The howling maniac who occupies the White House snuffed out the $5 billion public fast charging NEVI program earlier this year, but he can’t do anything to stop the home EV charging juggernaut. After all, the overwhelming majority of EV owners prefer to recharge at home. Fleet owners also like the home EV charging idea, but first someone has to figure out an accurate reimbursement system…. Oh, wait….
Why All The Fuss Over Fleet Electrification
The media spotlight has shone on Tesla so brightly and for so long that sometimes it’s easy to forget that the EV market is far more expansive than the iconic US automaker’s longstanding commitment to sedans and SUVs.
If you have any thoughts about how the company’s Edsel-adjacent Cybertruck and the forthcoming Tesla Semi Class 8 truck fit into that picture, drop a note in the comment thread. Meanwhile, there is some serious EV sales momentum taking place among commercial fleets that count larger, heavier vans and trucks on their rosters. It’s not a headline grabber, but it’s there.
Cox Automotive is among those paying attention. The firm took the temperature of the commercial fleet electrification movement last year and came up with this nugget:
“Fleet operators that currently employ EV, the new study reveals, have a striking 90% likelihood of acquiring additional EVs in the next acquisition cycle. Among the total sample of fleets owners (those with and without EVs), a vast majority – 87% – expect EVs to be added to their fleets in the next five years.”
The fleet electrification movement also deserves props from a save-the-planet perspective. According to a 2022 report from the US EPA (such as it was back then), only 5% of vehicles on the road fall into the medium- and heavy-duty classes. However, they collectively account for an outsized 23% share of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, due to the use of diesel fuel among other factors.
The Home EV Charging Difference
If you’re wondering where home EV charging comes into the commercial fleet picture, that’s a good question. Some commercial fleet owners require drivers to return to their depot at the end of a shift. However, parking at home is also common and that’s where the EV sales momentum can be sustained. Home-parked fleet managers can accelerate their electrification plans when more employees have an EV charger at home.
As for employees without an EV charger, perhaps some forward-thinking fleet owners will expand their employee benefits package to include incentives for installing a new home EV charging station. That’s a win for the fleet owner’s vehicle electrification plans, and it could inspire EV-curious drivers to go out and buy an EV for their private use, too.
Having both a commercial and private vehicle use the same home EV charging station gives rise to an accounting challenge, but solutions are emerging. Among those to surface on the CleanTechnica radar is the “Depot360® Home Charging Reimbursement” system, newly launched in the United States by the US branch of Siemens.
As described by Siemens, Depot360 enables fleet managers to reimburse employees for home EV charging accurately, even if other cars are charged at the same port. The system deploys telematics data unique to the fleet vehicle based on its location.
“Siemens works with telematics providers to access real-time vehicle data to provide insights into home charging sessions to enable fair and accurate reimbursement,” Siemens explains.
There Is So Much More To Home EV Charging Than Meets The Eye
Home EV charging is popular from a convenience perspective, and home charging is also less expensive than public charging. In addition, EV owners are beginning to take advantage of utility incentives for off-peak charging. Deploying the EV battery as a grid-connected energy storage platform is another avenue of opportunity beginning to open for individual EV owners.
Siemens is already looking forward to applying these benefits to the fleet electrification field, beginning with itself. The company’s US fleet currently consists of 11,000 cars, trucks, cargo vans, bucket trucks, and tractor trailers, among others, and Siemens expects all of them to be covered by Depot360 within the next five years or so.
“Depot360 Home Charging Reimbursement offers multiple benefits for fleet operators,” Siemens enthuses. “These benefits could include cost reduction by avoiding the need for networked chargers and dedicated meters, simplified management through automated payroll integration, and the ability to reimburse only fleet vehicles, while allowing private vehicles to use the same charger.”
“This solution not only reduces upfront infrastructure costs and ongoing operational expenses, but streamlines home charging reimbursement programs, enabling operators to scale their electrification plans with greater efficiency, flexibility, and confidence,” emphasizes Adam Orth, the US Head of Fleet at Siemens Mobility Services.
Optimizing Home EV Charging For The Fleet, Trump Or No Trump
Siemens plans to use data from its Depot360 deployments to fine tune the system and apply it on a whole-of-operations basis. “If a fleet is charged at different locations — such as depots, public chargers, and homes — the platform may predict the optimal charging mix for these locations and suggest options to reduce the overall cost of charging,” Siemens explains.
“This makes home charging an integral part of broader corporate charging strategies,” the company emphasizes, suggesting that the fleet electrification movement will continue to gain momentum regardless of the malevolently incompetent Commander-in-Chief who currently occupies the Oval Office.
In that regard, it’s important to note that the rosy fleet electrification report from Cox Automotive was based on a survey taken in January of 2024, a full 12 months before the Trump–Musk continuum erupted in a tsunami of destructive policy-making. Among other disasters to boil out of the chaos, shipping industry observers anticipate significant fleet shrinkage as the Trump tariffs kick in.
Although that could impact fleet EV sales, the unfolding crisis also underscores the bottom line advantages of a fleet electrification plan that includes home EV charging.
“Home charging will also give the opportunity for fleet operators to reduce energy costs by leveraging scale via aggregation,” Siemens explains. “It will play a key part in the continued development of Depot360 solutions to support fleet operators in unlocking additional energy savings and revenue streams, for example, by enabling fleets to participate in energy programs.”
Wait, What About Renters?
A big, as-yet untapped opportunity for EV sales lies in the residential rental market, where an estimated 19 million potential EV buyers have been all but boxed out of the opportunity for home EV charging.
Landlords typically don’t want to deal with the installation expenses, and tenants aren’t willing to fork over the money to improve someone else’s property. New home EV charging-as-a-service systems are beginning to crack that market wide open, so keep an eye out for indications that muiltifamily and rental residences will dovetail with the fleet electrification movement, too.
Photo (cropped): Siemens is introducing a new accounting system for home EV charging, aimed at enabling US fleet managers to accelerate their electrification plans (courtesy of Siemens via email/Google drive).
