work or morale. After all, employees are the ones who will experience this change in the field. Understanding the basics of charging will help them avoid unexpected situations on business trips, such as lost time, higher stress levels and therefore a greater risk of accidents.
How?
Depending on the size and structure of the company, several solutions are possible:
=> Share educational resources with employees
The simplest solution is to invite employees to consult resources on EV charging. Subscribing to newsletters such as the Chargemap Business one (in French), sharing educational articles from our blog or downloading white papers (in French) are good examples.
=> Appoint ambassadors
In companies where electric mobility is already in place, appointing employee ambassadors is a model that works. They act as go-to people for staff, providing support and answering questions about electric vehicles and workplace charging.
=> Fund training
Bringing in external companies to run one or more training days on electric cars and fleet charging is another option.
Charging an electric vehicle fleet on business trips
Now that your employees have mastered the basics of charging their electric vehicle, let's get to the heart of the matter. How do you make sure your electric fleet charges smoothly away from the office?
Give your employees the right tools
On business trips, the Chargemap mobile app is an essential travel companion.
It lets you:
=> quickly locate all charging stations, including those compatible with the Chargemap Pass,
=> filter charging stations by rating, network, charging speed, nearby restaurants, etc.,
=> consult reliable data on each charging station, including feedback from a community of more than one million drivers,
=> access the Chargemap route planner to plan charging stops before setting off.
To make payment easier at as many public charging stations as possible, a multi-network charging card is needed. It is a bit like a fuel card, but for electric vehicles. For example, the Chargemap Pass gives your employees access to more than 1,500 networks and 542,000 charging points across Europe.
Adopt the right habits at the charging station
Your employee has found the ideal charging station for a charging stop during a business lunch. For charging to go smoothly, there are a few important habits to adopt:
- Check that the charging station is compatible with the charging card
To avoid wasting time, it is important to make sure the chosen charging station accepts the company's charging payment method.
On Chargemap, Chargemap Pass compatibility is shown on the charging station's page. A dedicated filter is also available. - Check the mobility operator's charging prices
The prices displayed on the charging station are not necessarily those charged by the mobility operator chosen by the company. For example, Chargemap does not own any charging stations. We set up connection contracts with charging station networks. They set a base price, to which we add a reasonable commission to fund our services.
You can check Chargemap prices in the app on the page of each compatible charging station. - Remember to stop charging before 80%
To optimise charging time, we strongly recommend not charging an electric car battery beyond 80%, unless you really need to. It takes at least as long to charge an electric vehicle from 20 to 80% as from 80 to 100%.
⚠️ With per-minute pricing, it is even more important not to leave the vehicle plugged in too long. Even with a battery charged to 100%, billing continues.
💡 A few resources to go further (in French):
=> Charging power and time: how to avoid unpleasant surprises
=> Saving an electric car's battery with eco-driving
=> 10 valuable tips to avoid charging stress
Anticipate charging budget overruns
The Chargemap Business software solution lets fleet managers manage the fleet's charging on site and on the road with peace of mind. At public charging stations, an alert feature is available to prevent budget overruns.
Set a budget per employee/charging card and an overall monthly budget for the fleet, and receive an alert to anticipate overruns. You can choose to set up these alerts for all charging cards or just a few.
If a charging session exceeds €100, its billing is suspended while the Chargemap team checks the associated information. This is a security measure to avoid you being billed if the amount of the charging session is not justified.
We hope this article has given you some keys to managing your electric vehicle fleet's charging on the road. As always, our team listens to your needs and develops the Chargemap Business solution based on them.
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