To enable and accelerate the electrification of the car fleet in Flanders, there is a need for more charging stations. Companies can also play an important role here. But in addition to incentives, there are also pitfalls. Making well-considered choices today, however, avoids problem situations in the future.
As is often the case with transition processes, the government is taking a guiding role. For example, Flanders decided that from 2026 only fossil-free company cars - fully electric or hydrogen-powered - will be tax deductible. A leased car running on diesel or gasoline will be deductible for 0%. In addition, buildings that are not for residential use and have a minimum number of parking spaces must provide charging stations for electric vehicles immediately by 2025 or even in new construction or major renovations (see link). In turn, a positive incentive is that the investment deduction for publicly accessible charging infrastructure is 200 percent between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 of this year, and 150 percent from Jan. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2024.
Larger companies with large parking lots will eventually need to provide a lot of charging stations. Besides their own company cars, customers, suppliers, other visitors and employees will increasingly want/need to charge their electric cars.
First, current and future needs must be identified. Who are the users? Is this about in-house staff or rather customers, suppliers or public visitors? What are the needs of each type of user? What cars do they have and how fast do they need to be charged?
Moreover, today's needs are not those of tomorrow or the longer term, and it is difficult to estimate how quickly the transition will occur. A phased rollout of electric vehicles is best combined with a phased installation of additional charging infrastructure. It is therefore important to develop a concept today that also includes a vision for the future, and not to simply go with the supplier who offers the best solution in the short term, or be confronted with monopolies.
The distribution of electricity must be considered: the supply (high voltage), the number of charging points, the cabling and the control cables for smart control that must ensure that the network is not overloaded when multiple cars charge simultaneously. But this is only the beginning. Then there is also the service hatch with the control of the charging stations, the energy management system and billing. For both components, there are more and more suppliers on the market, each with their own business model and pricing. This makes making the right choice increasingly difficult.
Investment in charging infrastructure is therefore best done in a thoughtful and smart way. In this way, you avoid running into technical limitations in the future or getting stuck with expensive contracts that cannot react flexibly to new needs and wishes. Ingenium is not tied to specific charging station and software suppliers. Therefore, we can always propose an independent, customized concept for specific cases. This not only determines what the needs of today and the future are, and what needs to be provided each time. We also look at what the risks are along the way and how they can be addressed proactively.
A concrete example is the production site of milk and dairy producer FrieslandCampina in Aalter, which today employs several hundred people. We developed a concept in which we split the distribution and service hatch of the new charging station infrastructure. For the distribution hatch, we provide a cabin to which 34 charging points are currently connected, but with expansion possibilities up to 321 charging points in the future. A smart control with priority control ensures that the system continues to function perfectly when many vehicles are connected simultaneously.
The market survey showed that there were large price differences between the offers submitted. Therefore, it was important to analyze the offers of the different suppliers in detail, as well as to negotiate further with them. From our experience in files with diverse clients, we can ask the right questions to identify the reasons for the price differences, and help choose the offer that perfectly suits the needs and wishes in each specific business case.
Want to know more about installing charging station infrastructure for electric vehicles and how to approach it specifically? Contact Hannes Stubbe at 050 40 45 30 or hannes.stubbe@ingenium.be.
