The Best EV Charging Solution For Small Businesses | Chargepoint vs JuiceBox vs Turn On Green

[@anydaynow01]

My employer went the chargepoint route and employees get free charging. They put in about 30 stations at my office alone and the more at other offices in the area so far with plans to double that the next fiscal year. No one has made a single complaint about using chargepoint here, they are always working no matter how cold or hot it gets.

[@DunkBoi]

May I ask what area of the country you're in? Awesome to see a company go all in on workplace EV charging with 30 and soon 60 charging ports.

[@johnpoldo8817]

Excellent report! We wanted to add EV Charging at a 52 unit condominium in Florida about 18 months ago. I looked at ChargePoint and as stated here, their fees are much higher than most of the others. We felt the best value was Enel X JuiceBox Pro 48, hard wired delivering 11 kW. Installation was only $750 because power is 10 ft away. We use WiFi to save on communications cost. Their software allows us to have an owner rate and a higher guest rate. Owners are easily added to their cloud based system. Users set up an account on their phone with a credit card number. They are directly billed for electricity used and our condo association is reimbursed by their Stripe system. We only have 3 users now, but believe one charger can easily handle 5-7 users if each is given a time slot.

[@garyclark6747]

I’m sure Tom was a great resource and the Wallbox is the only other one that came to my mind but I believe that would have been a closed charge solution and not a quasi public one. 👍🏼 15:56

[@JohnRoss1]

I've heard of some condo corps in British Columbia installing several wallboxes on a shared circuit for the owner's parking spaces. I just own one so I'm not using any of those options.

[@MissingRemote]

Did you consider the Emporia ProControl EVSE? It seems to have the critical features, although I'm not sure if it can load share.

[@nevco8774]

Idaho has the cheapest rate of domestic electricity- one cent less than N.Dakota mentioned in the video.The most important - almost all electricity comes from hydropower.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Here in Northest Florida it's the same $0.07 and we currently get all our power from natural gas.

[@nc3826]

7 cents from Hydro i can believe

[@naveenthemachine]

Your office is only 10 mins from where I live. I usually pass by that area daily

[@LTdan457]

Tbh I feel the chargepoint home flex would be a better option. The app works a whole lot better than the the juice box, you can still monitor electricity usage and set the amount to charge your users. Pair that with an online schedule or just monitor the cars charging and it should be a cost effective way of providing a work charging solution.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Without card access you wouldn’t know who was charging when with the home CP options.

[@tomcook8897]

Our building (10 floor office building) has 4 clipper creek chargers. They are free, but share two 40amp breakers so are slow but they are free. They fill up early and end up with other EVs and PHEVs around them. Some people will move when charged, others leave them there all day. I try to get next to the 4xe with a small battery that spends the whole day

[@rightlanehog3151]

Alex, Is this the official launch of your new "EV Charger Buyers Guide" channel? 🤔

[@bakedpatato]

awesome video! I know this is a big topic on a lot of employers minds, and this seems like a good solution for those that don't want to pay the big bucks for Chargepoint. Per your comment about J plugs wearing out, can you buy an extended warranty and/or a turnkey service contract from enel X?

[@davidws5439]

Alex, can you say whay your other business is where you use a CNC Mill? I have a Mazak 510llC mill and a Dual spindle Mazak lathe. What were those other machines?

[@rizulli]

We have a company Volt that we charge with a Grizzl-E. We have a physical lock on the charging handle and that’s how we control it. We don’t track the charging costs separately from the rest of our electricity bill, but if we get more PHEVs/EVs we will probably have to. Myself and our manager have EVs but in both cases our spouses use them primarily so we rarely have them at the office and when we do we rarely need to charge. I’ve probably used less than $8 of electricity in 3 years at work, but I have a number of staff that if they got PHEVs could benefit from an at work charger.

[@technologyandsociety21C]

I noticed your FEI scanning electron microscopes. What do you use them for?

[@bakedpatato]

yeah geez they got a ton of stuff in their office, cnc millers, SEMs...

[@JamesRussoMillas]

They run a material's company. I'm sure that's what those labs were for

[@bl5601]

@Alex what do you think about installing 240V plugs and letting end users bring their own EVSE?

[@anydaynow01]

Yep, and when they get to work they flip the breaker to that outlet when they get inside the building and turn it off when going home so no worries about folks stealing a charge in the middle of the night.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

I honestly think that would be awkward, but it’s better than nothing

[@jdlutz1965]

perhaps a 16 amp option like Orange Charger, using NEMA 6-20 and no need to flip the breaker as it is only accessed by RFID or scan?

[@tjs114]

My small, central valley town has all of 2 level-2 public chargers that are on the EV Connect Network based in El Segundo. I've never figured out what brand the chargers our town installed because they don't look like any that EV Connect has on their website, which now features BT Power, EVOCharge, Freewire, JuiceBar, PowerCharge, Tritium and Zerova. Freewire is an interesting DC Fast Charger that has a 160kWh internal battery so you don't have to install the big transformer. Oh, just looked-- EV Connect is owned by Schneider Electric as of last June.

[@longIslandEV]

The inflation reduction act does make $$ available to cover purchase and installation charges. Perhaps you could do an update

[@gelu88]

Is flo an option you looked at? They are one of the major solutions I see all over canada and they have a fantastic reputation.

[@georgepelton5645]

Alex, Thanks for this informative video. Businesses need affordable options for employee and public charging. IMO, the cost of a ChargePoint setup is a barrier to getting more EV charging installed. The juicebox solution seems to have all of the features needed. I am curious about the feature to minimize demand charges, does it monitor the overall demand of the business and allow more charging capacity when building demand is lower?

[@zachtravers]

(Not a small business, but maybe still pertinent?) My local stadium (Gillette-Foxborough, MA) has JuicePedestals, and they're constantly down. You're lucky if 2/10 are working on any given day. I'm not sure if this is down to Enel-X or to the stadium, but they don't seem very reliable. Hopefully the JuiceBox is more reliable, which it seems like it has been for your business.

[@philip7396]

This probably makes sense for his type of business. For a traditional office building in an urban core a transit subsidy is a better option. It is a pre tax employer benifit. Free charging at the office might produce induced demand on the roads and that added congestion adds pollution with the other vehicles. Luckily where I live electricity is cheaper and I do have employer subsidised transit passes which let me pass the congestion riding the train.

[@gerretw]

California is forcing my client to provide 3 chargers. He has 1 employee who has an ev. He wants to outlay the minimum necessary. What's a good option?

[@skyemalcolm]

Did you consider the Tesla J1772 Wallbox? It’s networkable and two can PowerShare.

[@EVBuyersGuide]

Tesla does not offer a way to track employee usage and access in this way, but Tesla vehicles can use these options of course

[@skyemalcolm]

@@EVBuyersGuide indeed if you install these types of chargers does Tesla take all the revenue or is there a way to use the Tesla payment system and be reimbursed somehow as the small business owner?

[@AAutoBuyersGuide]

@@skyemalcolm There is a method to rev share, but you cant offer access to non-teslas without making it free which then disables the tracking ability.

[@skyemalcolm]

@@AAutoBuyersGuide Wow. That almost sounds like a bug. I can’t imagine they’d actually want to do that but maybe their app somehow too restrictive with all the Tesla account goofiness. By that I mean they likely haven’t worked out the kinks for Tesla account holders who want to have both Tesla network charging experiences and charging non Teslas on their network and possibly they revert to that free vend mode out of frustration or as a back up. Not that you want to help them sell their stuff but this does seem like a blind spot. I’m glad that there are a wide range of competitors in this space. More charging, better charging, and charging where the energy cost is thoughtfully governed is what we need to make AC charging amazing. Because amazing AC charging is what will be the biggest enabler of EV adoption. Thank you for so many great insights on this business owner sit host topic and EVs in general. I’m an engineer so I can’t intelligently speak to marketing your channel but you deserve all the success for this work which is insightful and filled with integrity.

[@pappaslivery]

Thinking about ev for a transportation company. I only have a few cars and a few employees and no central office... Thinking about how to setup and pay for charging at an employee's home....

[@junehanzawa5165]

Are there no options to add solar at your office location?

[@fertexas]

Interesting ZEISS machines...what is your biz?

[@tkmedia3866]

I was also thinking of doing something for workplace charging. Have you checked the pricing of Autel?

[@CaptainRotmeat]

Not a business owner, but I have a $600 residential Autel charger that supports RFID cards, user accounts, pricing, and a bunch of other stuff. I was surprised Autel wasn't mentioned in the review.

[@jdlutz1965]

Maybe a simpler solution but solves many of your problems is the solution offered by Orange Charger, the NEMA 6-20 (20 amp, 240v) outlet that is metered and accessed via bluetooth or QR code.

[@daedaenation7089]

Thank you man👌🏾❗️ answered all my questions❗️

[@kevinpenfold1116]

Excellent video. What is exactly is your small business?

[@mikethebeast1012]

This whole conversation around employers providing chargers is incredibly bizarre. To be clear Im not some authoritarian trying to ban it from happening, if an employer wishes to provide a company car, or free lunches everyday, or charging infrastructure, or any other perk they so choose that's perfectly fine. What makes it bizarre is we never heard this conversation about gas, no conversation about fuel stipends for standard A-to-B commuters, no on site fuel cubes offering employer subsidized fill ups at work, there is no analog.

[@FuncleChuck]

My employer is actively hostile to the idea of providing chargers, or even 120V outlets, for employee use. I got a stern "this is your personal responsibility and not something the company should subsidize" when I asked. Yet we have a breakroom with fridges that cost more than a charger ever would, so I'm a little confused where the line gets drawn.

[@skippy5311]

Employers do not want the upfront cost, upkeep, and fair-use of charge points to become their problem. Even in California, only a small percentage of employees typically drive EVs or PHEVs. Our company has less than 10%. While a breakroom and fridge benefits all employees to some extent, a chargepoint (or 2 , or 4) only benefits 10% of employees. Sure, it could encourage drivers to adopt EV or PHEV solutions, but I am not sure that is the responsibility of the business owner.

[@nothere572]

Showing the Outlander PHEV makes me wonder any content for it soon? There hasn’t been much it feels like and I’d love to see some.

[@Wised1000]

2nd tease of the EQE AMG........ When?

[@cablebox]

I really like the price point of the Juicebox but the way it does public charging is kind of a bummer.

[@baldisaerodynamic9692]

one of the worst forms of EV infastructure is EV stations at fkn shopping plazas. its not convenient for people that do not want to go shopping and want to not deal with crappy azz parking lots in big shopping plazas.

[@CandycaneBeyond]

I work at FedEx, they have no charging 😢

[@Superfastjellyfish669]

That’s great of you to help subsidize charging in the office. I work in a casino and Iv been wanting to bring this up to management

[@JohnRoss1]

You seem to have found a good solution to allow employees to charge,, giving them a small perc, and not be overburdened with administration costs. Also with a decent charging rate too, 2 or 3 hours and the next employee can switch over to charge. .A public 6 kW ChargePoint is ok but those are too slow for an opportunity charge, Wow get 1 kWh to stop in a shop for a coffee😂

[@nix4644]

It's California, so it won't be long before employers are required by law to provide free charging for their employees.

[@febrianadji5758]

CP known to be dead reliable but man it's very expensive

[@themobhani]

$0.35/kWh? That seems absurdly high. Back when I lived in CA I believe the cost was around $0.20/kWh for my residential property with PG&E. Do you have a commercial plan?

[@nc3826]

Demand charges was mentioned

[@KalleSWBeck]

He’s running a ton of equipment in a commercial building using a lot of juice

[@josephyang3260]

He said they requested 100% reusable energy which is why the cost is higher as well

[@EVBuyersGuide]

It’s all explained in the video. Commercial rates are higher because we don’t have a baseline and like many businesses pay demand charges

[@89five3five]

The solution for you is made by FreeWire. Battery backed boost EV charging

[@josesantos672]

What is all that fabrication equipment for?

[@faeinthebay]

Alex runs a materials analysis company. In one video, he mentioned testing a car's interior panel to verify if it was real wood or just plastic.

[@davidws5439]

Alex, first, thanks for calling EVSE'S.... EVSE'S and not chargers. Do you know of any business that has the Six Tesla EVSE'S where they can bill customers via the Tesla app. The owner sets the price per Kwh, and Tesla sends the owner their cut. I think Tesla keeps a % for the billing fees. There is no reason Charge Point should be charging $6,200 to $10,000 for a dual head EVSE.

[@diabetes4000]

Why does a car review company need all those SEMs?? 😉

[@josephyang3260]

I think he has another business besides car reviews

[@faeinthebay]

​@@josephyang3260yes, materials analysis

[@JohnRoss1]

I don't think KZbin car reviews are as lucrative as you think. 😂😂

[@KalleSWBeck]

I’d think 110 plugs would be good enough solutions for most…

[@Snerdles]

I'd much prefer 240v/208v 16A. If it's cold out, like close or below freezing, then most of the power from a 120v 12A EVSE will be used up heating the battery. That's only 1500 watts, so 1K to the heating leaves only 500 for charging. At 3.8kw with 1K for heating you still get 2.8kw in to the battery with 240v 16A.

[@billyrock8305]

Electricity is free in Canada ⚡️ 🇨🇦

[@nc3826]

I thought they pay you?

[@billyrock8305]

@@nc3826 huh?

[@niffrig]

Lol. It is cheaper up here though

[@whiteandnerdytuba]

I don’t fill up my gas tank at work, I shouldn’t expect to charge my car at work. It’s ludicrous