What features make a user-friendly and safe charging site?

At Kempower, we do our best to bring the most user-friendly, easily scalable, and reliable EV chargers to the market. However, the charging site design is always a result of a collaboration between the site owner, site operator and other stakeholders. We’re here to help and are happy to share our experiences from around the world.

When we talk about EV charging sites, we should consider usability in addition to it being easy to access and safe. For example, car charging in the middle of the night is not safe in every area. That’s why geographical factors should be considered when planning and building a user-friendly charging site. We listed a couple of things that should be noticed while designing a safe charging site. This list is based on our experiences and the excellent work of ChargeSafe and Osprey charging.

• Lighting directly over the site – adequate lighting of the charging site increases safety. Very often, the word safety is understood as a technical and user-friendly functionality regarding to the charger itself, but actually, it also means the comprehensive charging conditions and EV driver’s safe feeling while charging. Enough lighting has also been established to reduce crimes, making parking easier and making the overall charging experience safer. Also, the busyness of the area & proximity to amenities increases people’s approachability to a charging site at nighttime. It’s much more comfortable to be surrounded by a place where you can find activities around you – for example, a shopping centre or fast-food restaurant.
• On-site CCTV – in some countries, the use of CCTVs is customary in every place, but they have also increased in charging site use. It offers an opportunity to show live video from the charging area, which can be used for customers by checking the availability of the chargers and in the situation of damage too.
• On-site personnel – everyone needs help sometimes. A charging site located at a service station with an employee can influence the choice between different charging sites. Of course, this is not always possible in the countryside or in places without settlements.

Also, accessibility of the charging site and the width of parking spaces need to be considered while planning. Each end user is different from the other – trucks, EVs and EVs with trailers. For that reason, it would be beneficial to have a drive-through parking spot so that an EV driver doesn’t always need to detach a trailer or reverse into the slot. Some electric cars are heftier than their gasoline counter parts, so it can be surprising how much space they need in a parking lot. Planning and building charging sites should take into account immobilized people as well, so that EV charging is comfortable and smooth for everyone.

We at Kempower aim to create EV charging solutions for everyone, everywhere. Making charging safe and accessible is at the core of our strategy.  We wish to hear your charging experiences and ideas on how we could make charging more user-friendly and safe.