Charging infrastructure in a company rarely fails because of the charging stations – but because of missing basic planning. The proven path: estimate current and future demand, size the basic installation (supply lines, distribution, load management) for the final build-out, then add charging points in stages. Anyone who thinks about the PV roof and billing questions from the start turns the car park into a location advantage.
Key points in brief
- Electrification happens in stages – but the basic installation (cable routes, distribution, reserves) is planned once, for the final build-out.
- Without load management the charging infrastructure eats up connection capacity – with it, many charging points intelligently share the available capacity.
- The three user groups – fleet, employees, visitors – need different charging and billing logic.
- Company car parks are the ideal case for solar charging: the cars are there exactly when the roof delivers.
- The most expensive variant is the unplanned one: retrofitting charging points one by one, each time with a new trench and new distribution.
Why the car park becomes an infrastructure question
Fleet electrification is no longer a debate about the future: company cars are being replaced with electric ones, employees expect charging options, and anyone operating service vehicles is recalculating energy costs per kilometre anyway. For the company that means: the car park, for decades a pure parking area, becomes part of the energy infrastructure.
The good news: hardly any location is better suited to e-mobility than a company site. The vehicles are parked for long and predictable periods – eight hours of standing time needs no fast chargers, just smart distribution. And they are parked during the day – exactly in the production window of a PV system on the company roof.
Step 1: estimate demand honestly – today and in five years
The cardinal question is not "How many charging points do we need now?" but "How many will it be in the end?". Because the cost structure is asymmetric: the charging point itself is the smaller part – excavation, supply lines, distributions and any connection reinforcement dominate. Anyone who digs today for two wallboxes and again in three years for four pays for the building site several times.
A practical rule of thumb for planning: size the basic installation for the final build-out (conduit systems, space in the distribution, cross-sections), then add charging points in stages as demand grows. The difference between "prepared" and "fully built" costs little – the difference between "not prepared" and "retrofitted" costs a lot.
Step 2: load management – the key to connection capacity
Every business's reflex worry: "Our grid connection will never be enough for twenty charging points." The answer is almost always: it doesn't have to be. Load management distributes the available power dynamically across the connected vehicles – anyone parked for eight hours doesn't need full power, just enough energy over the parking time.
| Without load management | With load management |
|---|---|
| every charging point reserves full power | charging points share the available capacity |
| connection reinforcement often needed with just a few points | existing connection supports significantly more charging points |
| load peaks drive up the demand tariff | charging power avoids operating peaks |
| scales poorly | scales through software instead of copper |
Schematic illustration, as of: July 2026. The concrete sizing follows from connection capacity, load profile and parking times.
The side effect for businesses with a demand tariff: good load management keeps charging out of the expensive load peaks – the same logic that saves grid costs with a commercial battery. Both systems belong in the same control, not in separate silos. The technology behind it: Load management explained.
Step 3: separate user groups and billing cleanly
By the second user group at the latest, the technical question becomes an organisational one. The three-way split has proved its worth:
- Fleet vehicles: charge with priority, costs stay in-house – availability in the morning counts here.
- Employees (private vehicles): charge against reimbursement – from a free perk to kWh-exact deduction anything is possible, but it must be defined before the first person charges. Billing today runs by default via RFID/app per user.
- Visitors/customers: a few, clearly visible points, simple activation – more a business card than an energy business.
For employee charging there are design questions on tax and employment law (fringe benefit, expenses for field service) – those belong with the trustee; technically what matters is that the infrastructure can measure per charging point and user. Retrofitting billing capability is tedious; ordering it along is trivial. Explored in depth in the article Billing charging electricity.
Step 4: the company roof supplies the fuel
Now the picture comes together: company vehicles are parked during the day – the PV system produces during the day. Hardly any use case puts solar power on the road as directly as the company car park. An energy management system that masters surplus charging fills the parked fleet with its own electricity before a single kilowatt-hour is fed in – and noticeably raises the business's self-consumption rate.
Anyone who doesn't yet have PV on the company roof should know the order: planning charging infrastructure and solar system in one project saves duplicate electrical planning – distribution, reserves and control are sized properly once instead of half-way twice.
The typical mistakes – and how to avoid them
1. Single-box salami: one wallbox today, two next year – without an overall plan. Result: digging three times, three electricians, in the end incompatible stand-alone solutions. 2. Load management "later": the first points run uncontrolled, at expansion nothing fits together. Control belongs in the first stage. 3. Forgetting billing: started free, never to be shaken off – or disputes over electricity at the company's expense. Define the rules before the first charging session. 4. Connection reinforcement as a reflex: expensively reinforced what software would have distributed. Check load profile and management first, then talk about copper. 5. Ignoring the PV roof: the cheapest kilowatt-hour for the fleet is generated on your own roof – anyone who doesn't plan for it buys it in for a lifetime.
The most frequent call begins like this: "We need two charging stations." The most effective counter-question reflex: "What does your vehicle fleet look like in five years – and who else parks with you?" Almost always "two stations" turns into a staged plan with basic build-out for ten or twenty. That sounds like extra effort but is the opposite: the conduit system for twenty costs little extra at the first excavation – retrofitting without it means a new building site every time. Infrastructure is planned once; charging points are plugged in when you need them.
Frequently asked questions
How many charging points does a business need per employee?
There is no fixed ratio – fleet planning, commuter profile and parking times are what count. The reliable way: define a final build-out scenario, size the basic installation accordingly, add charging points in stages.
Is our grid connection enough for many charging points?
More often than you'd think – with load management the vehicles share the available power over their parking time. Whether and when reinforcement is needed is shown by analysing connection capacity and load profile, not by reflex.
Do company car parks need fast chargers?
Rarely. With parking times of several hours, normal AC charging points with load management deliver the necessary energy more cheaply. DC fast chargers pay off in special cases – pool vehicles with high turnover, logistics.
How do we bill employees' charging?
Technically via personalised activation (RFID/app) with kWh-exact measurement per user; organisationally from a free perk to full charging. What matters is to set the rule before commissioning – details in the article Billing charging electricity.
Is the combination with a PV system worthwhile?
Especially for the company car park: parking times and sunshine hours overlap almost completely. Joint planning of PV, load management and charging points also saves duplicate electrical work.
Free initial consultation
From car park to energy asset.
We plan charging infrastructure for businesses as a complete system – basic build-out, load management, billing and PV roof from a single source. Free of charge and without obligation.
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Sources: EnergieSchweiz (charging infrastructure guides), Swiss eMobility, manufacturer documentation, ecoEn planning practice.
Last updated: 9 July 2026 · Author: ecoEn editorial team
