How to set up an EV fleet depot?

Fleet electrification is on the rise in India – in the past three years, the number of EVs in commercial use have risen sharply across multiple segments. While this is a welcome change, fleet owners still lack critical information about a key aspect of this transition – setting up their own EV fleet depot.

In this blog, we provide insightful knowledge about setting up your own charging infrastructure and helming a flourishing EV fleet.

Calculating the Energy Load

The first step in building a depot is to assess your energy requirements. To do this, you must take into account the following:

• Daily duty cycles to estimate the State-of-Charge (SoC) your EVs need
• Creating a charging schedule that allows you to draw within the sanctioned load at all times
• Any and all non-charging electric appliances

Installing Chargers Can Take a While

While planning for the depot, note that charger installation may stretch over a long period – upwards of 6 months in some cases. If your EVs arrive earlier, you may be forced to rely on expensive public charging that weigh down heavily on your profits.

Designing an optimal layout

Design considerations for an EV fleet depot include:

• Setting up chargers close to feed-in points to avoid additional cable costs
• Allotting parking lots and creating corridors for easy entry and exit of your fleet
• Accounting for visiting and third-party vehicles and their charger requirements too
• If you plan to open your chargers for public use, make sure there are no traffic bottlenecks that affect business

Choosing the right chargers

Without high-quality charging equipment, you’re likely to struggle. Below are key considerations for choosing suitable chargers for your EV fleet depot:

• Charger Compatibility: Depending on your EV, you need to choose the right connector type. If you run an electric two or three-wheeler fleet, the Type 6 or Type 7 chargers will prove the best bet – they are both BIS-approved and supported by major OEMs in this space. For 4-wheelers, trucks and buses, CCS-2 is being adopted across the board – proving the ideal long-term investment. Depending on the compatibility needs of your EVs, take the right call for the fleet depot.
  • OCPP Compliance: Open charge point protocol (OCPP) compliance enables your charger to communicate with the charging management system (CMS). Without it, you cannot enjoy smart charging features. To check if your current or desired charger is OCPP complaint, take this free online test
  • How does it handle temperature? With over 60% of hardware breakdowns traced back to overheating, a good cooling system is indispensable.
  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance: The hardware is only one half of it; without water-tight maintenance arrangements, there may be one too many barriers to overcome. With a good SLA, you will enjoy:
    • A high uptime guarantee (typically more than 97%)
    • Low response time for immediate repair and resolution
    • Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) commitment that guarantees resolution within a fixed duration
    • Preventive Maintenance cadence to keep all charger parts in good health
    • Penalties for breach of contract – to ensure the above clauses are honoured

• Network Connectivity: With varying connectivity options including SIM, LAN and WI, you’re buying more uptime, early fault detection and enhanced risk resilience.

With a DC Fast Charger, you’re buying Flexibility

When you’re running a fleet, operational flexibility matters most. With only slow charging options, you have limited bandwidth to respond within time to unforeseen situations. Invest in a DC fast charger which optimizes daily duty cycles.

For tips on choosing and maintaining DC chargers, read this.  

Safety and Compliance Needs

From DISCOM approvals to high-tension connections and fire department NOCs, below is the list of compliance requirements for setting up an EV fleet depot in India:

• DISCOM Approvals: For new connections or load enhancements
• CEIG Approval: For high-tension connections (above 9.9 kW in many states)
• Fire Department NOC
• Municipal Permissions: For signage, civil works and other infrastructural changes.
• Technical Standards: Includes charger certifications, safety guidelines, metering standards and others.  

For a detailed low-down on setting up an EV charging station in India, click here.

Renewable Energy for Fleet Depots

With solar-powered EV fleet depots, you can save on costs: per-unit costs for solar vary between Rs. 2.5 to Rs. 3.5 per unit, drastically lower than the Rs. 6-7 per unit costs for grid electricity. Moreover, with costs expected to fall further, owners could be making the right long-term choice.

To overcome challenges of integrating solar power, fleet owners can:

• Adopt a hybrid solar + grid approach to use the former when possible
• Invest in battery storage to capitalise on low solar costs
• Utilise smart charging solutions to optimise solar power allocation

With national and state-level subsidies (here, here and here) for installing rooftop solar panels, the upfront investment may not be as significant as you may fear.

Buying a Comprehensive software Solution

While the rate of fleet electrification is increasing, many are still struggling to manage EVs. Forced to identify alternate routes, implement optimised charging schedules and collect more data than ever before, they are finding it difficult to manage this additional responsibility.

To help fleet owners run a successful business, Kazam has built a smart charging solution that combines charging, fleet and energy management into one. It offers features like:

• Live monitoring of active and idle vehicles
• Generating optimized charging schedules
• Route revision and load planning for smooth execution
• End-to-end cost tracking and optimization to boost your profits
• Smart, real-time alerts with auto-ticket scheduling for elongating charger and EV health
• Depot health reports which inform you about the health of key assets

Interested in knowing more? Book a live demo and get ready to supercharge your EV operations.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the steps to set up an EV fleet depot in India? The process starts with calculating the energy load; next, you design a layout, choose charger/s, secure administrative permissions and buy the right fleet management software (FMS).

• Which charger types are best for a commercial fleet? For 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers, BIS-approved Type 6 or Type 7 chargers are standard. For 4-wheelers, trucks, and buses, CCS-2 is increasingly becoming the industry standard. Alongside, at least one DC Fast Charger provides higher operational flexibility.

• Can I use solar power to run my EV fleet depot? Yes, integrating solar can reduce your per-unit electricity cost from ₹6-7 (grid) to roughly ₹2.5-3.5 (solar). Many depots use a hybrid solar + grid approach, utilizing battery storage to capture solar energy during the day and discharge it during peak evening charging hours.

• How does a Charging Management System (CMS) help in depot operations? A CMS (via OCPP compliance) allows you to remotely monitor charger health, automate billing, track vehicle and driver performance, compute costs and improve overall efficiency.