Charging a Fleet of Electric Airport Transfer Vehicles in the French Alps

As we rapidly approach our 1 millionth electric kilometre, we thought it was high time we gave a big shout out to OJP Electricien. Ollie Pearce is an experienced local electrician who has also worked many seasons as a Cool Bus driver. As such, who better to help us navigate our way around the brave new world of vehicle charging.

Winding back to 2016 when we bought our first Tesla Model X, the whole idea of charging a vehicle at your own property was still in its infancy. Ollie installed an outdoor 3-phase socket for us. Basic but effective. With the correct adapter from Tesla we were able to charge from the supply at our main property in Bourg at a rate in excess of 40 kmph.

2017 and 2018 saw us buy two additional Tesla’s and Ollie installed two more sockets. At this point we were now exceeding the supply of the property. Fortunately Tesla’s have the functionality to program the charging start time and even to start and stop charging remotely from an app. With this facility, and some careful management from our drivers, we were able to organise things so that no more than two cars were ever charging at once. Obviously this didn’t always work and there were occasions where residents at the Pink House in Bourg experienced brief power cuts in the middle of the night!

To alleviate this issue we had Ollie install a charging point at our main office so we could charge one car there at weekends. The supply to this property was limited and single phase but for the first time we used a proper EV charging unit – a Wallbox. With this in place we could maximise the supply and achieve charging rates of 28 kmph. Slower than our 3-phase sockets but still fine for overnight charging.

If we were going to expand beyond 3 vehicles, clearly supply was going to be an issue. As such, in 2022, with Ollie’s guidance, we approached the EDF about getting a second supply installed. Our nearest EDF office is just a few doors down the road from us. For our on-site appointment, the EDF technician only had to walk around the corner! He identified the nearest junction box and confirmed that the supply was sufficient. We were pleasantly surprised with his quote for the work – just 3000 euros. The timescale wasn’t so favourable though and he advised it was unlikely to be achieved before 2023.

We set about carrying out our side of the work. Digging a 90cm deep, 30cm wide trench from the site of the proposed junction box, round to the front of the property where we would install three charging posts. Next step was to lay the expensive heavy duty cables. Each post had two charge points meaning six cables in all, a total of around 120 metres. The bill for this cable alone was eye watering!

Ollie then set about installing our junction box and the Hager charging posts. At this point it was autumn 2022 and we knew the EDF would not complete their side before they downed tools for the winter. As a stop gap, Ollie disconnected one of our 3 phase sockets and hooked this up to one of the new charge posts. 

For winter 2022/23 we had 3 Tesla’s and 3 Mercedes EQV’s to keep charged, still using the original house supply and two 3 phase sockets plus the two new sockets from the charging post. It’s fair to say this proved to be a massive headache, particularly on Saturday nights. Dropping in at the Pink house a midnight to switch vehicles around was a weekly occurrence. Nevertheless, with some careful management and organisational skills from our drivers, we made it work.

During the summer of 2023, the EDF completed their side and then carried out a survey on Ollies work and we were good to go. In November we were turned on and finally had the capability to charge 9 vehicles simultaneously! 

Bizarrely, Mercedes did not see fit to equip their electric minibuses with the capability to program charging times. This is frankly ridiculous as it should be a basic requirement to be able to take advantage of off-peak electricity and ease the strain on the grid. As such, we had Ollie set up two of the three charging posts to only switch on between the hours of 10pm and 10am. Happy to say this has worked faultlessly. At 10pm each night we get notifications as each vehicle starts charging. By 5am latest they are all ready to go. Vehicles required earlier are simply plugged into the 3rd post which is permanently on. This is reflected on our bill which shows two thirds of the usage of our new supply occurs off-peak.

I think it’s fair to say that both ourselves and Ollie have been picking this up as we’ve gone along. Olle had to take some additional qualifications along the way to be certified for this type of installation. It’s been a learning experience but the end result is a three separate charging solutions that work faultlessly. Nice one Ollie! If you are based in the Tarentaise valley and looking to install a vehicle charger, look no further!

OJP Electricien:

06 95 52 64 94

ojpelectricien@gmail.com