Business Provides Over 50 EV Chargers Onsite For Employees

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One of the electric vehicles myths is that there aren’t any EV chargers at workplaces, which is simply not true. There are many workplaces that now provide them. The Salt Lake City–based company Packsize is one example of a company supporting electric vehicles and electric charging. In fact, the company provides over 50 onsite EV chargers for its approximately 100 employees. 

Hanko Kissener, the company’s founder, wrote in a recent Business Insider article, “We initially set up just three charging stations at our Utah headquarters, where we have about 100 employees. Then all of a sudden, people got EVs, so we added more. Today, we have 53 stations and are close to a 30% EV adoption rate among staff, which means there are some extra plugs for visitors and employees at neighboring businesses. We learned that the infrastructure has to come first. Most employees switched after the charging stations were installed.”

To be clear, the availability of onsite EV charging could be considered an employee perk. In other words, it is something that supports employee retention and employee turnover costs some employers dearly. In addition, when employers take care of their employees, their companies can perform better. “It turns out the best places to work around the world are also the best companies to invest in. That’s what new research by professors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Warwick Business School concludes. Investors love the companies that are named to the annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list that’s put out by Great Place to Work Institute in the U.S. and other countries around the world. ‘Treating your people like assets does affect your performance,’ said Alex Edmans, one of the co-authors of the study.”

While some people think electric vehicles are only about the environment, this notion is not completely true. They are better for the environment because they don’t directly generate carbon emissions. They are also better for human health because they don’t directly emit the toxic air pollution gas and diesel vehicles do: particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds.

At first, Packsize’s founder was more focused on using EVs to reduce harmful air pollution. “This is something I discovered after moving in 2002 from Germany, where I grew up, to Salt Lake City and starting Packsize. I didn’t know about the air pollution problem here, and after a few years, I developed asthma.

“I’d never had this problem before. I’m very active. I run marathons. So I did research to find out what was causing my asthma and concluded that air pollution was to blame. I also learned that air pollution largely comes from vehicles and can cause inflammation in the lungs, which can lead to cancer.”

Packsize apparently has a 200 kW solar power system to help generate electricity for the onsite EV chargers. Using clean, renewable electricity helps to reduce local air pollution because some EV chargers use dirty electricity — electricity from coal and natural gas power plants.