Step 1: Audit Your Fleet and Usage Patterns
Understand how vehicles are used, how far they travel daily, and how long they are parked.
Step 2: Assess Your Depot and Site Electrical Capacity
Determine what your existing electrical infrastructure can support before selecting chargers.
Step 3: Choose Your Charging Model
Decide between depot charging, home charging, or a hybrid approach based on your fleet type.
Step 4: Select Charger Hardware and Fleet Software
Choose OCPP-compliant chargers with load management and fleet reporting capabilities.
Step 5: Plan for Growth and Future-Proofing
Size your infrastructure for the fleet you will have in five to ten years, not just today.
The foundation of any fleet EV charging strategy is understanding how your vehicles are actually used. Many fleets overestimate their daily range requirements and underestimate how much time vehicles spend parked — which directly affects what type of charging infrastructure they need.
For each vehicle category in your fleet, document the following:
Industry experience confirms that for tool-of-trade vehicles and pool cars travelling moderate daily distances, AC Level 2 charging is more than sufficient. Most urban fleet vehicles travel well under 150km per day, and a 7kW to 22kW AC charger will fully replenish a standard EV battery overnight.
Before committing to any charger hardware, a licensed electrician should assess your depot’s electrical infrastructure. This is the step most fleets skip — and it is the one that leads to costly surprises during installation.
The key factors to assess are:
Model A: Central Depot Charging
All vehicles return to the depot each night and charge from a central installation. This is the simplest model to manage and the most common for fleets with a fixed base of operations.
For depots with 10 or more chargers, load management software is essential. As experts confirmed at a 2026 fleet infrastructure panel: if you have more than 10 EV chargers in one place, load management is what you want to be using. The goal is to avoid costly switchboard upgrades by distributing charging intelligently, prioritising empty vehicles, and avoiding peak demand spikes.
Model B: Home Charging for Tool-of-Trade Vehicles
Drivers take fleet vehicles home and charge overnight on a home charger. This model significantly reduces depot infrastructure costs and is increasingly popular for smaller fleets and tool-of-trade setups. The ATO has set a flat reimbursement rate of 4.20 cents per kilometre for home-charged fleet EVs, making cost recovery straightforward without the need for separate electricity metering at each driver’s home.
Model C: Hybrid Depot and Home Charging
A combination of depot chargers for vehicles that return each day and home chargers for staff who take vehicles home. This is the most flexible and scalable approach for mixed fleets.
Charger Hardware
For most car and light commercial vehicle fleets, 7kW to 22kW AC chargers are the right choice for depot installations. DC fast chargers are only needed if vehicles must be recharged during the working day with a turnaround time under one hour.
| Fleet Vehicle Type | Recommended Charger | Charging Time (Approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Passenger EV (BYD Atto 3, Tesla Model 3, Hyundai Ioniq 6) | 7kW to 22kW AC | 4 to 8 hours for full charge |
| Light commercial EV (LDV eDeliver, Mercedes eSprinter) | 11kW to 22kW AC | 6 to 10 hours for full charge |
| Heavy commercial or long-range EV | DC 50kW to 150kW | 45 minutes to 2 hours for 80% |
| Pool vehicles with high daily turnover | DC 20kW to 50kW | 30 to 90 minutes top-up during shift |
Fleet Management Software
OCPP-compliant chargers connect to a central fleet management platform, giving fleet managers full visibility of charging activity across the entire fleet. Key capabilities to look for include:
One of the most common and costly mistakes in fleet EV charging strategy is building for today’s fleet rather than tomorrow’s. EV adoption in Australian fleets is accelerating rapidly, and a depot designed for 10 chargers today may need to support 30 within three to five years.
Best practice for future-proofing a fleet depot includes:
Recommended Products For Fleet Charging
EVSE Australia fleet charging solutions
| Ocular IQ Commercial | Multi-bay depot solution. 22kW three-phase, OCPP integration, load management, fleet reporting and access control. |
| Ocular IQ Wallbox | Individual bay solution for smaller depots or home charging installations. Single or three-phase, OCPP compliant, app control and smart scheduling. |
| DC Fast Chargers | For high-turnover depots or fleets requiring rapid mid-shift recharging. Output from 20kW up to 1MW depending on fleet requirements. Site assessment required. |
A fleet of 10 vehicles using depot charging overnight typically needs 5 to 10 chargers, depending on how staggered departures are and whether all vehicles need a full charge each night. Load management software means you do not need one charger per vehicle in most cases.
For most passenger and light commercial vehicle fleets returning to a depot each night, AC chargers are sufficient. DC fast chargers are only needed if vehicles must be recharged mid-shift with a turnaround under one hour.
Load management software controls how multiple chargers share the available electrical capacity at a depot. Without it, chargers can overload the switchboard during peak periods. For any depot with more than 10 chargers, it is essential to avoid costly infrastructure upgrades and peak demand electricity charges.
Yes. The ATO has set a flat rate of 4.20 cents per kilometre for home-charged fleet EVs. Employers can reimburse drivers using this rate based on odometer readings, without needing separate electricity metering at each driver’s home.
Federal and state government grant programs offer co-funding for eligible fleet charging infrastructure, but programs change regularly. Contact EVSE Australia for the most current grants available for your project.
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