eMobility: Powering up your EV fleet with dynamic depot

Bus and truck fleet operators are increasingly aware that modern depot charging can be the key to success, a vital organ in a high-performing organism if you will. Think of depot charging infrastructure as the heart of the fleet: it will pump out the power that allows their vehicles to cruise through the city as well as long distances. You can also imagine the same infrastructure as the fleet’s brain as it considers and optimizes a range of variables, delivering greater efficiency, reliability, and flexibility.  

Today, a depot can be transformed and optimized to increase the electric driven miles and make the most of the available space; it can offer fast, reliable charging when it matters; it can adjust to charge as many vehicles as are needed at the same time. Whether it’s buses, trucks, or vans, public sector or private, we can guide fleet owners and operators on their depot electrification journey to develop tailored charging infrastructure for their circumstances with scalable solutions for the future: from the initial assessment, through planning and design, financing, installation, and services.  

Governments are happy to see the important reduction in emissions and cleaner environments that #EV fleets help deliver. In many countries, they express their approval through a range of subsidies and incentives that act to reduce set-up and operating costs further (e.g., the British OLEV and German KfW grants). Fleet operators may further benefit as high-performing depots may put them in the driver seat to stay ahead of even tougher CO2 limits.

Helping every depot to be a high performer 

With hundreds of charge points installed all over the world, from North America to Australia all the way down to Europe, we at Siemens know that every depot faces distinct challenges. Embedded in the town center of Genova, for instance, operators will have very different needs than in sprawling city layouts, such as in Sydney We are committed to finding the best solutions for every one of them.  

How to make the best use of available space? Chargers can be wall- or top-mounted without obstructing operations and maximizing every available square meter. Any existing infrastructure can be integrated, addressing grid connection constraints and delivering a customized space-saving charging layout.  

Fast and reliable charging for the vehicles during their operational downtime? For buses, overnight charging at the depot can be topped up with opportunity charging along the route, decided according to the bus timetable and traffic conditions. A similar dual approach works well with ‘last mile’ delivery vans. Municipal fleets of both heavy and light vehicles may best function with combined AC and DC charging terminals within the same depot.  

And what about flexibility? Depots can offer both low power parallel preconditioning of vehicles, to get the passenger cabin to the right temperature, as well as higher power fast charging. To accommodate this, some chargers can easily be scaled in 60kW steps from 180-360 kW. 

How to increase depot efficiency, profits, and sustainability 

When it comes to the brains of the operations, energy storage, and cloud-based software mean that operators can avoid peak loads, access the lowest tariffs, and integrate local renewable energy generation. Software can also help to assign vehicles to routes and maximize the availability of charging infrastructure.  

Moreover, software and scalability are key to boosting flexibility in the way that depot operators can generate revenue. Sharing depot capacity with other companies or even the public makes the best use of resources and accelerates the return on invest. As some vehicles head out to work, others can move into the vacated charging bays. That can also make it easier for operators to adjust fleet size at the speed desired, keeping a high level of efficiency without having to change location. And the range of solutions certainly includes third-party payment options. 

But a key factor is that fleet operators won’t need to determine how to achieve this alone. We will remain on hand to provide continuous support and optimization. The depot ‘heart’ and ‘brain’ will always have a mentor and a fitness coach, connected to real time monitoring and control, with analytics as detailed as desired.  

Road transport and logistics are in full evolution. Charging infrastructure is a vital part of that, delivering power, flexibility, and better profits to electric depots. With the possibility of sharing chargers as ‘hearts’ and ‘brains’, depots are well ahead of the human bodies that were able to design them in the first place.

We are ready to electrify eMobility for a better tomorrow. Are you in?

Copyright by Siemens AG