According to customer requirements, the Hydra Dion is fitted with single or double CCS2 charging cables. It can be connected to any three-phase AC input.

A fast DC charger with a lower power output can be a very cost-effective way to achieve faster charging times, compared to a standard AC wallbox, as it bypasses your EV’s onboard AC charger (which could be limited to 11kW).

This means an average family EV with a 60kWh battery could be fully recharged in under 3 hours compared to over 8 hours on a domestic 7kW chargepoint. Similarly, an electric commercial van with a 100kW battery could be recharged from 20% up to 80% charge in just 2 hours with the 30kW DION.

The post Hydra Dion 40kW appeared first on Hydra EVC.

Why should you Install workplace EV charging?

Workplace EV Charging has become a staple in transitioning the world to EV’s. For employees, charging at work is a convenient way to recharge their EV whilst working throughout the day. This may influence the overall mood and productivity of your employees as they will not need plan a route home with a charge point, if their range is limited.

For businesses, having multiple charge points at the workplace can offer charging for employees, visitors and potentially the public via apps such as ZAPMAP, making it profitable. Charge points are also essential for businesses with an EV fleet for day-to-day operation.

What EV chargers should you install at your workplace?

There are a lot of factors that go into selecting what EV chargers are best for your workplace:

Single or Three Phase supply

Firstly, it’s important to determine whether your workplace operates on a single or three-phase electrical supply, as this will significantly influence the type and number of EV chargers you can install. For locations with a single-phase supply, we recommend a maximum of 2x 7kW AC chargers. However, it’s essential to verify the presence of Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB) to prevent circuit tripping. On the other hand, three-phase supplies allow for installation of a greater number of charge points, including rapid DC EV chargers, which are ideal for many users, such as fleet managers, in need of quick charging solutions.
We usually suggest a combination of AC and DC charging to accommodate users with varying charging speed preferences.

Wall or Pedestal Mounted

Depending on the orientation of your car park will determine where you can have EV Chargers installed. Wall Mounted is often cheaper as you can run the wire against the wall and does not include the pedestal costs. Pedestal mounted EV chargers are more aesthetically pleasing and you’re able to put a barrier in front to protect the charge-point.

Socket or Tethered

Socketed EV charging means the charging cable is separate and brought by the user, while tethered EV charging has a fixed cable attached to the charging unit. The choice depends on user preference and convenience. Socketed charging offers lead flexibility as users can use their cable, while tethered charging provides convenience by having a fixed cable. While tethered charging is technically slightly faster than socketed the cable will have to be wrapped around nicely in order to minimise wear and tear. You should note that DC chargers often only come as tethered.

The Workplace Charging Scheme

The Workplace Charging Scheme is funded by the Government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). It provides support for organisations towards the cost of installing up to 40 electric vehicle charge-point sockets at their sites.

The scheme covers up to 75% of the total costs of the purchase and installation of EV chargepoints (including VAT), capped at a maximum of:

• £350 per socket
• 40 sockets across all sites per applicant – for example, if you want to install them at 40 sites, you will have 1 socket available per site

It is open to eligible:

• businesses
• charities
• public sector organisations
• small accommodation businesses

There is a separate scheme with a different grant amount for state-funded education institutions.

All charge-points must be installed by an OZEV authorised installer and this scheme is only available in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In summary, workplace EV charging is increasingly important as the electric vehicle market grows. It benefits both employees and businesses, offering convenience and potential revenue generation. Choosing the right chargers involves considering factors like electrical supply, mounting options, and socketed versus tethered charging. Government schemes like the Workplace Charging Scheme can help offset installation costs, making workplace EV charging an attractive option for businesses embracing sustainability.

The post The Growing Trend of Workplace EV Charging appeared first on Hydra EVC.

Hydra Apollo dual 22kW EV charger with 55″ advertising board

Our CPO partner EVIELIFE was commissioned by Swindon Town Football Club to install the Hydra Apollo in the club’s car park adjacent to one of the stands. This will provide EV charging facilities to visitors during the week and on match days. The media screen will be managed remotely by Evielife and the football club using the EMBED advertising platform which is pre-installed on all Hydra Apollo units, to display advertising messages, videos and other information to supporters and visitors.

This Hydra Apollo EV charger with advertising screen is further enhanced with our Pensio Contactless payment solution, which enables visitors and supporters to access the charging functions without registering for an account or downloading an app: Simply Tap-and-Charge!

Combining income from EV charging with OOH advertising makes the Hydra Apollo a revenue generating powerhouse!

Further details:

• Hydra Apollo Dual output Commercial AC charge point with 55″ media screen
• Find a Hydra Approved Installer in your area

Other Recent Installations…

Hydra Cubus 7kW Socket

Hydra Cubus 7kW Tethered

Hydra Cubus 7kW Tethered

Hydra Cubus 7kW Tethered

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Hydra Genesis dual 22kW

Our CPO partner EVIELIFE installed two Hydra Genesis 22kW EV chargers at this location for site visitors to use. As well as the standard Scan-and-Pay option they further specified a contactless payment solution to further improve visitor convenience. Visitors can now simply Tap-and-Charge with no requirement for an app or account registration.

The Hydra Genesis offers dual charging at 7kW, 22kW or 43kW.

Further details:

• Hydra Genesis Dual output Commercial AC chargepoint
• Find a Hydra Approved Installer in your area

Other Recent Installations…

Genesis dual 22kW

Echo Destination EV Charging

Echo Workplace Charging

Zodiac 7kW

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Hydra ECHO Workplace charging

White Stores had three Hydra ECHO 22kw tethered chargepoints fitted to their head office car park in Wickford, Essex. Three staff member and visitor vehicles can now be charged simultaneously.

Further details:

• Hydra ECHO single output, tethered, workplace and commercial AC chargepoint
• Find a Hydra Approved Installer in your area

Other Recent Installations…

Echo Workplace Charging

Zodiac 7kW

Genesis dual 22kW

Genesis dual 22kW

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Hydra Genesis dual 22kW

This public installation was carried out by MULCAHY EV . The customer required a robust but simple to operate dual output EV charging solution which can serve EV drivers 24/7.

The Hydra Genesis offers dual charging at 7kW, 22kW or 43kW.

Further details:

• Hydra Genesis Dual output Commercial AC chargepoint
• Find a Hydra Approved Installer in your area

Other Recent Installations…

Echo Destination EV Charging

Echo Workplace Charging

Zodiac 7kW

Genesis dual 22kW

Load More

The post Genesis dual 22kW appeared first on Hydra EVC.

Hydra Genesis dual 22kW

This public installation was carried out by MULCAHY EV . The customer required a robust but simple to operate dual output EV charging solution with easy payment facilities.

The Hydra Genesis offers dual charging at 7kW, 22kW or 43kW.

Further details:

• Hydra Genesis Dual output Commercial AC chargepoint
• Find a Hydra Approved Installer in your area

Other Recent Installations…

Echo Destination EV Charging

Echo Workplace Charging

Zodiac 7kW

Genesis dual 22kW

Load More

The post Genesis dual 22kW appeared first on Hydra EVC.

As the take up of Electric Vehicles continues apace the demand for EV chargepoints in the office car park is also increasing. Government grants are still available for companies looking to install EV chargers which will go towards both the cost of the charger and its installation (see OZEV website for more details), so it makes sense for companies to at least get the ball rolling ahead of the 2030 deadline for cut-off of petrol or diesel vehicles.

Controlling the access to these EV chargepoints can be achieved in a few different ways so the only real decision to make is whether to provide EV charging as a free employee perk or charge for their use.

Options for EV charging in the workplace:

• Simple Plug’n’Play – Just park up, plug the EV in and start charging.
• RFID cards or Keyfobs – The employee just swipes the card or keyfob across the reader built into the EV chargepoint and charging facilities are activated.
• SmartPhone App – Charging functions can be controlled by those with the necessary App on their phones.
• Pay as you go charging – Usually requires a card payment or contactless payment terminal fixed to the chargepoint.

Plug and Play EV charging

Although most EV chargers have the clever management and access facilities built in there’s nothing to stop someone setting up an EV chargepoint as an ‘open’ plug’n’play charger. The ‘always on’ facility is quite safe, most EV chargers have a standby power usage as low as 2w when not charging.

However we would recommend only doing this if you do not need to monitor individual usage (you can still monitor overall statistics) and your car park is secure or closed out of office hours to prevent unauthorised usage by people outside your organisation.

RFID Cards and Keyfobs

The simplest method of restricting access to an EV charger to only authorised personnel is by using an RFID card or Keyfob. This is the same technology as used in some company ID passes. The credit card sized RFID card is simply ‘swiped’ or held near to the reader on the EV chargepoint to unlock the device.

The benefits of an RFID card is that the cards are individually identified so whatever method is used to remotely monitor and manage the device – We use our own Hydra Nexus platform – can also identify users and log individual power consumption and other statistics such as total usage, time connected and disconnected, etc.

This data can then be used to charge the employee for the usage, if required, or simply to generate reports relating to CO2 savings and offset.

All Hydra EV chargers are RFID compatible (for the Zodiac it is an optional extra) and we can supply blank or personalised RFID cards to be issued to staff.

Smartphone App

Almost all EV chargepoints have an associated SmartPhone App which allows the user to set up charging sessions and log usage and power consumption etc. In the workplace some of these apps are not suited to ‘Group’ usage as they are designed for single users. The HydraHome App, however, can be configured for family use, giving each user their own login and creating separate usage records for each person.

This may be perfectly adequate for small companies with only a few EV drivers (contact us for more information on setting this up) but for larger organisations a more commercially focussed SmartPhone App linked to a powerful back-office platform like Hydra Nexus may be the answer.

Hydra Nexus allows any organisation to monitor their entire EV charging facility from one chargepoint to a nationwide network, providing realtime data on power usage, peak usage, employee usage, etc. The associated app can also be used by employees to access the EV facilities.

Pay as you go charging.

For companies looking to recoup the installation cost and power usage and maybe even provide a useful additional revenue stream there is the option of fitting a contactless payment terminal to an EV chargepoint.

These work just the same as parking meters in public carparks, the user simply plugs in their EV, swipes their credit or debit cards and starts charging. The device communicates with the EV charger and charges the user for the time and/or power consumed.

Actual rates to be charged can be set by the company which owns the EV chargepoint and everything is managed and monitored, as above, via the Hydra Nexus platform. The payment terminals used by Hydra EVC can also accept Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Companies looking to generate additional income can leave the EV chargers with contactless payment terminals ‘Open’ for use by anyone, including the general public, to earn income from the chargepoint out of office hours and at weekends.

If you would like more information regarding RFID cards for EV Charging, Contactless Payments for EV charging or Remote monitoring via the cloud-based Hydra Nexus platform please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The post Securing access to your office EV charger with a Keyfob or RFID Card appeared first on Hydra EVC.