Charging stations

Pedestal and column mounting, and where a station beats a wallbox

A pedestal or column station is bolted to a concrete foundation with the supply and data cables entering from below. It is the right answer wherever there is no wall within cable reach: open car parks, forecourts, depots, hotel and retail parking, and any bay that has to be approached from two sides. A wallbox stays cheaper and simpler when a suitable wall exists a few metres from the parking place.

• Free-standing pedestal: the standard car park solution. The housing carries the electronics, the sockets and often the cable holders at a comfortable working height.
• Column with two sides: one foundation and one supply serving two adjacent bays, which halves the groundwork per charging point.
• Foundation and ducting: plan the concrete base, the earthing and the duct route before the surface is finished. This is the part that cannot be retrofitted cheaply.

One or two charging points

Most free-standing units are offered as single or dual charge points. A dual station shares the housing, the controller, the supply cable and the foundation, so the cost per point drops sharply. What it does not always share is power: check whether the two points deliver their full rating simultaneously or split one supply between them, because a 22 kW dual station may mean 2 x 11 kW when both cars are plugged in. For a workplace car park that behaviour is usually acceptable, for a fleet depot with a tight turnaround it is not.

AC 22 kW or DC fast charging with CCS

The dividing line is dwell time. AC charging is limited by the vehicle's on-board charger, which is typically 11 kW and rarely 22 kW, so an AC station suits places where cars stand for hours. DC charging bypasses the on-board charger and feeds the battery directly, so it suits places where drivers stop for minutes.

• AC 11 to 22 kW, Type 2: workplaces, hotels, residential parking and fleet depots that charge overnight. Simple installation, no rectifier, lowest cost per charging point.
• DC fast charging, CCS: retail, transit and corridor sites. The station contains the power electronics and the cooling, needs a much larger supply and a far larger footprint.
• Real speed on AC: a car with an 11 kW on-board charger takes 11 kW from a 22 kW station. Paying for AC capacity the fleet cannot use is a common and avoidable mistake.

Access control, OCPP and billing for paid charging

As soon as a charge point is reachable by someone other than the owner, authorisation and metering stop being optional.

• RFID: a card or fob starts the session against a local whitelist or a back office list. Reliable, works offline, enough for staff and fleet parking.
• App and roaming: a mobile app, QR start or a roaming agreement lets visiting drivers charge with the contract they already have, which is what turns a private point into a semi-public one.
• OCPP 1.6J: the established open protocol, JSON over WebSocket, covering authorisation, remote start and stop, session records and firmware updates. It keeps the station independent of any single manufacturer's cloud.
• OCPP 2.0.1: adds device management, improved security profiles, smart charging and support for ISO 15118 style plug and charge. Useful for larger sites and newer back offices.
• MID meter and legal metering: an integrated meter certified under the Measuring Instruments Directive makes the reading legally usable. Where German eichrecht style rules apply, the station must also make each session verifiable by the driver, with signed measurement data, so check the station's declared conformity before you invoice anyone.

Load management across several charging points

Dynamic load management measures the total current at the main incomer and reduces the charging current in real time so the connection is never overloaded. On a multi-point site it also shares the available capacity between the stations, either equally or by priority, which is what lets ten charging points sit behind a supply that could never feed ten at full power. Static limits set a fixed ceiling per point, dynamic limits follow the building's actual load through the day. Both need a current measurement, so a smart meter at the connection point is part of the installation, not an accessory.

Enclosure, IK rating, vandal resistance and cable management

An unattended outdoor station is exposed to weather, impact and misuse. Look for an IP54 enclosure or better against water and dust, and an IK impact rating of IK08 to IK10 for public places, where IK10 corresponds to a 20 joule impact. Metal housings, shuttered and locking Type 2 sockets, tamper-resistant fixings and an internal earth leakage design all reduce the failure rate. Cable management matters just as much: holders, hooks or retracting systems keep a tethered charging cable off the ground, out of puddles and away from tyres, which is the single biggest cause of cable damage on public sites.

Site requirements: supply, approval and groundwork

Before ordering, confirm three things. First, the available capacity at the connection point against the total rating of the planned points. Second, whether the distribution system operator requires approval or a connection upgrade, which is common above 22 kW and normal for any DC installation. Third, the civil works: foundation, ducting, earthing, bollard protection and surface reinstatement. Add the network path, whether Ethernet, fibre or a mobile SIM, and the ownership of that connection, because a station without a back office link can charge cars but cannot bill for them.

Quick charging station comparison

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