Powering business with EV chargers

While debate about the EV charging network has focused on vehicle owner access, public charge points and home charging, there’s been a quiet increase of automotive businesses who have charging installation for EVs.
MTA member Cameron Panelbeaters, a collision repair facility in Auckland for more than 40 years, had a charger installed late last year and although they haven’t advertised it to attract EV repairs says it has been a great asset.

Co-owner Brent Cameron said at the time of installing it the number of EVs in the market had increased dramatically and he expected there would be more demand to repair them when they are involved in a collision.

“We installed an EV charger to keep up with the times and continue to offer great service to our customers,” Brent says.

Often vehicles have to go into a de-energised state and having a charging station makes a difference, co-owner Colin Edwards says. It enables them to charge customers’ vehicles for them before they are picked up or delivered following repair.

“We will charge it before giving it back to the customer, it is quite a lot cheaper to give them a full electric tank rather than a full petrol tank, there’s no significant extra cost that we have noticed.”

“It is one less thing for customers to worry about and that’s good for business,” Colin says.

A step that could be good for other member businesses too.