When it comes to workplace charging, Ford has found that if you build it, they will come, and they will charge.
They are U.S. and Canadian Ford employees, who say the company’s 200 current charging stations at 50 facilities have given them the confidence to buy or lease an electric vehicle without worrying where they can charge away from home. More than six in 10 employees who drive electric vehicles say Ford’s workplace charging network influenced their purchase or lease decision.
As a result, Ford is tripling the number of North American workplace charging stations to 600 in the next two years. Within a year, the network will double.
“Work is the second most likely place people charge their electric vehicles,” said Steve Henderson, Ford sustainability and vehicle environmental matters manager. “If we give people the ability to charge when they’re at work, we can significantly up the potential for mass market adoption of electrified vehicle technology.”
Henderson and his team conducted a study on employee charging and driving behaviors from January 2014 to September 2017, initially collecting data using the MyFord Mobile smartphone app, Ford’s charging network and employee surveys. This week, in a presentation at the 30th International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany, Henderson will deliver insights the data revealed, and stress the significance of a workplace charging network.
An important finding suggests that for some employees – particularly those stationed at one facility for an entire day – having to move their vehicles once they are fully charged constitutes a serious downside to driving electric. So Ford is expanding its network to accommodate existing demand and anticipated greater adoption of electrified vehicles.
New employee charging stations will aid an ongoing effort to understand where and when people charge their electric vehicles whether at work, home or while running errands.
Among other findings the study revealed:
– The most popular times to charge electrified vehicle batteries are from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from noon to 3 p.m.
– Since September 2014, Ford employees have charged their vehicles at work more than 165,000 times (~$59,000 at 0.078 cents per kilowatt-hour), resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions produced by approximately 600,000 pounds
– Through early August of this year, Ford’s charging station network has provided approximately 2 million miles of pure electric driving for its employees
– DTE Energy’s solar array at Ford World Headquarters currently produces far more electricity than is consumed by the charging stations
